1. Act 4 Scene 1

2. Iago plays another role. He tries to dissuade Othello from overreacting
Othello : “O it comes o’er my memory, as doth the raven o’er the infected house”
The raven is a symbol of death and disease
Foreshadowing
Look at Othello’s speech in lines How does Shakespeare use language to portray his state of mind?
He is speaking in prose. He can’t form sentences – “Noses, ears and lips,” “Handkerchief – confessions – handkerchief.” Minor sentences
Stage direction: “He falls in a trance”
Othello is physically affected by his emotions

3. Iago fools Othello by talking to Cassio about a prostitute he visits called Bianca
Look at Othello’s speeches in lines (p96-8) How does he talk about Desdemona?
“a sweet woman!” – bitter, sarcastic
“I will chop into messes.”
Thinks killing her is “justice”

4. Othello is now completely in Iago’s hands - agreeing to suffocate her in her “contaminated” bed
Othello is completely unreasonable with Desdemona, striking her and shouting at her
Notably Desdemona responds without anger: “sweet Othello”, “I have not deserv’d this”

5. Lodovico says that “this would not be believed in Venice”
Look at Othello’s speech in lines
The word “turn” has a double meaning
His sentences are broken up with pauses
Repetition is now used to show the obsessions in his mind and to allow him to explore words’ double meanings: “obedient”, “weep”

6. Act 4 Scene 2

7. Othello refuses to believe what Emilia tells him.
“This is a subtle whore”
Desdemona seems concerned about Othello when she would be justified in being angry: “Why do you weep?”
Othello confronts Desdemona, using a series of images to describe how he feels his love has been ruined.
Desdemona is as honest “as summer flies in the shambles [slaughterhouse]”
O wishes “thou hadst ne’er been born”