othello extract essay

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Aspects of tragedy - text overview

Read our overview which shows how teachers can consider Othello in relation to the genre of tragedy. We haven't covered every element of this genre. Instead we hope this guide will provide a springboard to help you plan, and to get you and your students thinking about the text in more detail.

Othello is a play that is a mainstream Shakespearean tragedy and therefore is an obvious text for Paper 1. It is a play capable of arousing deep emotions in audiences, exciting feelings of pity and terror (feelings that according to Plato ought to be kept in check).  It is also politically controversial and dangerous, challenging 17th century European cultural norms of what it means to be noble and moral.  It is both a tragedy of love and a revenge tragedy; it is also the tragedy of what happens when soldiers are hotly prepared for war but have no war to occupy them. The play includes many of the generic conventions of tragedy that students might expect to find – a hero who is 'great of heart' but has an overweening pride and makes a fatal error of judgment, a hero who is exploited by an unfathomable villain, a hero who brings about suffering and death to others and a hero who inevitably suffers a tragic fall and dies. In following Othello's tragic path, Shakespeare invites the audience to engage with his hero's reversal of fortunes (is the cause in the stars or man-made?) and make intellectual judgments about his fate, following his journey from ignorance to knowledge as he reaches, in Aristotle's terms, 'Recognition'. Significantly Othello's knowledge comes too late, a key aspect of tragedy.

Othello is also a domestic tragedy: the tragedy of marriage. Othello and Desdemona have a passionate love which could be seen as a threat to the rules established by patriarchal order: their intense, emotionally charged and equal marriage challenges ideas about class, race and the conformity of women. The play suggests that ultimately, if the social order is to continue, this marriage and what it represents must be destroyed.

The main action of the play is set in Cyprus, away from the known, civilised world of Venice, where capitalism thrives.  Venice in the seventeenth century was a republic, controlled by the wealthy merchant classes who bought power, employing mercenary soldiers to protect their colonial exploits. The setting of Cyprus allows Shakespeare to place his characters in a world without the boundaries that would be imposed upon them by an established city state. Cyprus is a fortified outpost of civilisation, on the edge of Christian territory, a barrier between Christian values and the infidels, the enemies of the true faith. Cyprus is less controlled, a bastion of male power where Desdemona, alone and isolated from her Venetian support system, is vulnerable to the machinations of the arch manipulator Iago. This is a savage, warlike milieu (despite its association with Aphrodite and love) where Venetian soldiers have gone to fight, but because the invading Turks have all been drowned there is no war. As a result the soldiers in their claustrophobic confines have time to turn on each other without the controlling order of Venice. In the first Act which is set in Venice, Shakespeare establishes an ordered world in which Iago's attempts at disruption are easily thwarted.

The movement to Cyprus and the re-location of the characters there allows Iago to work more successfully, ensnaring all in the weaving of his plot.   

Othello as Tragic Hero

Othello's position as tragic hero is interesting and complex. Although, as a general, he holds a high military rank in the Venetian army, in terms of his tragic status he is not a European king or a European nobleman and so in one way is a figure much closer to that of an 'ordinary' man than most of Shakespeare's other tragic heroes. Othello has military power but no status in Venetian society because of his colour and race; his 'life and being' is not European. He is a black man, a Moor and was sold to slavery. 

However, he fetches his 'life and being/ From men of royal siege'. In this sense, Othello has the required status for a classic tragic hero. He is foreign royalty and has a culture which is exotic, mysterious, and extraordinary, symbolised in part by the strawberry spotted handkerchief with magic in its web. But he is always an outsider to European culture.

Yet, in terms of the tragedy, Othello is a worthy hero, despite Iago's attempts to blacken his name at the start of the play.   Although Iago claims Othello loves 'his own pride and purposes' and rails bitterly against what he feels is Othello's poor judgment and mistreatment of him, when the audience meet Othello for the first time he is measured, dignified and commanding.

