Q: 5a, In what ways does shakespeare make this moment in the

play so dramatic and significant

Shakespeare makes this moment in the play dramatic using

exaggeration, the theme of disrespect, simile, diascope and
monologue. He also makes this moment significant using
symbolism, the theme of uncertainty, foreshadowing and
repetition.

Shakespeare makes this moment dramatic in line 1, where he

says “ heaven mocks itself!” in this moment he says that if
Desdemona really is cheating on him with Cassio the heavens are
a joke. Thus, this moment is dramatic as this is a great
overreaction to the news and furthermore, Shakespeare
portrays his anger towards Cassio and Desdemona as well as his
jealousy of their “affair”. This is a copy of reality as it shows
not only the depth of anger and jealousy but also foreshadows
how dangerous it can be.

Later on, in line 35, Iago says “To have a foolish wife” to Emilia
which is to show how little respect he has to her to even go as
far as calling her foolish, however, he still acknowledges her as
his wife which could imply that their marriage is weak and on
the brink of collapse. Furthermore, in line 39, Emilia claps back
saying “What handkerchief!”Shakespeare uses an exclamation
mark to show the amount of emotion in this moment and how
little Emilia in return respects Iago and lastly in line 46, he says
“A good wench!” not even calling her his wife again but now a
witch implying that before this moment he was acting nice to
get what he wanted and even adding an exclamation mark to
show Iago’s happiness towards the news. This can also be
mirrored to real life and shows how toxic and dramatic some
relationships can be and how manipulative humans can be as well.

Finally in lines 56-65, Iago has a monologue where he shows just

how manipulative and deceitful he is. He describes his
accusations as “trifles light as air” in lines 58, because before
this moment he had no concrete evidence and his accusations
were flat and baseless, Shakespeare does this using simile to
make it dramatic. In addition, he uses Diascope between lines
61-62. Using the word “poison” where he emphasises it and
describes it as “Dangerous conceits in their nature” to imply
that he can now get Othello fully wrapped around his finger
with the poisons he has been spreading to his head. Increasingly
making this moment more dramatic. This can be used to show
how evil some people can be in order to achieve what they want.

Shakespeare makes this moment incredibly significant in lines

15 and 57, where he uses Desdeomona’s Napkin as a symbol of
her love. Where she first gives it to Othello, he describes it as
“too little” in line 15, implying Desdemona’s love for him was not
enough to remove his “headache” which were really his beliefs
of her and Cassio’s affair, Shakespeare does this to make this
moment significant as it is where Desdemona can’t see eye to
eye to Othello as he has reached the point of no return. When
it is used again in line 57, we see Iago use it to imply he had
stolen the token of Desdemona’s love from Othello and given it
to Cassio to make it seem like they are in an affair. This was
used to show how putting too much love into one thing can be
made to be manipulative against you.

In the end of lines 22 and 23, we see Shakespeare use dashes

to show the conflict in Emilia’s mind as she decides whether to
give her napkin to her husband or not as she knows it will run
her. He does this because she is afraid of Iago’s true
intentions. Thus, this is used to portray the theme of
Uncertainty in this part of the play and how much she fears her
husband. This fear is later proven when Iago says “Burn like
mines of sulphur” implying that everything and everyone around
him will slowly crumble in front of him not that he has the
handkerchief foreshadowing the future and implying his plans
are finally complete. Lastly, he uses multiple conjunctions at the
beginning of each line between 69-71 to imply how hard he was
trying to deceive Othello and showing how well he can cover his
true intentions. Showing how evil the human mind can be.

Shakespeare makes this moment dramatic and significant to lap

a path for all the future scenes of Othello and to finally show
the audience how manipulative Iago is.