Quiz Guide 45-72

• What does the author mean when she says, "Othello begins with a failure to listen."
• How is speech (and the ability to make others listen) equated with "sexual power"?
• How does the character Othello substitute words for deeds?
• How are tragedies about the destabilized relationship between "words and things"? Give an example.
• How does Othello "begin in comedy but end in tragedy"?
• In Chapter 1, Maguire gives several examples of how characters misread and misunderstand each other. One of them is “speaking stoutly” (the beginning of today’s reading). Explain what that means with the example in the book
• Give an example of how the play “stresses acts of speaking and listening.”
• Give an example of how Desdemona and Emilia talk while “speaking different languages.”
• How is Iago’s role “full of stage directions”? Give an example.
• How is Othello’s last speech to the Senate like his firsts speech?
• What does the book mean by the “duality of words” and their connection to “things”? Give an example.
• Why is language “dangerous” in tragedy?
• What is the example of analepsis used by the book?
• The book says Iago’s riddling often uses a form of “to be.” Give an example.