Scene 3 AO1 What happens in this scene Look at your notes and quickly summarise Act 4 Scene 3 Othello tells Desdemona to prepare for bed Emilia says she wishes Desdemona had never met Othello but Desdemona says she still loves him ID: 474869
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Slide1
Act 4,
Scene
3
AO1: What happens in this scene?
Look at your notes and quickly summarise.Slide2
Act 4 Scene
3Othello tells Desdemona to prepare for bedEmilia says she wishes Desdemona had never met Othello, but Desdemona says she still loves himDesdemona feels she will die soon and sings ‘The Willow Song’, which is stuck in her head – it is a song of melancholy and resignationDesdemona and Emilia discuss adultery Slide3
AO2:
Emilia and DesdemonaDESDEMONA He hath commanded me to go to bed, And bade me to dismiss you. EMILIA Dismiss me! DESDEMONA It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,. Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu: We must not now displease him. EMILIA I would you had never seen him! DESDEMONA So would not I my love doth so approve him, That even his stubbornness, his cheques, his frowns-- Prithee, unpin me,--have grace and favour in them. EMILIA I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed. DESDEMONA All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds! If I do die before thee prithee, shroud me In one of those same sheets.Lines 11-23:What does this opening tell the audience?Slide4
AO2:
Emilia and DesdemonaDESDEMONA He hath commanded me to go to bed, And bade me to dismiss you. EMILIA Dismiss me! DESDEMONA It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,. Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu: We must not now displease him. EMILIA I would you had never seen him! DESDEMONA So would not I my love doth so approve him, That even his stubbornness, his cheques, his frowns-- Prithee, unpin me,--have grace and favour in them. EMILIA I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed. DESDEMONA All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds! If I do die before thee prithee, shroud me In one of those same sheets.Lines 11-23:What does this opening tell the audience?Desdemona still loves and obeys her husband. Desdemona is resigned to her fate. ‘All’s one’ means that it does not matter what she does. Her language seems fatalistic.Emilia feels differently.“I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.”
In the last scene, Desdemona asked Emilia to “lay on my bed my wedding sheets”. To get good marks in the exam, you need to be able to consider different interpretations of details like this. (AO5) Is Desdemona preparing for death? Or is she trying to win back Othello by reminding him of his wedding night? Slide5
AO2:
The Willow Song and other omensThere are several bad omens in this scene. We’ve already heard Desdemona talk of being ‘shrouded’ in her bed sheets, foreshadowing her imminent death. As she sings the Willow Song, she hears a knocking:“My mother had a maid call'd Barbary: She was in love, and he she loved proved madAnd did forsake her: she had a song of 'willow;' An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune, And she died singing it: that song to-night Will not go from my mind; I have much to do,But to go hang my head all at one side, And sing it like poor Barbary. Prithee, dispatch.”
“Hark! who is't that knocks?”Line 48:… which just turns out to be the wind. And then she says:Lines 25-31:The song itself is stuck in her head: Line 53:“Mine eyes itch.”Slide6
AO2: The Willow Song
The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore treeSing all a green willow: Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,Sing willow, willow, willow: The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans; Sing willow, willow, willow; Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones; Sing willow, willow, willow; Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon: -- Sing all a green willow must be my garland.Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve, --I called my love false love; but what said he then? Sing willow, willow, willow: If I court more women, you'll couch with more men!The song foreshadows Desdemona’s terrible fate: the words of the song refer to accusations of unfaithfulness, with the ‘poor soul’ of the song sitting and weeping by the water. She is able to ‘soften the stones’ with her tears, and murmurs her moans.Desdemona, however, has not been able to soften Othello’s heart of stone and the her moans and murmurs will be made on her death bed.Slide7
AO3: The Willow Song
Desdemona only has time to sing two verses before she breaks off to talk to Emilia but Shakespeare’s audience would have been familiar with the ending of the original ballad, which had existed in many versions before this one, and they would have known that it foretold tragedy.The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore treeSing all a green willow: Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,Sing willow, willow, willow: The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans; Sing willow, willow, willow; Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones; Sing willow, willow, willow; Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon: -- Sing all a green willow must be my garland.Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve, --I called my love false love; but what said he then? Sing willow, willow, willow: If I court more women, you'll couch with more men!Slide8
AO3: The Willow Song
The willow tree is a traditional symbol for lost or unrequited love, especially for women deserted by men. In Hamlet, Ophelia falls out of a willow tree and drowns after Hamlet deserts her. In Romeo and Juliet, the love-sick Romeo is seen in a sycamore grove, so perhaps (in Shakespeare at least) the sycamore tree can be linked with forsaken love. In Scotland, sycamores had a more sinister purpose: they were used to hang enemies from.Slide9
Desdemona is not trying to fight her death – she is accepting of it.
