A pimp is a man who whores out prostitutes and takes part of their earnings in return, and Iago is

like this in that he takes money from Roderigo, promising him Desdemona- who is already
someone's wife. He treats Desdemona as if she is an item, almost trying to get Roderigo to
purchase her love.
The Masters and Slaves speech foreshadows Iago's nature throughout the rest of the play, the
way he will speak kindly to both Othello and Cassio, while trashing Cassio to Othello. He is
using his master to his own ends, just as he says can happen with slaves, to give the impression
of good work but instead go only for his own gain.
The manipulation techniques Iago uses on Brabantio are: to use crude metaphors with animals to
give the idea of animalistic things occurring without his knowledge, and yells things like "fire!"
and "thieves" to whips Brabantio into a rage by the time he gets to Othello.
The effects of these manipulations are: Brabantio is in a frenzy about his daughter missing,
worried about her, and angry that she is gone, possibly with Othello, though he has no problem
with Othello.
"Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains"-Iago
"Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say."-Iago
"'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not
serve God, if the devil bid you"-Iago
"Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
To find out practises of cunning hell," Brabantio
Iago hides himself while Brabantio yells out the window at Roderigo, and then runs off to avoid
getting in trouble with Brabantio, and goes to Othello and Cassio as if he was there the whole
time.
The manipulation techniques Iago uses on Othello are to tell the truth, warning of danger, and to
be proven right almost immediately. Beyond that, he doesn't use many manipulation techniques,
besides trying to make Othello angry.
The effects of these manipulations are negligible. Making Othello angry enough to attack
Brabantio fails, but Iago does increase his credibility a bit by speaking the truth.
Iago's reference to Janus is relevant, due to Janus' two-faced nature. The two faces of the god
represent looking into the past and the future, but Iago is almost symbolic of a two-faced nature
itself, speaking kind words in everyone's ears while wishing them harm.

Brabantio charges Othello with stealing his daughter away by using spells and potions to make
her marry him.
The military council's workings are similar to the battle between Othello and Brabantio in that
Brabantio accuses Othello of some sorcery by which he took his daughter, and Othello is very
calm and logical.
The military council's workings are different from the earlier battle in that there are no swords
drawn, and the conflict between Brabantio and Othello is resolved with Desdemona.
Othello explains how he wooed Desdemona, and then asks that she be brought and that she
should explain how she fell in love with the Moor, and if any potions or spells were used upon
her, which is what Brabantio claims.
Othello escapes trouble because Desdemona admits easily that she is married to Othello and how
he wooed her. Othello also needs to go to Cyprus to face the Turkish army, and is necessary.
These two things clear him and get him out of trouble.
Iago doesn't believe in love, and thinks it only a sect of love, nothing more than that, nothing
less. He doesn't seem to understand love as a separate entity, probably jaded by the thought of
Othello with Emilia.
What Iago is talking about in his final soliloquy of Act I is how Roderigo is going to continue
funding him, that he is turning Othello against Cassio and Desdemona because he heard on the
rumour mill that Othello slept with Emilia, and he's going to tell Othello that Cassio is sleeping
with Desdemona, turning all of them against one another and plotting to kill them.
Act two begins on Cyprus, as according to The Deets.
"With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio" means that Iago will use the
tiniest things for evidence, using Cassio's own good intentions and gentle nature against him in
this wed of lies. In context, Iago is the spider, weaving a web of lies that will entrap all these
flies, Othello, Cassio, Desdemona, and Cassio would possibly be the hardest to take down on a
normal day. Cassio is a great man, and very honourable, and would never truly do anything bad
in all his life. It will be Iago's greatest achievement to take down Cassio. The rest of the play will
be taken up with twisting Cassio's intentions, making him seem the villain. It is a precursor to the
rest of the plot.
Pontification is when a person argues constantly for their point of view, not allowing a word of
contrasting argument by overloading the other person with facts and ideas so that they cannot
remember the first argument or idea to counteract it.