To elevate his status, Shakespeare gives him musical language. To those who come to arrest him for eloping with Desdemona, Othello says: 'Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them'. He insists that were it his cue to fight he 'should have known it without a prompter'.  He is an excellent general, a point verified by the Duke and the Senate,  respects his wife (he gives her voice to speak for herself when confronted by Brabantio and the Duke) and is confident to speak of his love in public ('If it were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy').  He is, in many ways, noble and admirable.  Like other tragic heroes, he also has a fatal flaw –jealousy – which Iago exploits to the full.  His flaw connects Othello with audiences who also might have felt the stab of the green eyed monster.  Othello's fate is perhaps more likely to inspire pity and fear because of that connection.

Othello's fall from nobility and grace, from articulate general to brainwashed puppet of Iago, speaking obscenely and incoherently (Lie with her? Lie on her...Pish! Noses, ears and lips. Is't possible? Confess? Handkerchief? O devil!) is the play's driving tragic impulse. Before he dies he understands how he has been wrought upon, how he has trusted the false stories about a strawberry handkerchief and he gains some knowledge of his shortcomings. It could also be argued that his tragic stature rises when he realises what he has thrown away and that he is elevated by the quality of his speech: 'If heaven would make me such another world/ Of one entire and perfect chrysolite/ I'd not have sold her for it'. Before he takes his own life he imagines meeting Desdemona at the last judgment hurling his soul from heaven. He consolidates this vision by committing suicide. He has nothing more to lose. Whether or not audiences and readers finally sympathise with Othello however is debateable. While some mourn his death and see something heroic in the way he acknowledges the shame of his conduct, others, like Leavis, see his final speech as self dramatising, with its focus, not on his victims, but on himself and how he will be remembered. 

Iago as Villain

For many, Iago is the ultimate stage villain – calculating, manipulative, clever and ruthless.  Despite Coleridge's claim that Iago's soliloquies reveal 'the motive-hunting of motiveless malignity', Iago's role is more complex.  On one level he does have several motives for his actions and is very clear about them – Cassio has been promoted to the post he believed was his, he suspects Othello to have cuckolded him and he is jealous of Cassio who has  a daily beauty in his life that makes Iago ugly.  However, despite his undoubted cunning and desire for revenge against Cassio and Othello, Shakespeare does not present Iago as having a clear plan from the start of the play:  he is more an opportunistic villain whose ideas gather momentum as he tastes success.  What is most disturbing perhaps is that his plotting and the torture he inflicts on others are clearly a source of pleasure to him. He enjoys the sport of the terrible games he plays. He enjoys the destruction of love which he does not understand. It is significant that most of his monstrous activities take place in darkness: he is associated with hell and night. It is possible to read Iago from a theological position and see him as a devil incarnate, with his ancestors in the medieval Mystery Plays. It is also possible to read him as a stage Machiavel, one who tortures and torments those who are good, using their very goodness to 'enmesh them'. Some modern readings also focus on Iago as a vehicle of the state, voicing its patriarchal contempt (and perhaps fear) of outsiders and women. His self-interests are the self-interests of those who govern. He understands Venetian attitudes and he becomes the state's agent in removing those who transgress its unwritten laws. What Iago achieves in the destruction of Othello and Desdemona could be seen as what the state desires.

Othello is a play with many victims, not least the title character himself who falls victim to Iago's manipulation and his own jealous rage. At the end of the play Othello asks Cassio to demand of the demi-devil why he has 'ensnared' his 'soul and body'. Desdemona is also a victim, murdered by her husband for a crime she does not commit, and plotted against by Iago, perhaps for challenging the authority of men (she tells Emelia not to 'learn' of Iago though he is her husband).  She is often portrayed on stage as a childlike young bride and yet Shakespeare suggests in the first act that she is a woman of spirit and independence who knows her own mind.  She defies the expectations and desires of her father to marry a man of his choice. Instead she marries the black soldier Othello and determines to travel with him to Cyprus.  There she is manipulated by a series of male figures, and strangled in her bed by Othello. In the end she replicates the fate of Barbary, her mother's maid whose love proved mad and 'did forsake her'.  Emilia is another victim of love and another victim of the abuse of women by men. However, unlike Desdemona, who dies claiming she herself is responsible for her own death and wishing to be commended to her 'kind lord', Emilia unleashes a tirade of rebukes on the 'dull Moor' who has been so gulled and also on her husband, delivering a blow to male authority when she denounces him. However, in true tragic fashion, her rebellion comes too late to avert the tragic outcome.

