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Othello

Answer for Question 2
At the beginning of the play, Othello has such confidence in his skill with language that he can claim that he is "rude" in speech, knowing that no one will possibly believe him (I.iii.81). He then dazzles his audience with a forty-line speech that effortlessly weaves words such as "hair-breadth" and "Anthropophagi" into blank verse lines. But in the moments when the pressure applied by Iago is particularly extreme, Othello's language deteriorates into fragmented, hesitant, and incoherent syntax. Throughout Act III, scene iii, Othello speaks in short, clipped exclamations and half-sentences such as "Ha!" (III.iii.169), "O misery!" (III.iii.175), and "Dost thou say so?" (III.iii.209). There is also notable repetition, as in "Not a jot, not a jot" (III.iii.219), "O, monstrous, monstrous!" (III.iii.431), "O, blood, blood, blood!" (III.iii.455), and "Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her!" (III.iii.478).
Such moments, when Othello shifts from his typical see...

Posted by: Shelia Olander

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