| “And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms” (I.ii.9). | Alliteration (s) |
| “To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on” (I.i.123-127). | Alliteration (m) |
| “Because we come to do you service and you think we are ruffians, you’ll have YOUR DAUGHTER COVERED WITH A BARBARY HORSE and you’ll have your nephews neigh to you, you’ll have coursers for cousins and jennets for germans” (I.i.123-127). (Calling them horses/animals) | Metaphor-Desdemona will be underneath Othello having sex |
| “Even now, now very now an OLD BLACK RAM IS TUPPING YOUR WHITE EWE” Othello and Desdemona (racist, symbolizes Des being pure. Ewe=female sheep) | Metaphor-Othello is having sex with your pure daughter |
| “By Janus, I think no” (I.ii38). (Janus- a Roman God with two faces) | Allusion to a Roman God with two faces |
| “Sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the Devil bid you” (I.i.122-123). | Allusion to God and the devil |
| “‘Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrously pitiful” (I.ii.186). (Othello) | Oxymoron |
| “Look to her, Moor, if thor hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father and may thee” (I.iii.333-334). (foreshadowing deception) | Foreshadowing of Desdemona lying to her husband |
| “The bloody book of law” (I.iii. 80-81). | Personification and Alliteration |
| “It is silliness to live when to live is forment and then we have a prescription to die when death is our physician.” (I.iii.350-353). | Personification using life and death |
| “I know my price, I am worth no worse a place” (Act 1 Scene 1, 13) | Motivation for Iago’s anger |
| And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets ‘has done my office” (Act 1 Scene 3, 430) | Motivation for Iago to get back at Cassio for sleeping with his wife |
| “I am not what I am” (Act 1 Scene 1, 72) | Paradox-Iago is two-faced |
| “The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief;” (I. iii. 238-239 | Paradox–Iago has been “robbed” of his position, so he’ll steal Cassio’s position. |
| “Honest Iago” (I.ii.336). | Epithet and oxymoron |
| “A man he is of honest and trust” (I.iii.331). (Othello about Iago) | Dramatic Irony |
| “Your son-in-law is far more fair than black” (I.iii. 333) (Duke to Brabantio) | Pun on the word “black”. |
Othello Literary Devices
August 8, 2019