Study Questions
Othello

Act I. scene 1

1. What is Roderigo complaining about in the opening scene?
2. Why does Iago say he hates Othello so much, and what does he mean when he says: “In following him, I follow but myself.”
3. Note the language Iago uses to announce the elopement to Brabantio.  What figures of speech does he use to describe the marriage and the honeymoon?
4. What do Iago and Roderigo hope to accomplish by shouting insulting remarks about Othello and Desdemona under Brabantio’s window?

Important passage: pp. 222-223, ll. 43-67. 
Act I. scene 2

1. What are Othello and Iago talking about at the opening of this scene?
2. When Iago warns Othello that Brabantio is “much-loved” and may try to separate him and Desdemona, what is Othello’s answer and what does it suggest about what Othello values?
3. According to Brabantio, how has Othello seduced his daughter?

I.3
1.  In response to Brabantio’s accusation that Othello has bewitched his daughter, Othello explains how she originally fell in love with him.  How did it happen, and why has Othello’s description been called “the Othello music”?

2. Summarize Iago’s “Virtue? A fig!” speech (p. 232).  What is Elizabethan about it?
3. What new motive does Iago reveal in his soliloquy at the end of Scene iii?
4. What is Iago’s plan for “knavery” as revealed in this soliloquy?
5. How would you characterize the difference between the way Othello and Iago talk, both in their subject matter and their style?

Important passages:
p. 229 ll. 97-108 (Brabantio)
p. 229-230, ll. 130-173 (Othello)
p. 232, ll. 295-300 (Brabantio’s words and Othello’s answer)
p. 232, ll. 322-335 (Iago: “Virtue? A fig!”)

2.1
1.  In lines 167-178 of this scene, what does Iago notice and what does he plan to do as a result?
2.  What does Iago’s advice (lines 220-280) to the lovesick Roderigo reveal about what he thinks of Desdemona’s love for Othello?
3.  What does Iago’s last speech in the scene reveal about his attitude toward Othello?

2.3 
How does Iago dishonor Cassio in this scene and what does he advise Cassio to do in order to be reinstated?
What is unattractive about Cassio as a drunk?

3.3
1.  What is the principal strategy that Iago uses (over and over in this scene) to convince Othello that his wife has betrayed him with Cassio?
3.  By lines 3.3. 344 ff. what is Othello’s state of mind?
4. What is the primary thing Othello has lost through Desdemona’s betrayal?
5.  What kind of proof does Othello ask for in line 377?
6.  According to the stage directions, what do Othello and Iago both do at the end of this scene and how might this be significant?
7.  This scene is the turning point of the play. Explain.

3.4
1.  Why is the handkerchief that Desdemona has lost so important to Othello?

1. How does Emilia explain Othello’s anger over the missing handkerchief? How does Desdemona make matters worse when Othello asks her about the handkerchief?
2. How does Iago control the communications between Othello and all the other characters?
3. Emilia is considered in some ways to be a foil to Desdemona.  Contrast the view of jealousy shown by each woman.

4.1
1. What does Othello’s language in 35ff suggest about his state of mind? How is his language now much more like that of Iago than it was?
2.  How does Iago go about providing the visual proof of Desdemona’s infidelity that Othello had earlier asked for?

4.2

1. According to Othello, what is the worst part of being a cuckold?  (Soliloquy ll. 48-66)
2. Where in Act IV, Scene ii does Desdemona finally start to fight back? Explain her physical reaction right after Othello leaves at line 100.

1.  What is the significance of this scene?

5.2
1.  As he enters Desdemona’s bedchamber in order to kill her, Othello mutters: “It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.”  What is he talking about? In what way might he be rationalizing Desdemona’s murder?
2.  Often at the end of a play Shakespeare’s tragic heroes have a moment of insight.  According to what he says in lines 340ff, what is Othello’s insight into himself?
3.  At the end of the play, what happens to the following: Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo,  Emilia, Othello, Iago?
4.  What mistake(s) does Iago make regarding Emilia?