At the end of the play Lodovico instructs Iago and the audience to 'Look on the tragic loading' of the bed of Desdemona and Othello where the married couple and Emelia lie dead. It is a stark image and completes the tragic pattern. Roderigo has also died, bled dry by Iago and stabbed to death in the dark.

The final judgments rest with the audience. We are left to think about our emotions and about moral, social, political and philosophical issues.  Is Othello redeemed? Is there catharsis? Is there a feeling that the world is somehow diminished by his passing? Is there a feeling that there are moral forces at work and the world is striving to become a better place? Cassio will rule in Cyprus so there is restoration of order of a sort. But how comfortable does an audience feel with this appointment? (Certainly his attitudes towards women are questionable). Desdemona had challenged the patriarchal order in marrying Othello, had shown a free and open spirit but she is murdered. The patriarchal attitudes that existed at the start of the play are reinforced by Cassio's appointment. Therefore how safe is the future with him? The tragic villain Iago still lives and defiantly says that though he bleeds he is not killed and that 'from this time forth' he 'never will speak word'. Lodovico sentences Iago to 'cunning cruelty' and 'torture', though disturbingly perhaps there is still some kind of triumph at his indestructibility. The resolution is uncomfortable and with the deaths of Desdemona, Emelia and Othello, there is a terrible sense of waste.

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This resource is part of the Aspects of tragedy resource package .

Document URL https://www.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/as-and-a-level/english-literature-b/teach/tragedy-b-text-overview-othello

Last updated 16 Feb 2021

AQA LitB – Othello Extract essay construction

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Lesson focussed on improving student's crafting of the extract question for AQA Lit B.

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Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info

If you want to write a paper on any topic related to Othello , this article will be your life-saver. Our team collected various free samples on one page. See what Othello essay interests you and click on the link to read it.

