Othello Hate Quotes

RODERIGO: Thou told’st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
IAGO: Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capp’d to him: and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he; as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuff’d with epithets of war.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 1. Iago confides to Roderigo how he hates Othello after three powerful men failed in their pleas to Othello to make Iago his lieutenant. Feeling wronged by a prideful Othello who promotes Cassio instead, Iago’s resentment and jealousy set the tone for the rest of the play. Foreshadowed here is his plot to exact vengeance and destroy Othello.
Iago old black ram quote about Othello

Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 1. Shakespeare’s most notorious villains Iago is a manipulative, sinister and destructive character. He uses an inflammatory animal and racist metaphor to compare Othello to a "black ram," and another metaphor to describe Desdemona as a "white ewe." Iago is shouting this to Desdemona’s father Brabantio in order to incite his rage against Othello. He dehumanizes the black Othello and portrays the match between him and the white or pure Desdemona as something unnatural. “Tupping” is an old English slang word for having sex, and Iago uses it here to convey something dirty and vulgar. Iago also sees Desdemona as Brabantio’s property – "your white ewe" – which is in keeping with Iago’s sexism and low regard for women. Iago’s hatred of Othello is evident here.

Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains.
Yet, for necessity of present life,
I must show out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 1. Iago is quite open to Roderigo about his hatred of Othello, the black Moor hired by Venice as a general for its army. The play’s heinous and intriguing villain reveals his flair for deception. He plans to metaphorically display a “flag” of love for his boss Othello, in order to conceal his true feelings of loathing for him.

O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow’d my daughter?
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!
For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curlèd darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, t’ incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou – to fear, not to delight!
Judge me the world, if ’tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weakens motion.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 2. Brabantio, in his first encounter with Othello in the play, claims that Othello must have used witchcraft to manipulate Desdemona and get her to elope with him. In a metaphor, he likens Othello’s spell to chains used to enshare his daughter. Brabantio shows racial prejudice and hatred towards Othello. He remarks that a beautiful and fair-skinned virgin girl who shunned Venice’s wealthy handsome men would never risk her reputation to run to Othello’s "sooty bosom" unless he used "foul charms" on her. He dehumanizes Othello by calling him a "thing" rather than a person. Gender roles of the time are also reinforced, as Brabantio speaks of Desdemona as a possession, "stow’d" somewhere by the "foul thief" Othello.

Thou art sure of me: – go, make money: – I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Iago responds to Roderigo’s question as to whether he can trust him. Assuring him that he can, he reiterates his hatred for Othello. Like a puppet master Iago pulls Roderigo’s strings to entice him to be his partner in crime in his revenge plot against Othello and Cassio. He grooms the weak and simple-minded Roderigo, luring him with promises of a future and sexual fulfillment with his heart’s desire Desdemona. In a metaphor, Iago compares time to a womb which will deliver these promises.

I hate the Moor:
And it is thought abroad, that ‘twixt my sheets
He has done my office. I know not if ‘t be true,
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Iago has heard rumors that his wife Emilia has slept with Othello. This gives him the additional motivation to want to destroy Othello, who he hates and is intensely jealous of. However, there is no evidence that Emilia has been unfaithful to Iago. But Iago is by nature an insecure, bitter and suspicious person. In this soliloquy he admits to not knowing if the rumors are true, but intends to act as if they are and punish Othello anyway. Iago uses a metaphor to let us know what it is said Othello has been up to with Emilia – "’twixt my sheets He has done my office."

The Moor is of a free and open nature
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose
As asses are.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. In his first soliloquy, Iago reveals how he likes to take advantage of people’s good nature to use it against them. He admits that Othello is a trusting person who thinks that those who appear to be honest, like Iago, are indeed so. Iago declares his intention to use Othello’s gullible nature to manipulate him and he contemptuously compares him in a simile to an ass that can be led by the hose. Iago’s hatred of Othello is on full display here.

Her eye must be fed. And what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be, again to inflame it and to give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favor, sympathy in years, manners, and beauties, all which the Moor is defective in.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. Iago’s undisguised racism and hatred for Othello emerge once more, as he tries to convince Roderigo that Desdemona will soon tire of her black devil husband. When she has her sexual fill of Othello, he predicts that she will seek another sexual partner. Iago’s crude use of a food and appetite metaphor equates human love with pure animal lust and gratification. But love is something Iago doesn’t believe in.

