Traps

Traps

Shakespeare uses the theme of traps as a dramatic device by showing how easy it is for Iago to manipulate other characters that who are at first showed to be strong but have hamartias that lead to their death or peril.
How Iago traps Othello
1. He convinces him that Desdemona is cheating with Cassio
  1. 'Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.'- Othello has watched them together and thinks they are cheating
2. The use of the handkerchief
  1. 'but if she lost it Or made gift of it, my father’s eye Should hold her loathèd and his spirits should hunt After new fancies.'- Dramatic irony, Desdemona ha slost the handkerchief
How Iago traps Emilia
1. He gets her to marry him
  1. 'Had tongue at will and yet was never loud'- This is not a characteristic of Emilia
    Annotations:
    - Act 2, scene 1
2. She brings him the handkerchief
  1. 'My wayward husband hath a hundred times Wooed me to steal it, but she so loves the token'- Iago has begged Emilia to steal the handkerchief as a token of his love
    Annotations:
    - Act 3, scene 3
How Iago traps Rodergio
1. He convinces him to keep giving him money and jewels
  1. 'Put money in thy purse'- Help me to help you
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 3
2. He tells him that Desdemona will be his
  1. 'She must change for youth. When she is sated with his body she will find the errors of her choice. '- Desdemona will leave Othello for a younger man
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 3
3. Uses him to tell Brabantio
  1. 'Most grave Brabantio, In simple and pure soul I come to you'- Iago uses Roderigo to tell Brabantio of Desdemona's marriage to Othello
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
How Iago traps Cassio
1. He gets Cassio drunk to make him lose his title of Lieutenant
  1. 'Come, lieutenant, I have a stoup of wine, and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to the health of black Othello'- Let's drink to toast Othello
    Annotations:
    - Act 2, scene 3
How Iago traps himself
1. He is trapped in his plan as he could have stopped his schemes but refuses to
  1. 'If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me.'- He never thought that he would not be promoted so did not need to carry out his revenge plan
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
How Othello's epilepsy traps him
1. He is bound by his mental state
  1. '(falls in a trance) '- His epilepsy combined with his jealousy make shim physically week
    Annotations:
    - Act 3, scene 4
How Othello's blood traps him
1. He is seen as being worthless and lower-class because of his skin colour, even though he is a high ranking army official
  1. 'Why, there’s no remedy. 'Tis the curse of service. Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to th' first'- You get promoted for being liked and not for your skill
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
2. It was typical of the time to be a slave if you were black
  1. 'you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse. You’ll have your nephews neigh to you. You’ll have coursers for cousins and gennets for germans'- Use of animal imagery to show how mixed races couples were frowned upon
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
3. He is seen throughout the play as having witchcraft
  1. 'Is there not charms By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abused?'- Desdemona must be under a magic spell in order to marry Othello
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
How Desdemona's blood traps her
1. She is bound to her father before her marriage to Othello
  1. 'In honest plainness thou hast heard me say My daughter is not for thee'- he is to choose who she can marry
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
2. She has turned down many suitors of the same race
  1. 'Not to affect many proposèd matches Of her own clime, complexion, and degree, Whereto we see in all things nature tends'- She has turned down people of her own race
3. She has defied her expectations by marrying Othello becasue he is black
  1. 'How didst thou know ’twas she?—Oh, she deceives me Past thought!—What said she to you?—Get more tapers'- Desdemona has tricked Brabantio by marrying Othello
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
  2. 'Oh, heaven, how got she out? Oh, treason of the blood!'- His own flesh and blood has betrayed him
    Annotations:
    - Act 1, scene 1
How men in context trap women
1. Women were seen as being inferior to men
  1. 'Or say they strike us, Or scant our former having in despite.'- It is acceptable to physically harm them
    Annotations:
    - Act 4, scene 3
2. They were seen as being belongings or possessions to their father or husband
  1. 'Then let them use us well, else let them know, The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.'- Men must learn to treat women as humans
    Annotations:
    - Act 4, scene 3
3. Women were housewives
  1. 'Say that they slack their duties/And pour our treasures into foreign laps, Or else break out in peevish jealousies'- Women were used for pleasure and reproduction so could not sustain higher level jobs
    Annotations:
    - Act 4, scene 3
4. Shakespeare shows his feminism through Emilia
  1. 'Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them. They see and smell And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have'- Women are the same as men
    Annotations:
    - Act 4, scene 3
5. Desdemona is typical of the time by still supporting Othello
  1. 'Dost thou in conscience think—tell me, Emilia— That there be women do abuse their husbands In such gross kind'- She doesn't think that there are women that cheat on their husbands
    Annotations:
    - Act 4, scene 3

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