Act 2 — Othello — Eduqas GCSE English Literature C720
Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720
Act 2
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
The storm that drowns the Turkish fleet, the arrivals in Cyprus and Othello's joyful reunion with Desdemona, Iago's plan to make Othello jealous,
the night of celebration on which Iago gets Cassio drunk and into a fight, Cassio's dismissal, and Iago's advice that he ask Desdemona to plead for him.
Key quotations: 'O my fair warrior!', 'My dear Othello!', 'If it were now to die, / 'Twere now to be most happy', 'O, you are well tuned now! / But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, / As honest as I am', 'With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio', 'Our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd', 'Our general's wife is now the general', 'I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking', 'Now, by heaven, / My blood begins my safer guides to rule', 'Cassio, I love thee; / But never more be officer of mine', 'O thou invisible spirit of wine', 'And what's he then that says I play the villain?', 'So will I turn her virtue into pitch, / And out of her own goodness make the net / That shall enmesh them all'.
Structure: the storm and the reunion as the height of Othello's happiness, Iago's asides and soliloquies undercutting it, and the brawl he stages to bring Cassio down.
Context that helps a reading: Cyprus as a Venetian garrison facing the Ottoman Turks, and drunkenness on watch as a soldier's disgrace.
Eduqas's Shakespeare questions don't mark context: the extract question (15 marks) and the whole-play essay (20 marks, plus 5 for spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structures) both mark response and analysis of language, form and structure (AO1 and AO2). Use context only in a phrase that supports an interpretation, and say which question each worked paragraph practises.
