Othello Handkerchief Quotes

I am glad I have found this napkin:
This was her first remembrance from the Moor:
My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Woo’d me to steal it; but she so loves the token,
For he conjured her she should ever keep it,
That she reserves it evermore about her
To kiss and talk to. I’ll have the work ta’en out,
And give ‘t Iago: what he will do with it
Heaven knows, not I; I nothing but to please his fantasy.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Emilia shows blind loyalty to her husband Iago when she steals Desdemona’s handkerchief for him. But that will later change when she discovers Iago’s treachery and she abandons her loyalty to him for the sake of truth and justice. Emilia’s speech to the audience marks the beginning of the important handkerchief plot, in which a seemingly harmless item will be used by Iago to bring about the demise of both Desdemona and Othello.

If it be not for some purpose of import,
Give ‘t me again: poor lady, she’ll run mad
When she shall lack it.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. When Iago snatches Desdemona’s handkerchief from Emilia, she says that Desdemona will become very upset because it is gone and demands it back from Iago. She is aware of the symbolic love bond that the handkerchief represents between Othello and Desdemona. But Iago doesn’t return the handkerchief to Emilia, instead bidding her go and saying that he has use for it. Emilia unknowingly plays a role in Iago’s plan to bring about the downfall of Othello and the people she loves. Desdemona’s anxiety and upset in the next scene when Othello asks for the missing handkerchief is foreshadowed here.

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. This may do something.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Iago reveals his plan to plant an incriminating handkerchief belonging to Desdemona in Cassio’s lodging. In one of two similes Iago compares the lightness of the handkerchief to that of air. In another simile he says that an insignificant-like handkerchief is seen by the jealous as biblical "proofs of holy writ." Iago plans to further ignite Othello’s already smouldering jealousy.

Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Iago’s handkerchief plot gets under way. He plants the seeds of suspicion in Othello’s mind about the handkerchief he gifted to Desdemona symbolizing their love. Having come into possession of the item, Iago intends to plant it in Cassio’s lodgings to frame him and Desdemona for adultery.

DESDEMONA: Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?
EMILIA: I know not, madam.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 4. As predicted by Emilia in the previous scene, Desdemona is worried about the missing handkerchief given to her by Othello. The handkerchief is precious and to Othello symbolizes fidelity. Emilia lies to Desdemona by saying she knows nothing about this, when in fact her husband asked her to steal it for him. Her misguided loyalty to the scheming Iago will have tragic consequences.

My noble Moor
Is true of mind and made of no such baseness
As jealous creatures are, it were enough
To put him to ill thinking.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 4. Desdemona tells Emilia that Othello is too noble a man to succumb to such a base emotion as jealousy over a missing handkerchief. This is highly ironic. What Desdemona doesn’t realize is that her husband is in a jealous rage, incited by Iago, and it will be further fueled by the loss of this precious item. But she is blind to Othello’s jealousy. The innocent and trusting Desdemona has an idealistic view of him, wrongly believing that he won’t react badly.

She told her, while she kept it,
‘Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love, but if she lost it
Or made gift of it, my father’s eye
Should hold her loathèd, and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 4. According to Othello, the Egyptian sorceress who gave the handkerchief to his mother told her that it was charmed. The person in possion of the handkerchief would have a loyal, loving spouse. But if it got lost or was given away, then that spouse would look for love outside of the marriage. This is an example of where Othello is trying to manipulate Desdemona. The handkerchief is Othello’s first gift to Desdemona and in an attempt to justify his jealousy and anger he is trying to link it to his wife’s fidelity.

She, dying, gave it me;
And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
To give it her. I did so: and take heed on ‘t;
Make it a darling like your precious eye.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 4. Othello tells the backstory of the precious handkerchief given to his mother by an Egyptian charmer. When his mother was dying she passed it on to him to give it to his wife whenever he married. Using a simile, Othello ominously tells Desdemona to keep it close to her like her precious eye.

‘Tis true: there’s magic in the web of it:
A sibyl, that had number’d in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sew’d the work;
The worms were hallow’d that did breed the silk;
And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful
Conserved of maidens’ hearts.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 4. After Othello asks Desdemona to produce the handkerchief he gave to her and she cannot, he tells her of its great value. The exotic item has magical powers and was created by a 200-year-old prophetess. We don’t know how much of Othello’s handkerchief speech is true, or how much is fiction or if he is speaking symbolically. But it’s clear that the handkerchief is important to him, to the point of obsession. The reference to the handkerchief’s "web" is a reminder of the "spider" at the center of it all, Iago, spinning his web of deceit and lies.

So they do nothing, ’tis a venial slip:
But if I give my wife a handkerchief –
…’tis hers, my lord; and, being hers,
She may, I think, bestow ‘t on any man.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. Iago makes use of his clever manipulation techniques on Othello. He suggests that as long as Cassio and Desdemona haven’t done anything while lying naked in bed togther, it’s a foregiveable sin. But then he asks, what about the handkerchief? Here Iago is trying to convince Othello that Desdemona gave Cassio the handkerchief Othello gifted to her, a lie he invented.

Her honour is an essence that’s not seen;
They have it very oft that have it not.
But, for the handkerchief, –

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. Iago is speaking to Othello about Desdemona’s honor and the honor of women in general. The theme of appearance vs reality appears here, as Iago says that Desdemona’s honor is something that cannot be seen. Often people appear to be honorable, but they are not, he suggests. He then cleverly mentions Desdemona’s missing handkerchief, something that can be seen. He is manipulating Othello into thinking about the handkerchief.

It comes o’er my memory,
As doth the raven o’er the infected house,
Boding to all – he had my handkerchief.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. When Iago torments Othello about the handkerchief he gave to Desdemona, Othello wishes he could forget it, but he cannot. Obsessed with it, his mind has been so poisoned with jealousy by Iago that his peace of mind is being destroyed. The memory of Cassio with his handkerchief is driving him to the point of madness. A simile using apocalyptic language compares this memory to the ill omen of a raven flying over a sick household to prophesy death. This is foreshadowing of the tragic deaths to come.

Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her! that’s fulsome. – Handkerchief – confessions – handkerchief! – To confess, and be hanged for his labour; – first, to be hanged, and then to confess. – I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. – Is ‘t possible? – Confess – handkerchief! – O devil!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. An agitated and rambling Othello says this and falls down in an epileptic fit at Iago’s feet. Speaking in disjointed prose, he seems to have lost control of language. Just like he has lost control of his mind. The passage shows the hero’s degeneration and deteriorating mental state. He obsesses about the handkerchief, lies, Cassio lying with Desdemona and confession – the handkerchief is the one "proof" Othello has of Desdemona’s infidelity, but she hasn’t confessed. There is a sad and tragic irony in Othello saying, "It is not words that shake me thus." For it is Iago’s words that have driven Othello to this fever of jealousy and destroyed him.

Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you mean by that same handkerchief you gave me even now? I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the work? – A likely piece of work, that you should find it in your chamber, and not know who left it there!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. Bianca enters with the handkerchief in hand that Cassio told her he found in his chamber and asked her to copy. In an outburst of jealousy, she curses him and doesn’t believe his story of how he came by the handkerchief. Neither she nor Cassio are aware that this is Desdemona’s handkerchief.
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