• What are the key images that stand out for you in this speech? What visual pictures do they suggest in your mind and how does that help you imagine the mood of this moment in the play?
• How regular is the rhythm in this speech? Can you find lines in the speech where the normal rhythm is disturbed? What might those disturbances suggest about how Othello feels?
• What do you notice about the verbs that Othello uses in this speech?
• Can you find examples of alliteration and how do you think that alliteration affects the mood of the speech?

• At the beginning of Act 5 Scene 2, although Desdemona is on stage, she is asleep, and so Othello’s speech could be considered a soliloquy. Ask yourself:
  • How do the different sentence lengths affect the metre or rhythm? How does this suggest the character is feeling?
  • Are there sounds in the speech that give you a sense of Othello's state of mind? Why do you think he repeats phrases like ‘it is the cause’, ‘put out the light’, ‘one more’?
  • What do you notice if you emphasise the last word of each line? What do you notice if you read just the first word of each line?
• Try applying these same strategies to the other monologues and soliloquies Othello has in the play. Consider how Othello’s language changes in different moments in the play and what this might reflect about how he feels in those moments.
• Take a look at the scene that follows on from this soliloquy. You can find this in the Language Investigate section for Desdemona's death where there is also the option to watch the scene being performed.

• Iago uses a lot of animal imagery to describe Othello. In Act 1 Scene 1, he calls him a ‘Barbary horse’ and an ‘old black ram’, using these images to make Desdemona’s father angry and telling him that Othello and Desdemona ‘are making the beast with two backs’. This continues in Iago’s soliloquies. In Act 1 Scene 3, for example, he says Othello will be easily led ‘as asses are’.
• How many examples of animal imagery can you find in the play and what do they reveal about the character who uses them?

• ‘Witchcraft’ is referred to first in Act 1, when Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching Desdemona. Later in the play, Othello himself uses similar language to describe the effect Desdemona has on him. In Act 3 Scene 3, when Othello talks about the handkerchief he gave to Desdemona, he says a ‘charmer’ gave it to his mother and ‘she told her, while she kept it / ‘Twould make her amiable and subdue my father’.
• How many examples of magical imagery can you find in the play and what do they reveal about the character who uses them?

• The ideas of sin and forgiveness are really important in Othello and this language is tied into images of light and dark, and white and black. Desdemona, for example, is described as ‘fair’ and ‘heavenly’ with Emilia telling Othello ‘O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!’, when he admits to killing his wife.
• Take a closer look at the extract from Act 5 Scene 2 and explore how religious language is used in Desdemona’s final moments in the play. Why do you think Shakespeare uses these references so much in the last scene? Why is the light and dark imagery so important in the rest of the play?

• Lots of characters in Othello can be considered ‘outsiders’. Othello is a ‘Moor’ and is different to other characters; Desdemona is also an outsider in the military world of Cyprus; Roderigo has followed the army and is not meant to be there; and Bianca can also be considered an outsider when compared to the conventional behaviour of the other women in the play.
• See how many references you can find to Othello’s background and comments that point out he is a ‘Moor’ or different. Can these be split into positive and negative comments? In which situations is Othello’s nature as an ‘outsider’ seen as a positive and by whom? When is it negative?

• Jealousy drives both Iago and Othello throughout the play. Iago wants revenge on Othello because he is jealous of Cassio’s promotion and jealous of Othello’s suspected relationship with his wife. He then fuels Othello’s own jealousy by leading him to believe that Desdemona and Cassio are in a relationship. Bianca is also driven to jealousy when she believes Cassio has given her a handkerchief from another woman.
• See how many references to jealousy you can find in the play. Look particularly at Act 3 Scene 3, where Iago warns Othello to ‘beware, my Lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on’. Why does Iago personify jealousy as a monster? What other images are used and how does Iago succeed in making Othello so jealous that he is willing to kill his own wife?

• Several characters are betrayed by those they trust. Othello is betrayed by ‘honest’ Iago, Desdemona by her husband, Emilia by Iago, Roderigo by Iago and Cassio by Iago.
• Which scenes are most significant for each of these characters and the betrayals they suffer? Can you identify the moments in which each character realises they have been betrayed and how they each react differently? What allows the characters that betray them to do so?

What can we learn about Iago from this soliloquy? Ask yourself:

• Do the sounds give you a sense of his emotion or lack of it?
• Which ones stand out?
• Are there lines or parts of the speech that stand out because of how they sound?

If you are able to read along you will also notice the punctuation and where each line ends. This soliloquy is written in verse, like a poem. Ask yourself:

• Does the punctuation in the text match with Lucian’s choices? Think about where the character is breathing and pausing; how does this make him come across?
• Does Lucian emphasise the last word of each line in his performance?
• If you wrote down all those line-ending words, what would you think the soliloquy was about? Does that feel right?

• Try applying these same strategies to all of Iago’s soliloquies to reveal any changes in his language and behaviour. A soliloquy shows you a character’s true thoughts and a lot can be learnt about Iago from looking at these moments of truth. How much of his plot against Othello is in place from the start and how much does he make up as he goes along? What does this show you?
• Take a look at the things he says immediately before and after his soliloquies. Shakespeare often creates comparisons to show you something.
• Keep a record of the images Iago uses in his language. Iago uses animal imagery a lot. Why might this be? Notice at what points Othello also starts to use the animal imagery. Find out more by looking at the Analysing the Imagery section.