Iago encourages social drinking, singing drinking songs- sing a verse, drink a verse- and
generally shoves ale in Cassio's face until he's drunk as a sailor on shore.
A drunk man loses some of his inhibitions, and certainly his restraint. Iago is trying to use this to
get Cassio to hit Roderigo and seem unfit for office, when Cassio in his right mind would never
hit anybody outright.
Iago advises Cassio to go to Desdemona, and ask her for her help in getting Cassio his job back.
He claims that Desdemona will more easily be able to convince Othello to give Cassio his job
back.
By getting Cassio to meet Desdemona on his own, he can more easily sow the seeds of
discontent, and get Othello suspicious of his wife. He can point out that Cassio has been
speaking secretively with her, and that they spend a lot of time together. As well, if Cassio gets
Desdemona on his side, she will constantly bug Othello about Cassio, and make herself seem
suspicious by her unending suit.
"Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!"-Iago
"Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,"-Iago
"O thou invisible
spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,
let us call thee devil!"-Cassio
"It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place
to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me
another, to make me frankly despise myself."-Cassio
"Every inordinate cup is
unblessed and the ingredient is a devil."-Cassio
"When devils will the blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows"-Iago
Cassio enters Act three with musicians to serenade Othello and Desdemona, trying to get in
Othello's good graces again.
Iago convinces Cassio he must speak with Desdemona apart from Othello and beg for his job
back and get her to help. Then Desdemona will constantly bother Othello about
Cassio, busying him. The meetings apart from Othello will also look suspicious, and Iago can
sow the seeds of discontent.
Othello says Chaos will come again when he does not love Desdemona.
By using uncertain words that give no definitives, Iago is making himself sound unsure, and
projecting that unsure-ness onto Othello. By using words like 'think' instead of 'know', he is
leaving a large amount of room for suspicion.

Iago speaks about Cassio as if he were a sneaky guy of some sort to begin with, and upon
learning that Cassio has known Desdemona previous and had not just met her, begins using
uncertain words. He shies away from Othello and refuses to give him a straight answer about his
'suspicions', making Othello drag the 'truth' form him.
Othello fears he is not good enough for Desdemona, that he somehow does not deserve her and
he doesn't understand why she chose someone made by war and so different from herself. Iago
jumps on this and preys on that fear, using Cassio as an example of a perfect sort of person for
Desdemona.
The handkerchief, which Emilia brings to Iago after Desdemona accidentally drops it,
is instrumental in destroying Othello. The handkerchief is the first gift Othello ever gave to
Desdemona, and holds a special importance to him as well as her. Iago can plant it on Cassio
and implicate him in this fiasco.
Iago claims that suspecting is the worst part of jealousy. Knowing is more satisfying than just
thinking, and not knowing at all is best. Suspecting gnaws away at a person's mind, imagining
things, only wanting to know but not knowing.
"Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do
All my abilities in thy behalf."-Desdemona. She agrees to help him in his suit to get his job back,
saying she will help him whatever it takes. This means she will do as Iago needs and ply Othello
mercilessly for Cassio's job, making herself seem suspicious.
"For Michael Cassio,
I dare be sworn I think that he is honest."-Iago. This is not the first time he speaks ill of Cassio,
but it is the first in which he says uncertain terms like think. He is beginning to sow the seeds of
discontent in Othello, starting here with this, and will continue on for the rest of the play.
"I' faith, I fear it has.
I hope you will consider what is spoke
Comes from my love. But I do see you're moved:
I am to pray you not to strain my speech
To grosser issues nor to larger reach
Than to suspicion."-Iago. Iago beseeches Othello not to listen to him though Othello has already
pulled the information he wanted from him. He is making himself seem more human, likable,
and honest, establish a sort of repot that seems to mean that he himself means well. He will be
less easily suspected by Othello as the play progresses.
"Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless
Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds."-Othello. Othello begins to doubt himself at
these lines, bemoaning his marrying, saying that Iago likely knows more he does not tell him.
The first claws of doubt are beginning to scratch at Othello's mind, and will keep him thinking

on this until he is driven mad.

"Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday."-Iago. Iago intends for Othello never to sleep again. He knows
that the monster Othello conjures will haunt his days and nights, and predicts here what will
occur because he knows he already has Othello in his clutches.

Iago plants the handkerchief in Cassio's room to implicate that he and Desdemona have slept
together and that Desdemona has given away the handkerchief Othello prizes to a mere lover.
Othello begins to doubt and doubt, and he worries himself, but Desdemona is so wonderful and
pur he almost cannot help but change his mind.
Desdemona knows Othello as a very non-jealous person, and is startled by his erratic and slightly
violent behaviors towards the end of act three. He is being eaten away by the green eyed
monster, and he is slowly spiraling down. He has never been so demanding and abrupt with her
before, and she is unsure what is going on that she should be treated so, because she has been
nothing but a great wife to her husband.
Iago uses the hypothetical argument of 'what does it matter that Cassio slept with her' and other
such things to further convince Othello of their treachery, putting images of Cassio porking
Desdemona in Othello's head.
Iago engages in a conversation with Cassio about Bianca. He knows Cassio will laugh at
Bianca's name, and instead whispers Bianca's name and speaks Desdemona's loudly, having told
Othello that he would speak to Cassio about Desdemona. He gets Cassio laughing about his
conquest of Bianca, and therefore convinces Othello that he is laughing about Desdemona.
When Bianca argues with Cassio about having another mistress and throws the handkerchief at
him, Iago uses it as evidence that Cassio is sleeping with Desdemona.
Othello will be undoubtedly implicated in her murder if he strangles Desdemona, and will be
entirely guilty with no room for confusion. Poisoning Desdemona would provide little evidence
and give reasonable doubt as to guilt.
The Serpent's curse is the curse of the devil and all of hell. It is a curse to send the victim through
suffering, and damn them to the very pits, or lower levels, of hell.
Emelia, without knowing, is placing a curse on her own husband unknowingly.