She seems like a totally different woman than the one who stood up to her father and the Venetian nobles. Desdemona is suddenly depicted as being meek; this sudden shift in her character is strange.Her character is parallel to that of Ophelia; both are good, virtuous, obedient, but both are subjected to tragic fates because of their own innocence. Desdemona's fate is unfair and unearned, yet she is the martyr of the play.AO2: Desdemona’s character developmentWhy do you think Desdemona’s character changes so suddenly? Is it important to have a passive, accepting victim for Othello’s rage? Slide10
In this scene, the audience is invited to compare the two female characters as they discuss men and love. Read lines 54-98 on the handout and annotate to answer the question below:
How does Shakespeare present the two women and their attitudes towards men and love? Consider:The language usedWhy Shakespeare might present the women in this wayAny AO3 that might be significant when considering audience response Slide11
DESDEMONA
Dost thou in conscience think, -- tell me, Emilia, -- That there be women do abuse their husbands In such gross kind? EMILIA There be some such, no question. DESDEMONA Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? EMILIA Why, would not you? DESDEMONA No, by this heavenly light! EMILIA Nor I neither by this heavenly light; I might do't as well i' the dark. DESDEMONA Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? EMILIA The world's a huge thing: it is a great price. For a small vice. DESDEMONA In troth, I think thou wouldst not. EMILIA In troth, I think I should; and undo't when I had done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition; but for the whole world,--why, who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for't. DESDEMONA Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong For the whole world. Desdemona seems like a hopeless romantic when compared to Emilia’s down-to-earth attitude.Emilia suggests adultery is a ‘small vice’.… but she qualifies this by saying she wouldn’t do it for a small thing, but for ‘the whole world’. AO3: A ‘joint ring’ is a promise of marriage. In Elizabethan times, a wedding ring was a symbol of marriage, but also of the wife’s chastity. Codes of sexual conduct were different for men and women.AO1: Emilia takes this seriously, as her outrage at Othello’s accusations show us. It is important that we see Emilia as a virtuous – if practical – woman as she is to be Desdemona’s defender after she is dead. It is appropriate that it is she, a woman, who accuses Desdemona’s male abusers. Slide12
EMILIA
Why the wrong is but a wrong i' the world: and having the world for your labour, tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right. DESDEMONA I do not think there is any such woman. EMILIA Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would store the world they played for. But I do think it is their husbands' faults If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties, And pour our treasures into foreign laps, Or else break out in peevish jealousies, Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us, Or scant our former having in despite; Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace, Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have. What is it that they do When they change us for others? Is it sport? I think it is: and doth affection breed it? I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs? It is so too: and have not we affections, Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have? Then let them use us well: else let them know, The ills we do, their ills instruct us so. This is a realistic – if rather pessimistic – view of marriage. Many of Emilia’s ideas will seem familiar to a modern audience. Shakespeare gives so much time to this discussion in order to give Emilia a dramatic significance and voice – she will soon become the voice of the audience, expressing their horror when Othello’s crime and Iago’s lies are revealed.It also contrasts her favourably with her unfaithful husband – she is a servant who works hard to support her mistress.Slide13
“let
husbands know, their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell, and have their palates both for sweet and sour, just as their husbands have” 1. This quote suggests that women too have desire. Is this one of the reasons Othello is angry at Desdemona? 2. What evidence of having her own ideas and opinions, independent of Othello’s own, has Desdemona shown?3. Does Othello respect women as individuals?