A slipper and subtle knave, a finder of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present itself; a devilish knave.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. Iago tells Roderigo that Cassio is a crafty rogue who is on the lookout for sexual opportunities and will take advantage of them. He is suggesting that Cassio would bed Desdemona if given the chance. It’s rather ironic for Iago to describe Cassio as a "devilish knave," since it is a description better fitted to Iago himself. His hatred for Cassio comes through loudly in this description.

I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb –
For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. As he plots revenge, Iago suspects that Cassio has slept with his wife Emilia. Just as he thinks Othello has done the same, without having any proof. This suggest insecurity and paranoia on the part of Iago. "With my night-cap" is a metaphor for sleeping with someone. Iago’s jealousy of and hatred for Cassio are evident here.

Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons.
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,
But with a little act upon the blood.
Burn like the mines of Sulphur.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Having weaponized the corrosive power of jealousy to poison Othello’s mind with suspicious thoughts, a gleeful Iago delights in the pain he is causing. Using metaphor and simile, he speaks of Othello’s suspicions and excessive pride – "dangerous conceits" – as a poison that will burn inside him like sulphur. The Machiavellian manipulator uses demonic language here, "mines of Sulphur" being an allusion to hellfire. His hatred of his master is evident here.

O monstrous! monstrous!…I’ll tear her all to pieces.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Othello has become so brainwashed by Iago that he has becoming like him, losing his own mind and self and using destructive and ferocious language. Consumed by rage, he says that he will destroy Desdemona. His bestial animal imagery shows how his love for her has has been replaced by pure hatred. Murderous revenge is being suggested here, foreshadowing the violence to come. Othello’s ugly threat is also an example of the abuse of male power and toxic masculinity found in the play.

All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
‘Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For ’tis of aspics’ tongues!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Othello says that his love for Desdemona is completely gone after Iago convinces him that she is having an affair with Cassio. Appealing for help with his revenge, Othello appears to associate himself with darkness and hell. He uses personification to describe his hatred of Desdemona as "tyrannous," while love is personified as surrendering its place in his heart to hate. In a metaphor, Othello likens his jealous heart to a heart filled with venonous snakes. The motif of black and white appears in this passage with vengeance given the color of black, the color of Othello’s skin.

Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Othello lays his tortured soul bare as he sinks deeper into madness. In an epic or extended simile, he compares his violent urges and bloody thoughts to the relentlessness of the Pontic Sea, or Black Sea. He will not stop until he has his revenge. At this point Othello hates Desdemona and says that he will never look back on love. He is convinced that his wife has betrayed him.

OTHELLO: [Kneels] Now, by yond marble heaven,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words.
IAGO: Do not rise yet.
[Kneels] Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
You elements that clip us round about,
Witness that here Iago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
To wrong’d Othello’s service! Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever.
[They rise]
OTHELLO: I greet thy love,
Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put thee to ‘t.
Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio’s not alive.
IAGO: My friend is dead; ’tis done at your request.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Iago and Othello kneel together and exchange vows of evil in a perverse mock marriage ceremony. Othello forsakes his wife, goes over to the dark side and makes a diabolical pact with Iago. This is a turning point in the play, as Othello submits to Iago and is now completely under his devilish power. Iago, having persuaded Othello of his innocent wife’s infidelity, pledges fealty to Othello. He promises to deliver on Othello’s request to murder the innocent Cassio. The "ever-burning lights above" is a metaphor for the stars, as Othello and Iago blasphemously address the heavens as if talking and praying to God, while declaring their "love" union based on evil and hatred. Othello has succumbed to Iago’s relentless manipulation and is now completely controlled by him. This passage represents the "marriage" of Othello and Iago. We have dramatic irony in Iago’s vow to serve Othello, when we know that Iago is simply serving himself.

Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night; for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the world hath not a sweeter creature: she might lie by an emperor’s side and command him tasks.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. Othello is losing control and his mind is filled with hatred and thoughts of violence at the idea of Desdemona cheating with Cassio. Using a metaphor he compares his heart to stone, since he has to harden it to be able to kill his wife. However, he is deeply conflicted about what he has to do. Despite his violent intent, he is a reluctant murderer. He still loves Desdemona, describing her as so sweet she could be the wife of an emperor who would obey her commands.
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