| “ignorant of European women” | Bradley about Othello |
| “Desdemona has no character of her own” | Sinfield about women |
| “I’ll intermingle everything he does with Cassio’s suit” | Desdemona creates her own downfall because he is so eager to commend cassio to Othello |
| “I think this tale would win my daughter too” | Duke is swayed to think Othello did not use magic. |
| “That I did love the Moor to live with him” | Desdemona is determined to remain with Othello |
| “made you to suspect me with the Moor” | Emilia alludes to the accusation that she had an affair with Othello |
| “My wayward husband hath a hundred times Woo’d me to steal it” | Emilia says Iago has often asked her for the handkerchief |
| “She so loves the token” | Emilia acknowledges that Desdemona would want the handkerchief back |
| “They are not ever jealous for cause” | Emilia about jealousy |
| “Send for the man, and ask him” | Desdemona has faith that Cassio will back her up |
| “My lord” | Even when she is dying Des is respectful. |
| “Our great captain’s captain” | Cassio about Desdemona’s power |
| “Our general’s wife is now the general” | Iago about Desdemona’s power |
| “simultaneously exalts and degrades women” | Mary-Beth Rose about women |
| “Blush’d at herself” | Brabantio misunderstands his daughter |
| “She holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested” | Iago predicts how Desdemona will act |
| “If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it to the last article” | Desdemona acts how Iago predicted |
| “To put my father in impatient thoughts by being in his eye” | Desdemona is very considerate of her father (or is she being sarcastic?) |
| “I do perceive here a divided duty” | Desdemona is measured and reasonable in explaining herself. |
| “Her eye must be fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the devil” | Iago says to Roderigo that Desdemona won’t be happy with Othello for long |
| “She was too fond of her most filthy bargain” | Emilia is racist towards Othello in her anger |
| “They are all but stomachs and we all but food: they eat us hungrily, and when they are full, They belch us”. | Emilia’s disgusting imagery about men |
| “You are a fool” | Iago is rude to Emilia |
| “It does abhor me now I speak the word” | Desdemona can’t say the word whore |
| “nobody; I myself” / “Commend me to my kind lord!” | Desdemona still loves Othello to the end |
| “pray heaven it be state matters, as you think” | Desdemona to Iago about Othello’s recent change in mood |
| “I know thou didst not, thou’rt not such a villain” | Emilia can’t believe her husband is that bad |
| “tis proper I obey him, but not now–“ | Emilia in the end stands up to her husband |
| “I have not deserv’d this” | Desdemona does attempt to assert herself |
| “If I do die before thee, pr’ythee shroud me in one of those same sheets” | Desdemona appears to predict her death |
| “there be women do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?” | Desdemona can’t believe that any woman would stray. |
| “I am no strumpet, but of life as honest as you that thus abuse me” | Bianca says that her love for Cassio is more honest than Emilia’s love for Iago. |
| Bianca is perhaps more honest, in one sense of the word, than Emilia” | Kenneth Muir says about Bianca |
| “the essential unknowableness of the female to the male” | Orlin suggests that the ambiguity of Desdemona reflects |
Key Quotes: Women in Othello
July 12, 2019