Act 3 Scene 3• Desdemona promises Cassio that she will help him• Iago notices Cassio leave Desdemona’s room: “Ha!

I like it not” (Draws attention to Cassio’s suspicious exit)

• Desdemona pleads for Cassio’s job back• Iago drops more hints about Cassio but insists he

is honest “Men should be what they seem” (Irony!)

• “Good name in man or woman, is the jewel of their souls” – Saying reputation is important, unlike in the last scene when he said the opposite!

• Warns Othello of jealousy: “Beware my lord of jealousy, it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”

Iago’s wife Emilia picks up Desdemona’s dropped handkerchief – “her first remembrance from the Moor” mentioning Iago has asked her “ a hundred times to steal it”

Act 3 Scene 3• Othello assures Iago he is not a

jealous man and he is confident that Desdemona is faithful

• Iago warns him to watch Desdemona to Cassio & that she is capable of deception: Remember, she lied to her father in order to marry Othello!

• Emilia hands the handkerchief over to Iago

• Iago: “I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin and let him find it. Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ”

• Othello is convinced of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness – but demands hard evidence:

“Make me to see’t”• Othello easily wracked with

suspicions:“I think my wife be honest, and think

she is not”

Act 3 Scene 3

• Iago tells Othello it will be Impossible to catch them in the act: “Were they as prime (lecherous) as goats, as hot as monkeys” – more animal imagery!

• Iago reports he has heard Cassio talk of Desdemona in his sleep.

• Iago says that he has seen Cassio wiping his beard with a “handkerchief spotted with strawberries” – this enrages Othello who is overcome with jealous grief and vows revenge.

• (Didn’t he say that he was not a jealous man not so long ago?)

Act 3 Scene 3

• Iago swears to serve Othello, who instructs him to kill Cassio.

“Within three days let me hear thee say that Cassio’s not alive”

• Othello vows to kill Desdemona himself.“Damn her, lewd minx!”

“I will withdraw to furnish me with some swift means of death for the fair devil.”

• He appoints Iago to be his lieutenant.

Act 3 Scene 3