“confessions – handkerchiefs – confessions” | Othello’s blank verse breaking down to prose |
“Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light” | Iago’s soliloquy shows him using blank verse rather than prose as he schemes |
“I am worth no worse a place” | Iago; link between language and class, i.e. prose indicates lower class |
“Come, be a man. Drown thy self? Drown cats and blind puppies” | Example of Iago using prose to manipulate Roderigo |
“Othello’s grand verse breaks down into jagged, discorded prose. Iago’s prose becomes triumphant verse” | Fintan O’Toole (critic) |
“Farewell, the tranquil mind! Farewell content” | Othello wishing his mental functions “farewell”; link between loss of senses and loss of blank verse |
“work on, my medicine” | Iago using blank verse on his own, tormenting Othello without Othello aware |
“My lord is not my lord” | Desdemona as perceptive |
Prose Versus Blank Verse – Othello (Shakespeare)
August 7, 2019