Motifs in Othello

Motifs In Othello
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform
the texts major themes.
Sight and Blindness

When Desdemona asks to be allowed to accompany Othello to Cyprus, she says that she saw
Othellos visage in his mind, / And to his honours and his valiant parts / Did I my soul and fortunes
consecrate (I.iii. 2 5 0 2 5 2 ). Othellos blackness, his visible difference from everyone around him, is
of little importance to Desdemona: she has the power to see him for what he is in a way that even
Othello himself cannot. Desdemonas line is one of many references to different kinds of sight in the
play. Earlier in Act I, scene iii, a senator suggests that the Turkish retreat to Rhodes is a pageant /
To keep us in false gaze (I.iii.1 9 2 0 ). The beginning of Act II consists entirely of people staring out
to sea, waiting to see the arrival of ships, friendly or otherwise. Othello, though he demands ocular
proof (III.iii.3 6 5 ), is frequently convinced by things he does not see: he strips Cassio of his position
as lieutenant based on the story Iago tells; he relies on Iagos story of seeing Cassio wipe his beard
with Desdemonas handkerchief (III.iii.4 3 7 4 4 0 ); and he believes Cassio to be dead simply because
he hears him scream. After Othello has killed himself in the final scene, Lodovico says to Iago, Look
on the tragic loading of this bed. / This is thy work. The object poisons sight. / Let it be hid (V.ii. 3 7 3
3 7 5 ). The action of the play depends heavily on characters not seeing things: Othello accuses his
wife although he never sees her infidelity, and Emilia, although she watches Othello erupt into a rage
about the missing handkerchief, does not figuratively see what her husband has done.
Plants
Iago is strangely preoccupied with plants. His speeches to Roderigo in particular make extensive
and elaborate use of vegetable metaphors and conceits. Some examples are: Our bodies are our
gardens, to which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop
and weed up thyme . . . the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills (I.iii. 3 1 7 3 2 2 );
Though other things grow fair against the sun, / Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe
(II.iii.3 4 9 3 5 0 ); And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand, / Cry O sweet creature!, then
kiss me hard, / As if he plucked kisses up by the roots, / That grew upon my lips (III.iii. 4 2 5 4 2 8 ).
The first of these examples best explains Iagos preoccupation with the plant metaphor and how it
functions within the play. Characters in this play seem to be the product of certain inevitable, natural
forces, which, if left unchecked, will grow wild. Iago understands these natural forces particularly
well: he is, according to his own metaphor, a good gardener, both of himself and of others.
Many of Iagos botanical references concern poison: Ill pour this pestilence into his ear (II.iii.3 3 0 );
The Moor already changes with my poison. / Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons, / . . . /
. . . Not poppy nor mandragora / Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world / Shall ever medicine thee to
that sweet sleep (III.iii.3 2 9 3 3 6 ). Iago cultivates his conceits so that they become lethal poisons
and then plants their seeds in the minds of others. The organic way in which Iagos plots consume
the other characters and determine their behavior makes his conniving, human evil seem like a force
of nature. That organic growth also indicates that the minds of the other characters are fertile ground
for Iagos efforts.
Animals
Iago calls Othello a Barbary horse, an old black ram, and also tells Brabanzio that his daughter
and Othello are making the beast with two backs (I.i. 117 118 ). In Act I, scene iii, Iago tells
Roderigo, Ere I would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I would change my
humanity with a baboon (I.iii.3 1 2 3 1 3 ). He then remarks that drowning is for cats and blind
puppies (I.iii.3 3 0 3 3 1 ). Cassio laments that, when drunk, he is by and by a fool, and presently a
beast! (II.iii.2 8 4 2 8 5 ). Othello tells Iago, Exchange me for a goat / When I shall turn the business
of my soul / To such exsufflicate and blowed surmises (III.iii. 1 8 4 1 8 6 ). He later says that [a]
horned mans a monster and a beast (IV.i.5 9 ). Even Emilia, in the final scene, says that she will
play the swan, / And die in music (V.ii.2 5 4 2 5 5 ). Like the repeated references to plants, these
references to animals convey a sense that the laws of nature, rather than those of society, are the
primary forces governing the characters in this play. When animal references are used with regard to
Othello, as they frequently are, they reflect the racism both of characters in the play and of
Shakespeares contemporary audience. Barbary horse is a vulgarity particularly appropriate in the
mouth of Iago, but even without having seen Othello, the Jacobean audience would have known
from Iagos metaphor that he meant to connote a savage Moor.
Hell, Demons, and Monsters

Iago tells Othello to beware of jealousy, the green-eyed monster which doth mock/ The meat it
feeds on (III.iii.1 7 0 1 7 1 ). Likewise, Emilia describes jealousy as dangerously and uncannily selfgenerating, a monster / Begot upon itself, born on itself (III.iv.1 5 6 1 5 7 ). Imagery of hell and
damnation also recurs throughout Othello, especially toward the end of the play, when Othello
becomes preoccupied with the religious and moral judgment of Desdemona and himself. After he
has learned the truth about Iago, Othello calls Iago a devil and a demon several times in Act V,
scene ii. Othellos earlier allusion to some monster in [his] thought ironically refers to Iago
(III.iii.111 ). Likewise, his vision of Desdemonas betrayal is monstrous, monstrous! (III.iii. 4 3 1 ).
Shortly before he kills himself, Othello wishes for eternal spiritual and physical torture in hell, crying
out, Whip me, ye devils, / . . . / . . . roast me in sulphur, / Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
(V.ii.2 8 4 2 8 7 ). The imagery of the monstrous and diabolical takes over where the imagery of
animals can go no further, presenting the jealousy-crazed characters not simply as brutish, but as
grotesque, deformed, and demonic.

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Motifs In Othello

Sight and Blindness

Hell, Demons, and Monsters

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