✍ Othello: Essay Samples

• Theme of Jealousy in Othello by Shakespeare Genre: Research paper Words: 1643 Focused on: The issues of jealousy, manipulation, and jealousy Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Roderigo, Desdemona, Brabantio, Cassio
• The Tragedy of Othello Genre: Research paper Words: 1651 Focused on: Othello’s tragedy and whether it was self-inflicted Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Desdemona, Roderigo, Brabantio, Emilia, Bianca
• Othello by William Shakespeare Genre: Essay Words: 888 Focused on: Catastrophe, race, and misrepresentation Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Desdemona
• Irony in “Othello” by Shakespeare Genre: Analytical Essay Words: 907 Focused on: How irony drives the plot of Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia
• Summary about Shakespeare’s Othello Genre: Essay Words: 837 Focused on: Retelling of Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Roderigo, Desdemona, Emilia, Brabantio
• Othello by William Shakespeare Genre: Term paper Words: 1141 Focused on: Comparison of the play with Tim Nelson’s 2001 movie O Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Cassio
• Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice Genre: Research paper Words: 1404 Focused on: Character traits of Iago and Othello, and how they drive the story Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo, Emilia
• The Downfall of Othello Genre: Essay Words: 1687 Focused on: Comparison of Othello’s and Oedipus’s downfalls Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Brabantio, Cassio, Desdemona
• “Othello” by William Shakespeare Genre: Essay Words: 548 Focused on: The role of minor characters in Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Emilia
• Character of Iago in “Othello” by Shakespeare Analysis Genre: Essay Words: 1080 Focused on: Character analysis of Iago and his evil nature Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Cassio, Desdemona, Emilia, Roderigo,
• Critical Analysis of the Tragedy of Othello Genre: Essay, Critical Writing Words: 971 Focused on: Stage directions , the play’s modernity, and geographical symbolism Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
• Jealousy in “Othello” by W.Shakespeare Genre: Analytical Essay Words: 1611 Focused on: Good vs. evil as characterized by jealousy Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Desdemona, Emilia, Roderigo
• Othello as the Outsider Genre: Essay Words: 1356 Focused on: Othello as an outcast in society and how his language and behavior reflect it Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
• Racism in Play “Othello” by William Shakespeare Genre: Essay Words: 867 Focused on: The theme of racism and how it’s shown in the play Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Brabantio, Desdemona
• Othello and Desdemona: Emotional Strangers Genre: Essay Words: 1243 Focused on: The relationship between Othello and Desdemona Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Cassio
• What Can Lawyers Learn From ‘Othello’? Genre: Essay Words: 692 Focused on: Why lawyers should read Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Cassio, Iago
• Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Othello: The Words and Actions of Iago Genre: Essay Words: 1421 Focused on: Why Iago is an excellent villain, comparison of Iago and Joker from The Dark Knight Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Cassio
• Othello and Snow Country: Personal Opinion Genre: Critical Essay Words: 994 Focused on: Love and passion in Shakespeare’s Othello and Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona
• Othello’s Fall from Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play Genre: Essay Words: 1145 Focused on: Themes of jealousy and gullibility Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
• Othello’s tragedy Genre: Essay Words: 830 Focused on: The cause of Othello’s tragedy Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
• The issue of racial prejudice Genre: Research paper Words: 2198 Focused on: Racial prejudices, discrimination towards Othello and foreigners in general, cultural and historical context Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Brabantio, Desdemona
• Humiliation of Iago (Othello) Genre: Essay Words: 589 Focused on: Possible motives of Iago Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Desdemona
• Compare and Contrast Shakespeare’s Othello and the Blind Owl by Sedayat Genre: Compare and Contrast Essay Words: 1370 Focused on: Differences and similarities of the plots and themes of Shakespeare’s Othello and the Blind Owl by Sedayat Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
• Remembrance and Redemption Relationship Genre: Essay Words: 1471 Focused on: Theme of redemption in Othello , Mansfield Park, and A Small Place Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio
• Treatment of women by Shakespeare and Sophocles Genre: Essay Words: 1895 Focused on: Different treatments of women in Othello and Oedipus Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia, Cassio, Roderigo, Brabantio
• The Feminist critique Genre: Essay Words: 2062 Focused on: The role of women in Elizabethan society as told by Othello Characters mentioned: Desdemona, Emilia, Bianca, Othello, Iago, Cassio, Duke of Venice, Brabantio
• Comparison and Contrast of the Driving Force of Plot in Medea by Euripides, Othello by William Shakespeare, and the Epic of Gilgamesh Genre: Essay Words: 568 Focused on: Heroism in Medea by Euripides, Othello by William Shakespeare, and The Epic of Gilgamesh Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Brabantio, Roderigo
• Violence of Shakespeare Genre: Term paper Words: 1701 Focused on: Violent behavior in Titus Andronicus , Hamlet , and Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
• Philosophy of Literature: Shakespearean Tragedy Genre: Essay Words: 1218 Focused on: How tragic incidences make heroes be villains as shown in Othello and Macbeth Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
• Machiavelli and Othello’s Leadership Skills Essay Genre: Essay Words: 584 Focused on: Leadership skills in Machiavelli’s The Prince and Shakespeare’s Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago
• The Life And Work Of William Shakespeare: His Contribution To The Contemporary Theater Genre: Research paper Words: 1371 Focused on: The contribution of William Shakespeare’s works to contemporary theater Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
• Othello and Oedipus Rex Characters’ Traits Genre: Essay Words: 963 Focused on: Character and tragic traits of Othello and Oedipus Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
• Iago and Othello Relationships Genre: Research paper Words: 1254 Focused on: Iago’s and Othello’s relationships and how it contributes the plot Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia
• Cultural Diversity in the Play “Othello” Genre: Essay Words: 822 Focused on: The play’s reflection of society and racial prejudices Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago

Thanks for checking our samples! We hope you’ve found them helpful. For more information about Othello , see the links below.

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• Play’s Plot Explored
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Notes || Exam Prep || Character Profiles || Themes || Additional Reading & Videos

This text is included in  Paper 1 . You can find notes and guides for it below.

