Othello Personification Quotes

She’d come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Othello tells how Desdemona fell in love with him through listening to his dramatic tales of derring-do and distant adventures as a fearless soldier. The description of Desdemona’s ear as "greedy" is an example of personification. The use of animalistic words like "greedy" and "devour" paint a picture of Desdemona as a passionate woman of sexual desires, in contrast to the demure and chase image her father has portrayed of her.

I will incontinently drown myself…It is silliness to live, when to live is torment, and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. A despondent Roderigo is so obsessively in love with Desdemona that when he hears of her marriage to Othello he threatens to drown himself. He appear to have no other reason for living than Desdemona, now unattainable to him. A simpleton and weak character, this makes him ripe for Iago to manipulate and use to enact his plan for revenge against Othello. In this passage death is personified as a doctor.

Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land;
A fuller blast ne’er shook our battlements:
If it hath ruffian’d so upon the sea,
What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,
Can hold the mortise?

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. This act opens at a sea port in Cyprus, where Montano, the island’s Governor, is watching a fierce storm raging across the sea. He uses personification to describe how the wind "spoke aloud." In a metaphor, he compares the huge waves to "mountains" that "melt" and threaten the enemy Turkish ships, putting paid to their invasion plans. Montano’s description builds up a sense of pathetic fallacy, suggesting the chaos and conflict in the characters’ lives. Othello and Desdemona’s ships are still at sea. While they survive this storm, foreshadowed here is the fierce domestic storm that awaits them in Cyprus.

Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
The gutter’d rocks and congregated sands –
Traitors ensteep’d to clog the guiltless keel, –
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
The divine Desdemona.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1. Cassio’s respect for Desdemona stands in sharp contrast to the derogatory way Iago speaks about women. He sees her as a goddess. Her inherent beauty and goodness are so great that nature and the rocks and sands hold back in awe and allows her ship to pass safely through the storm. Cassio personifies nature, the rocks and sands in this hyperbolic speech, which he makes to Governor Montano and Gentlemen. His language in praise of Desdemona is excessive and extravagent, foreshadowing that Iago will later use their friendship to falsely allege a love affairs between the two.

If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
On horror’s head horrors accumulate;
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. Othello warns Iago not to slander his wife’s reputation by calling her a whore if she is not. He is demanding "ocular proof" that Desdemona that been unfaithful, which Iago has suggested. Otherwise he threatens Iago with damnation. Both heaven and earth are personified as having the ability to weep and be amazed.

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.

Give me your hand: this hand is moist, my lady.
…This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart:
Hot, hot, and moist: this hand of yours requires
A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer,
Much castigation, exercise devout;
For here’s a young and sweating devil here,
That commonly rebels. ‘Tis a good hand,
A frank one.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 3, Scene 4. In Othello’s speech about Desdemona’s hand, we see his suspicions grow about his wife. Taking her hand, he personifies it as arguing her "fruitfulness and liberal heart." Here he is hinting that she is disloyal and loves too much. When Othello describes her hand as "Hot, hot, and moist," there is a suggestion of sexual promiscuity and he in fact advises her to fast and pray. And if we were under any illusion as what he is thinking, Othello makes it very clear in his use of the metaphor, "a young and sweating devil." This implies that Desdemona has too much sexual appetite. Othello’s changing emotions towards his wife are displayed in his speech, which betrays his mistrust of her. His focus on her hand foreshadows the fate he has in store for her, when he uses his own hands to smother her, believing that she has cheated on him with Cassio.

But, alas, to make me
A fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 2. Amid all the trials he has been through, Othello believes that there is nothing worse than being made an object of ridicule by an unfaithful wife. This shows how important Othello’s manhood and reputation is to him. Personification is used to emphasize his anguish, as public opinion – "time of scorn" – is given the human ability to point a scornful finger at the shamed Othello.

The fountain from the which my current runs,
Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in! Turn thy complexion there,
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp’d cherubin, –
Ay, there, look grim as hell!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 2. The metaphorical image of a fountain is used for Desdemona as Othello’s life sustaining force, which has dried now that he believes she has been unfaithful. He uses grotesque animal imagery, saying that if he keeps her, she will become a toilet for toads to have sex in. Patience is personified as a cherubin looking "grim as hell" at the thought of this.

Stay you, good gentlemen. Look you pale, mistress?
Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?
Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon.
Behold her well; I pray you, look upon her:
Do you see, gentlemen? nay, guiltiness will speak,
Though tongues were out of use.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 5, Scene 1. Iago says this about Bianca, who has just arrived at the scene of Cassio’s stabbing. He is trying to manipulate Gratiano and Lodovico into thinking that Bianca was involved in the crime – ironically committed by Iago. Guilt is personified here by being given the human ability to speak. Iago points to how Bianca looks so pale and whitefaced as evidence of her guilt and dishonesty. However, it is Iago who is being dishonest.

It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 5, Scene 2. Othello enters Desdemona’s bed chamber with the intention of killing her, insisting to himself that his cause is right and he is delivering justice. Her crime is so terrible that he cannot even name it to the stars, which he personifies as "chaste." Othello is in serious denial here, unable to accept that he is murdering his wife not out of any just cause but because of his extreme jealousy.

It is the very error of the moon;
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont,
And makes men mad.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 5, Scene 2. A self-justifying Othello deflects responsibility from himself for Desdemona’s murder by blaming it on madness caused by the full moon. The moon is personified as feminine and is seen here as symbolizing women. Their changing minds and seductive ways as they orbit around a man with their beautiful white light can drive him to a dark insanity. This is in keeping with the patriarchal idea of men being the center of power with women and their lives revolving around them.
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