Othello by Shakespeare
Othello by William Shakespeare is a popular tragedy.
➤ First Performed – 1604-05
➤ First Printed – 1622
➤ Source of the play – Hecatommithi, a collection of Tales by the Italian author Cinthio
➤ Setting of the play – Venice and in Cyprus
➤ Literary Genre – Tragedy
Characters from Othello
➤ Othello – A general in Venetian military, a noble moor
➤ Bianca – Cassio’s lover
➤ Brabantio – Venetian senator and father of Desdemona
➤ Cassio – Othello’s loyal and most beloved captain
➤ Desdemona – Othello’s wife and daughter of Brabantio
➤ Emilia – Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s maidservant
➤ Iago – Othello’s trusted but jealous
➤ Roderigo – Dissolute Venetian, in love with Desdemona
➤ Duke of Venice
➤ Gratiano – Brabantio’s Brother
➤ Lodovico
➤ Montano
Quotes and Lines from Othello
“For she had eyes and chose me.”
“Men is rage strike those that wish them best.”
“Reputation is an idle and false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.”
“But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve , For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.”
“I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”
“Men should be what they seem.”
“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but degrees?” – Iago
“If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till the have waken’d death!”
“What cannot be saved when fate takes, patience her injury a mockery makes”
“O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!” – Cassio
“This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven.”
“She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.”
“When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb’d that smiles steals something for the thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”
“Demand me nothing: what you know, you know”
“It is the very error of the moon. She comes more nearer earth than she was wont. And makes men mad.”
“There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered.”
Othello Question and Answers
1. “Look to her, Moor, if thou has eyes to see.
She has deceived her father, and may thee.” Who says this and to whom?
(a) Brabantio to Desdemona
(b) Brabantio to Othello
(c) Othello to Brabantio
(d) lago to Othello
Ans. b
2. “One that love not wisely but too well” Who is the speaker?
(a) Othello
(b) Desdemona
(c) Viola
(d) Antony
Ans. a
3. “If after every tempest came such calms, May the winds blow till they have wakened death”
Where do these lines appear?
(a) Othello
(b) Orlando
(c) Duke Orisino
(d) Sebastian
Ans. a
4. Sexual jealousy is a theme in Shakespeare’s :
(a) The Merchant of Venice
(b) The Tempest
(c) Othello
(d) King Lear
Ans. Othello
5. Who said it?
How poor are they that have not patience,
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
(a) Othello
(b) Cassio
(c) lago
(d) Desdemona
Ans. c
6. Who has been termed as motiveless malignity?
(a) Macbeth
(c) lago
(b) Othello
(d) Polonius
Ans. c
7. Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners.’
The above words form the speech of –
(a) Hamlet
(b) lago
(c) Viola
(d) Brutus
Ans. b