• Literary Form

Additional Reading & Videos:

• Essay: Homosocial Desire and its Conversion to Homosexual Desire
• Essay: The Symbolic Significance of Desdemona’s Handkerchief
• Essay: Men, Women and War: An Examination of Gender Conflicts within Othello
• Thesis: Courtship, Love, and Marriage in Othello: Shakespeare’s Mockery of Courtly Love
• Essay: Too Gentle: Jealousy and Class in Othello
• Video: Racism in Othello
• Video: The Question of Race in Othello
• Film: Othello (modern-day adaptation, dir. Geoffrey Sax 2001)
• Film: Othello (filmed theatrical production, 1965)

Character Profiles

• Proximity and Distance
• Truth and Deception

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Othello extract Analysis (3.3.435-476)

Othello Analysis (3.3.435-476)

This extract seems fitting for analysis as it embodies the meaning of tragedy in the Aristotelian sense: the chief emotions induced in the audience from this 40-line exchange are pity and fear which by Aristotle’s definition announce a tragedy. The crucial event in this extract – Iago’s claims to have seen Cassio  “wipe his beard ” with the handkerchief – provoke a breakdown in Othello leading to his ceremonial vow to enact his revenge. This sequence stimulates pity in the audience as they witness the “monstrous creation ” Iago gleefully describes at the close of Act 1 drive Othello into a rage, shouting “ blood, blood, blood ”. Moreover, losing this composure which the audience had hitherto experienced in Othello evokes fear in the audience with the realisation that Othello has became the animalistic beast Iago derided him as being throughout the whole play.

Thomas Rhymer’s contemptuous view on Othello  is notorious as he questions “s o much ado, so much stress, so much passion and repetition about an handkerchief! Why was not this call’d the Tragedy of the Handkerchief?” . Rhymer clearly appreciates the importance of the handkerchief in Othello.  Preceding this extract the importance of the handkerchief to Desdemona is clear: by Emilia’s account, Desdemona at times even treats the handkerchief as a substitute for Othello as she states how  “she reserves it evermore about her to kiss and talk to” . The importance of the handkerchief is, unfortunately, noticed by Iago as he bid Emilia to steal it “a hundred times”.  Whilst the origins of the handkerchief are clearly not of importance to Othello as he gives two entirely different accounts of how it came into his possession, this extract shoes the significance of the handkerchief to Othello as upon his false realisation that Desdemona has given it to Cassio, he declares “now do I see ‘tis [ Iago’s accusation ] true” . Though Rhymer’s summary of Othello accepts the importance of the handkerchief, it does not appreciate the complex web of symbols behind the handkerchief. The audience is told how the handkerchief is spotted with strawberries and this colour distribution may be likened to Othello’s promise that ‘Thy bed, lust-stained, shall with lust’s blood be spotted’  in Act Five. In this sense, the handkerchief, present at the start of their relationship as the “first gift ” given to Desdemona, may symbolise the fact that the coupling of Desdemona and Othello was doomed to end in failure – indeed the inevitability of the fall from grace is a staple of Shakespearian tragedy with, for example, Macbeth’s fall prophesised before it happens by the witches. Further, the colour of the handkerchief may also be a reference to fellow Elizabethan dramatist Thomas Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy , where, like Othello, Hieronimo takes the “handkerchief besmeared with blood”  from his dead son’s body and vows to keep with him until the act of revenge is performed. Upon receiving the news about the handkerchief, Othello does two interesting things in this extract: he makes his ritualistic vow for revenge and his language adapts to accommodate his rage.

Like Conrad’s tragic figure of Kurtz in Heart of Darkness,  arguably Othello’s main attribute is his speech. Indeed, where, like in many of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the audience is informed about

