Race

• ‘thou hast enchanted her!’

  racial stereotype of black people being magicians. It suggests that Othello would have not been able to marry Desdemona as she would have overlooked him due to his race so he has used dark magic on her
• Brabantio disappears after his speech

  • until 5,2 when we learn that he has died at the grief of the marriage. Therefore, his brief appearance serves chiefly to establish, through his racial prejudice and enmity towards Othello, the extent to which the “Moor” is isolated in Venetian society. This reflects the Renaissance beliefs of the nature of evil and witches. They associated black people with the devil
• ‘O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my Daughter?’

  • Brabantio’s language betrays his view of his own daughter as an object of monetary value. By calling Othello a “foul thief,” he denies Desdemona’s agency, as if she were a stolen object rather than a participant in her affairs. “Stow’d'' reiterates the image of Desdemona as a piece of treasure. Reflects the idea of women being their fathers possessions until they got married. He repeatedly characterises their marriage as theft as he cannot understand his daughter falling in love with Othello
• ‘I love the gentle Desdemona’ phrase has simple sentiment and language in contrast to the rest of the scene
• ‘I love the gentle Desdemona’

  • the phrase has simple sentiment and language in contrast to the rest of the scene
• ‘Boarded a land carrack’


  Iago’s crude joke of piracy links to ‘foul thief’. A carrack has double meaning as it can be seen as a treasure ship but also a prostitute.
• ‘I won his daughter’

  •  Desdemona as a possession
• ‘Enchanted’


  Brabantio accused Othello of using dark magic to ‘win’ Desdemona.
• ‘she loved me for the dangers i had passed’ ‘This is the only witchcraft i have used

  assert his confidence and further his argument that if there is any truth to Brabantio's accusation that Othello "enchanted" his daughter, this enchantment was achieved civil art of rhetoric as opposed to sinister magic. Desdemona is attracted to Othello’s stories due to her largely sheltered life as an Elizabethan woman, seen as property of her father she has had little interaction and life experiences as it would bring shame upon her household.
• ‘And I loved her that she did pity them’

  he is excited by his talents and tales as a storyteller. ‘And I loved her that she did pity them’ There is the promise that in marrying him, she too may be able to have these experiences.
• ‘I do perceive here a divided duty’ 


  her primary allegiance is to  Othello.The fact that Desdemona is questioned about her "duty" reveals that during Elizabethan era women are not considered people in their own right, they had no autonomy and only ever existed in relation to men
• ‘Practices of cunning hell’

  witchcraft
• ‘I do confess the vices of my blood’


  Othello addresses his race, understanding that his position as a Moor is problematic in his courtship of Desdemona. Most intriguing is that he depicts his race in a negative light.
• ‘that i did love the moor to live with him’


  Desdemona also calls Othello the ‘Moor’
• ‘Have we turned Turks’


  in reaction to the violence at the party, Othello himself uses racial beliefs and stereotypes. Shakespeare also shows that there are prejudices even within people themselves, including those who experience racism themselves.
• ‘Haply, for I am black’


  Othello’s paranoid state, despite Desdemona not expressing any concern over his race. Othello’s experience of racism at the hands of other characters is so severe that it is beginning to become internalised, making their marriage unviable. He is being overcome by jealousy and begins to believe that he lacks sophistication and ‘have not those parts of conversation that chambers have’- believes he does not have the conversation of the Venetian elite. Jealousy is preying on the insecure.