Othello: Sex and Desire

“Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe.” (Iago) Act 1 Scene 1: Iago uses images of bestiality and black/white to present Othello as a sexual beast and Desdemona as pure.
“you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse” (Iago) Act 1 Scene 1: Iago graphically describes Othello as a sexual beast.
“your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.” (Iago) Act 1 Scene 1: Iago compares interracial sex to the devil.
“It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will.” (Iago) Act 1 Scene 3: Iago thinks that sexual desire is not a reason to be emotional.
“when she is sated with his body she will find the error of her choice.” (Iago) Act 1 Scene 3: Iago claims that Desdemona will not stay attracted to Othello.
“Her eye must be fed. And what delight shall she have to look on the devil?” (Iago) Act 2 Scene 1: Iago believes that Desdemona’s sexual appetite will stray elsewhere.
“Now, I do love her too; / Not out of absolute lust” (Iago) Act 2 Scene 1: ambiguity as to whether Iago is attracted to Desdemona
“Come, my dear love, / The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue: / That profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you.” (Othello) Act 2 Scene 3: Othello addresses Desdemona openly about sex.
“He hath not yet made wanton the night with her; and she is sport for Jove.” (Iago) Act 2 Scene 3: Iago objectifies Desdemona.
“I”ll warrant her, full of game.” (Iago) Act 2 Scene 3: Iago compares Desdemona’s sexual appeal to a hunting conquest.
“her appetite shall play the god / With his weak function.” (Iago) Act 2 Scene 3: Iago claims Desdemona to have sexual control over her husband.
“O, curse of marriage! / That we can call these delicate creatures ours / And not their appetites!” (Othello) Act 3 Scene 3: Othello laments that he cannot control Desdemona’s sexual appetite.
“I nothing, but to please his fantasy.” (Emilia) Act 3 Scene 3: Emilia sees herself as no more than an object of fantasy for Iago.
“Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys” (Iago) Act 3 Scene 3: Iago tortures Othello with animalistic images of adultery.
“They are all but stomachs, and we all but food; / They eat us hungerly, and when they are full, / They belch us.” (Emilia) Act 4 Scene 1: Emilia tells Desdemona how men are truly just sexual creatures.
“With her, on her, what you will.” (Iago) Act 4 Scene 1: Iago forces Othello to picture his wife having sex with Cassio.
“Lie with her? Lie on her? We say lie on her when they belie her.” (Othello) Act 4 Scene 1: the image of his wife having sex with Cassio drives Othello into a fit of madness.
“O, thou weed, / Who art so lovely and smell’st so sweet” (Othello) Act 4 Scene 2: Othello is still swayed by his attraction to Desdemona.
“Impudent strumpet!” (Othello) Act 4 Scene 2: Othello insults Desdemona using a term for a sexualised woman.
“Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?” (Desdemona) Act 4 Scene 3: Desdemona asks Emilia if she would cheat on Iago if someone offered her the world.
“Ud’s pity, who would not make her husband a cuckold, to make him a monarch?” (Emilia) Act 4 Scene 3: Emilia sees it as a given that most women would cheat if they were given a big enough reward.
“And have we not affections, / Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?” (Emilia) Act 4 Scene 3: Emilia makes a feminist comment about female sexuality.
“When I have plucked thy rose, / I cannot give it vital growth again, / It needs must wither. I’ll smell it on the tree.” (Othello) Act 5 Scene 2: Othello is attracted to Desdemona even as he is about to kill her.
July 3, 2019