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Othello before he has appeared on stage, Iago describes Othello’s capacity for high rhetoric as he states “but he, as loving his own pride and purposes, evades them, with a bombast circumstance horribly stuffed with epithets of war.”  The audiences’ realisation of Othello’s charisma makes his claim that “rude am I in my speech and little blest with the soft phrase of peace”  during the improvised trial highly ironic. However, for the first time in the play, in this scene we experience a total loss in this charisma as he enters a state of rage making Othello’s self-critical comments at the trial proleptically fitting. For example, Othello’s cry of “damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her” is evidently inarticulate: the limited verb usage shows how his anger has limited his previously articulate diction. Further, his dismissal of Desdemona as a “lewd minx”  is interesting as it echoes the bestial imagery Iago generally uses to mock Othello and so may convey the level of influence Iago now practises over Othello. What is rather more unsettling than the explosion of Othello’s angry, incoherent outcries is the way in which he expresses his desire for revenge in this extract with the level of high rhetoric which audiences have come to expect in a calm, rational Othello. This seems to suggest that Othello vows to attain revenge while thinking clearly. T. S. Eliot famously saw Othello  as self-dramatising as Othello is capable of shaping tragic experience into a story much like Brutus and Hamlet in Shakespeare’s preceding tragedies. This feature is far more emphatically marked in Othello  despite Othello’s lacking the wry self-awareness and wit of Hamlet which Iago seems to have instead inherited. Although marred slightly by his animalistic outcry of “blood, blood, blood” beforehand, Othello articulately combines classical and cosmic language seamlessly to convey the way in which his desire for revenge is so strong that its reach is infinite and timeless: from the “ Hellespont ” to “Heaven”.  Othello uses the simile of “icy currents”  of the “Pontic Sea”  to inform Iago as to the relentlessness of his convictions which will “never ebb to humble love”. The reference to teh “icy sea” along with “marble” both allude to coldness and the way in which Othello feels he must ignore his heated passions to enact his revenge. Interestingly, whilst before Iago’s language is plain and rough for example simply stating “patience, I say; your min perhaps may change” , following Othello’s explosion into rhetoric Iago follows suit and adapts his language. For example, using cosmic language mimicking Othello, Iago calls upon the “ever-burning lights above” to witness his pledge. At this point audiences will notice the complexity of the relationship between Iago and Othello as they enter the pact together and each influence one another’s language. Iago’s adoption of Othello’s diction however is done tactically to better influence him whilst Othello seems to have subconsciously undertaken Iago’s speech patterns.

In this extract, parallels may be drawn to Shakespeare’s first tragedy Titus Andronicus.  Like where Titus Andronicus plans his revenge on the Goth Queen Tamora to be like a ritual through serving her a pie made of her murdered sons, Othello’s vow for revenge in this passage is ritualistic. After having worked himself into a rage, “ he kneels”  and makes the “sacred vow” to achieve his revenge. The fact that Iago joins him in kneeling and makes his own vows likens this exchange to the ritual of marriage, as they both make promises to one another – there is grating irony therefore at the contrast between wedding vows and the “bloody thoughts ” Othello and Iago voice. Further, the concept of Iago and Othello entering into partnership with one another alludes to the idea that Iago is replacing the hole left by the supposed adultery of Desdemona. Alluding further to the idea of ritual is Othello’s acknowledgement that this burden of his is poisonous or “of aspics tongues.  In saying this Othello is revealing that he does not want to enact revenge on Desdemona as he still loves her; however he feels bound to by tradition and pride (this is why it is necessary for him to work himself into a rage pleading “ arise black vengeance from thy hollow cell ”). The reference to asps is interesting as it is different to its usage in other Shakespearian plays – here the reference is to convey the poisonousness of the burden Othello must bear whilst in Antony and Cleopatra an asp allows Cleopatra to escape from the torments of the world.

This extract is suitably rich in language to denote its importance to the play. Evoking much pity and fear, the audience experience Othello willingly work himself into a state of frenzy after being falsly being informed by Iago. Othello therefore bids a farewell to the composure and clarity of thought which afforded him his position as a tragic hero and becomes the beast Iago had cruelly derided him as being previously. Othello’s language becomes intermittently inarticulate as a result conveying the strength of emotion he experiences from his ritualistic vow for revenge. All the while Iago feigns a sense of companionship with Othello and no aside is necessary to convey to the audience the glee he is obviously experiencing at this step toward the completion of his scheme.

Document Details

• Word Count 1454
• Page Count 3
• Subject English

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CIE IGCSE Othello 14 extracts with exam questions

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

3 March 2020

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For the CIE IGCSE Literature exam, these 14 exam-style papers each have an extract from Othello with an extract-based question, followed by a more general question on theme or character. They should provide useful revision and exam practice.

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Thank you! These are great! These would be even better if they were in word - only because that would allow them to be more interactive for online teaching.

Thanks. I use an iPad and thought I’d exported them in Word, but clearly not. I’ll be more diligent next time I upload a resource, but I’m glad they’ll be useful.

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