Othello: key quotation sheet (PDF)
PDF, 10 pages, 811 KB. Free, no sign-up, made to be printed.
From the Othello study guide.
How to use this sheet
These are the 10 quotations from the Othello study guide, set out for revision. Part one gives each quotation with a plain-English reading and space for your own notes. Part two prints them again with a word missing from each line, so that you can test yourself.
- Read the quotation aloud twice. Sound helps memory more than staring does.
- In the note space, name one method (a device, a word choice, a feature of the verse) and the effect it has.
- Add one link: to a theme, to another moment in the text, or to a point of context.
- A day later, cover part one and complete part two from memory.
Part one: the quotations
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
Iago · Act 1, Scene 1
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.
Plain English: If my behaviour ever showed my real feelings I would be easy prey. I am not the man I appear to be.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Iago · Act 1, Scene 1
Is tupping your white ewe.
Plain English: At this very moment an old black ram is mating with your white ewe.
Method and effect:
Links to:
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
Othello · Act 1, Scene 3
And I loved her that she did pity them.
Plain English: She fell in love with me because of what I had lived through, and I loved her for feeling for me.
Method and effect:
Links to:
The Moor is of a free and open nature
Iago · Act 1, Scene 3
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so
Plain English: Othello is frank and trusting; he assumes that anyone who looks honest is honest.
Method and effect:
Links to:
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
Iago · Act 3, Scene 3
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
Plain English: Be careful of jealousy, my lord. It is a monster that torments the very person it consumes.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Haply, for I am black
Othello · Act 3, Scene 3
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have
Plain English: Perhaps it is because I am black, and lack the smooth manners of courtiers.
Method and effect:
Links to:
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
Emilia · Act 3, Scene 4
But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster
Begot upon itself, born on itself.
Plain English: Jealous people are not jealous for a reason. They are jealous because they are jealous; it breeds itself.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Let husbands know
Emilia · Act 4, Scene 3
Their wives have sense like them.
Plain English: Husbands should understand that their wives have feelings and appetites just as they do.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Put out the light, and then put out the light.
Othello · Act 5, Scene 2
Plain English: First I will put out this candle, and then I will put out her life.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Then must you speak
Othello · Act 5, Scene 2
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme
Plain English: Describe me as a man who loved unwisely but too much; not jealous by nature, but, once worked upon, utterly confused.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Part two: test yourself
Fill each gap from memory, then check against part one. Mark the ones you missed and come back to them tomorrow.
But I will wear my heart upon my
Iago · Act 1, Scene 1
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.
Even now, now, very now, an old ram
Iago · Act 1, Scene 1
Is your white ewe.
She loved me for the I had passed,
Othello · Act 1, Scene 3
And I her that she did pity them.
The Moor is of a free and open
Iago · Act 1, Scene 3
That men honest that but seem to be so
O, beware, my lord, of !
Iago · Act 3, Scene 3
It is the green-eyed which doth mock
The meat it on.
, for I am black
Othello · Act 3, Scene 3
And have not those soft parts of
That have
They are not ever for the cause,
Emilia · Act 3, Scene 4
But for they’re jealous. It is a monster
Begot upon , born on itself.
Let know
Emilia · Act 4, Scene 3
wives have sense like them.
Put out the , and then put out the light.
Othello · Act 5, Scene 2
Then must you
Othello · Act 5, Scene 2
Of one that loved not , but too well;
Of one not easily , but being wrought,
in the extreme
Next steps
Turn three of these quotations into full paragraphs with the essay planner, and check your method against the close reading toolkit. For a small daily dose of the language, Daily Bard shows one passage each morning with a plain-English reading on the back of the leaf.
A page of Shakespeare, every day.
This resource comes from Daily Bard, an app for iPhone and iPad. Each morning it shows one engraved plate and one passage, exactly as Shakespeare wrote it, with a plain-English reading on the back of the leaf.
Free to download. The Full Edition is a one-time US$11.99: no subscription, no account, no ads, no tracking.
Get it on the App Store: apps.apple.com/app/id6792967225
More free study guides, lesson plans and close readings: dailybard.app