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Loves Desdemona
"She thanked me, and bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, I should but teach him how to tell my story, and that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake, She loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them. This is the witchcraft I have used" (Act 1 Scene 3). -
Won't let love get in the way of General
"Nor to comply with heat and proper satisfaction, but to be free and bounteous to her mind. And heaven defend your good souls that you think I will your serious and great business scant for she is with me... and all indign and base adversities make head against my estimation" (Act 1 Scene 3). -
Starts to believe Iago
"This fellow's of exceeding honesty...If i do prove her haggard, though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings, I'd whistle her off and let her down the wind to prey at fortune...She's gone, I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her" (Act 3 Scene 3). -
Thinks poorly of marriage
"O curse of marriage, that we can call these delicate creatures our and not heir appetites! I had rather be a toad and live upon the vapor of a dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for others' uses. Yet 'tis the plague of great ones; Prerogatived are they less than the base. 'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death. Even then this forked plauge is fated to us when we do quicken" (Act 3 Scene 3). -
Unstable
"Lie with her? Lie on her? We say 'lie on her' when they belie her. Lie with her-that's fulsome! Handkerchief-confessions-handkerchief. To confess and be hanged for his labor. First to be hanged and then to confess-I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shakes me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips-is't possible> Confess-handkerchied-O devil! [Falls into trance]" (Act 4 Scene 1). -
Changes attitude towards wife
Lodovico: "May be the letter moved him. For, as I think, they do command him home, Desputing Cassio in his government."
Desdemona: "I am glad on't."
Othello: "Indeed?"
Desdemona: "My lord?"
Othello: "I am glad to see you mad."
Desdemona: "Why, sweet Othello!"
Othello: [striking her] Devil!
Desdemona: "I have not deserved this."
(Act 4 Scene 1) -
Baffled on his feelings
"It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul...Yet I'll not shed her blood, nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, and smooth as monumental alabaster. Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men...One more, one more. Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee and love thee after...I must weep, but they are cruel tears" (Act 5 Scene 2). -
Kills Desdemona
Othello: "Out, strumpet! Weep'st thou for him to my face?"
Desdemona: "O banish me, my lord, but kill me not!"
Othello: "Down, strumpet!"
Desdemona: "Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight." ...
Othello: "It is too late. [He smothers her]".
(Act 5 Scene 2) -
Regrets his decision
"She's dead. 'Tis like she comes to speak of Casio's death. The noise was here. Ha, no more moving? Still as the grave...I think she stirs again. No. Waht's best to do? If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife. My wife, my wife! What wife? I have no wife. O insupportable! O heavy hour! Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse of sun and moon, and that th' affrighted glob should yawn at alteration" (Act 5 Scene 2). -
Kills himself
"Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well; of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand, like the base Judean, threw a pearl away...[He stabs himself] I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this, killing myself, to die upon a kiss [He dies]" (Act 5 Scene 2).