Othello (OCR A Level English Literature): Exam Questions

‘Othello is jealous long before Iago says anything to him.’

Using your knowledge of the play as a whole, show how far you agree with this view of the play Othello.

Remember to support your answer with reference to different interpretations.

[15 marks]

Discuss the following passage from Act 1, Scene 3, exploring Shakespeare’s use of language and dramatic effects.

OTHELLO

Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,

My very noble and approv’d good masters:

That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter,

It is most true; true, I have married her—

The very head and front of my offending

Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,

And little blest with the soft phrase of peace;

For since these arms of mine had seven years’ pith,

Till now some nine moons wasted, they have us’d

Their dearest action in the tented field;

And little of this great world can I speak

More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;

And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver

Of my whole course of love – what drugs, what charms,

What conjuration, and what mighty magic,

For such proceedings am I charg’d withal,

I won his daughter.

BRABANTIO

A maiden never bold,

Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion

Blush’d at herself; and she – in spite of nature,

Of years, of country, credit, every thing—

To fall in love with what she fear’d to look on!

It is a judgment maim’d and most imperfect

That will confess perfection so could err

Against all rules of nature, and must be driven

To find out practices of cunning hell,

Why this should be. I therefore vouch again

That with some mixtures powerful o’er the blood,

Or with some dram conjur’d to this effect,

He wrought upon her.

DUKE

To vouch this is no proof—

Without more wider and more overt test

Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods

Of modern seeming do prefer against him.

FIRST SENATOR

But, Othello, speak.

Did you by indirect and forced courses

Subdue and poison this young maid’s affections?

Or came it by request, and such fair question

As soul to soul affordeth?

OTHELLO

I do beseech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

And let her speak of me before her father.

If you do find me foul in her report,

The trust, the office, I do hold of you

Not only take away, but let your sentence

Even fall upon my life.

DUKE

Fetch Desdemona hither.

OTHELLO

Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place.

[ Exeunt Iago and Attendants ]

And, till she come, as faithful as to heaven

I do confess the vices of my blood,

So justly to your grave ears I’ll present

How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love,

And she in mine.

DUKE

Say it, Othello.

OTHELLO

Her father lov’d me, oft invited me;

Still question’d me the story of my life

From year to year – the battles, sieges, fortunes,

That I have pass’d.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days

To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it;

Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,

Of moving accidents by flood and field;

Of hairbreadth scapes i’ th’ imminent deadly breach;

Of being taken by the insolent foe

And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,

And portance in my travel’s history;

Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,

It was my hint to speak – such was the process;

And of the Cannibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads

Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear

[15 marks]

‘Othello is always an outsider in Venice, whatever his rank.’

Using your knowledge of the play as a whole, show how far you agree with this view of the play Othello.

Remember to support your answer with reference to different interpretations.

[15 marks]

Discuss the following passage from Act 2, Scene 1, exploring Shakespeare’s use of language and dramatic effects.

RODERIGO

I cannot believe that in her; she’s full of most blest condition.

IAGO

Blest fig’s end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes. If she had been blest, she would never have lov’d the Moor. Blest pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand?

Didst not mark that?

RODERIGO

Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy.

IAGO

Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their lips that their breaths embrac’d together. Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! When these mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise, th’ incorporate conclusion. Pish! But, sir, be you rul’d by me; I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; for your command, I’ll lay’t upon you. Cassio knows you not; I’ll not be far from you. Do you find some occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline, or from what other course you please, which the time shall more favourably minister.

RODERIGO

Well.

IAGO

Sir, he’s rash, and very sudden in choler, and haply with his truncheon may strike at you; provoke him that he may; for even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny, whose qualification shall come into no true taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by the means I shall then have to prefer them; and the impediment most profitably remov’d, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity.

RODERIGO

I will do this, if you can bring it to any opportunity.

IAGO

I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel. I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell.

RODERIGO

Adieu.

[ Exit ]

IAGO

That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;

That she loves him, ’tis apt and of great credit.

The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,

Is of a constant, loving, noble nature;

And I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona

A most dear husband. Now I do love her too;

Not out of absolute lust, though per-adventure

I stand accountant for as great a sin,

But partly led to diet my revenge,

For that I do suspect the lustful Moor

Hath leap’d into my seat; the thought whereof

Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards;

And nothing can nor shall content my soul

Till I am even’d with him, wife for wife;

Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor

At least into a jealousy so strong

That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,

If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash

For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,

I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,

Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb—

For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too;

Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me,

For making him egregiously an ass,

And practising upon his peace and quiet

Even to madness. ’Tis here, but yet confus’d:

Knavery’s plain face is never seen till us’d.

[15 marks]

‘Iago succeeds because everyone in the play wants to be deceived.’

Using your knowledge of the play as a whole, show how far you agree with this view of the play Othello.

Remember to support your answer with reference to different interpretations.

[15 marks]

Discuss the following passage from Act 2, Scene 3, exploring Shakespeare’s use of language and dramatic effects.

IAGO

What, are you hurt, Lieutenant?

CASSIO

Ay, past all surgery.

IAGO

Marry, God forbid!

CASSIO

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!

IAGO

As I am an honest man, I had thought you had receiv’d some bodily wound; there is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. You have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! there are more ways to recover the General again; you are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion.

Sue to him again, and he’s yours.

CASSIO

I will rather sue to be despis’d than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk! And speak parrot! And squabble, swagger, swear! And discourse fustian with one’s own shadow! O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!

IAGO

What was he that you follow’d with your sword? What had he done to you?

CASSIO

I know not.

IAGO

Is’t possible?

CASSIO

I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! That we should with joy, pleasance, revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

IAGO

Why, but you are now well enough. How come you thus recovered?

CASSIO

It hath pleas’d the devil drunkenness to give place to the devil wrath. One unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.

IAGO

Come, you are too severe a moraller. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not so befall’n; but since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.

CASSIO

I will ask him for my place again: he shall tell me I am a drunkard. Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is unblest, and the ingredience is a devil.

IAGO

Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well us’d; exclaim no more against it. And, good Lieutenant, I think you think I love you.

CASSIO

I have well approv’d it, sir. I drunk!

IAGO

You or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. I’ll tell you what you shall do. Our General’s wife is now the General – I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted and given up himself to the contemplation, mark, and denotement, of her parts and graces – confess yourself freely to her; importune her help to put you in your place again: she is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.

[15 marks]

‘In Othello a good name is worth more than a good character.’

Using your knowledge of the play as a whole, show how far you agree with this view of the play Othello.

Remember to support your answer with reference to different interpretations.

[15 marks]