Brian+L+Othello

Brian L.

In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello, Shakespeare uses the animal motif to emphasize humans acting like animals because of real life experiences with people not acting like people. “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/ is tupping your white ewe.” This quote shows this motif because they are dehumanizing Othello and Desdemona, by saying that they are animals. They refer to them as animals, ecause they are probably doing something so unthinkable to her father that he would think of them as animals. Even though she is his daughter, he thinks she is an animal because of what she is doing with Othello, who is also animal in his mind



“Come on, come on! You are pictures out of door, bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchens, saints in your injuries, devils being offended, players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds. (act 2 sc 1 lines 122-125 This relates to my thesis because Iago is talking about women. And how women are just like animals. I said that animals are used in this play to make humans seem less human and more like animals. This is exactly what Iago does. He states that they are fake in everything that they do. Iago hates women, and shows it by saying this, he thinks they are only good for sexual pleasures.