Roderigo sneaks up on Iago, taking him by surprise and making him scramble for an answer to
his angry questions, and Emelia answering Othello's questions honestly, giving no indication as
to the affair that Iago has indicated.
When Desdemona speaks of the song the maid used to sing before she died, about a man who
went mad and forsook her, this appears to me to be the most poignant of the foreshadowing in
Act four, scene three.
Women will be faithful as long as their men are faithful, and and if men fall, so do women. Each
sex is like the other, and if one seeks outside attention, the other will for revenge, even if they are
otherwise good. A wife is meant to be entirely belonging to her man in society, and therefore,
until her man goes wrong, she cannot.
"Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
It is hypocrisy against the devil:
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven."-Othello
"O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
To lip a wanton in a secure couch,"-Iago
"Let the devil and his dam haunt you!"-Bianca
"[Striking her] Devil!"-Othello
"O devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile." -Othello
"Come, swear it, damn thyself
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damn'd:
Swear thou art honest."-Othello
"Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell."-Othello
"You, mistress,
That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,
And keep the gate of hell!"-Othello
"A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones!"-Emilia
"I should venture purgatory for't."-Emilia
Iago can't go wrong in Act 5, scene 1, as the fight between Roderigo and Cassio wounds
Roderigo and gives Iago a chance to hamstring Cassio. Both men are lying on the floor, Iago's
accomplice injured and dying, the man he was meant to kill injured and probably dying.
Gratiano and Lodivico are high ranking officials, and have been conditioned not to run to an

unknown person's aid. In this instance, it is Cassio and Roderigo who are injured, and give no
threat to the two officials, but it could be part of a ploy to assassinate the two high ranking men.
As they are unsure, they stay back to stay safe.
Iago uses the fact that Bianca is a prostitute and should have no ties to anyone to his advantage.
She shouldn't love Cassio enough to be crying over him, and she is absolutely distraught over his
injury. Iago does his best to twist her worry over Cassio into guilt.
"She's, like a liar, gone to burning hell:
'Twas I that kill'd her."-Othello
"O, the more angel she,
And you the blacker devil!"-Emilia
"Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil."-Emilia
"Cassio did top her; ask thy husband else.
O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell,"-Othello
"Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak."-Emilia
"Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!"-Othello
"I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable.
If that thou best a devil, I cannot kill thee."-Othello
"Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?"-Othello
"To you, lord governor,
Remains the censure of this hellish villain;
The time, the place, the torture: O, enforce it!"-Lodovico
He talks about how he does not know how to relight the 'promethean flame' which is life, and hot
he candle, which he puts out can be rekindled, but Desdemona not. It is ironic because he will
soon repent his actions and wish her back.
Desdemona claims with her last breath that Othello is not to blame. She still thinks the world of
him, and wishes only for his happiness, even as she dies. Othello only incriminates himself. He
could have claimed to have entered and found her dead, particularly as he was himself distraught
over her death.
The Turks are sunk by the storm, Brabantio dies of a broken heart and humiliation that his
daughter left him for the moor, Roderigo is stabbed by Cassio, and then finished off by Iago,
Desdemona is suffocated by Othello, Emilia is stabbed by Iago in his rush to escape, Othello

kills himself, and Iago might be slowly dying from his wound.
Othello's world no longer means anything, and he finds death a more suitable option than living,
personally. When he wounds Iago, he is hoping to either let Iago live and be tortured and
punished, or that Iago will die a slow death. Othello claims that dying would be the better
sounding thing for himself before he kills himself because he knows he cannot live with the
shame of what he has done and without Desdemona.
Othello claims his tragic flaw is 'loving too much'. This is almost true. Anyone can be
manipulated, and he was not jealous without reason, if fictional reason. His tragic flaw is loving
too much, as he says. He loved Desdemona so much, his love so intense that it turned him into a
jealous monster when he thought his love was being shared by another.
The universal truth of Othello? Always seek out evidence for yourself, and be skeptical. It is
okay to trust, but if something sounds odd, or it is entirely new information you never had an
inkling about before, then seek out evidence yourself. Do not buy into heresy, and find the truth
yourself.