Roderigo

Question 1

Which character did Shakespeare create (they are not in Un Capitano Moro)?

Answer 1

Roderigo

Question 2

C: Call up her father…

Answer 2

…rouse him, proclaim him in the street, incense her kinsmen
1.1

Question 3

My ___ ___ Roderigo, Whom ___ hath turned almost the ___ ___ ___.

Answer 3

1. sick fool
2. love
3. wrong side out

Question 4

C: ‘Who hast my purse…

Answer 4

…as if the strings were thine’ 1.1

Question 5

What is Roderigo’s role in Othello?

Answer 5

• He is a mirror of Othello, a victim of self-consciousness.
• Roderigo’s willingness to be humiliated by Iago stems from a deep self-consciousness about social standing and masculinity.
• Whereas Othello is ashamed of his race, Roderigo believes he lacks the aforementioned qualities and this is why he has failed to court Desdemona.

Question 6

‘The gross clasps…

Answer 6

…of a lascivious Moor’ 1.1

Question 7

How does Roderigo show he is pathologically conditioned to see everyone in terms of rank?

Answer 7

He derogatively describes ‘a knave of common hire, a gondolier’ as how Desdemona was brought into the ‘clasps of a lascivious Moor’.

Question 8

Why does Rod envy Cassio so much?

Answer 8

• Both are indigenous, white Venetians.
• Iago suggests that Cassio has bester Roderigo both sexually and professionally, inciting huge jealousy in him.

Question 9

‘If thou be’st ___- as they say ___ being in ___ have then a ___ in their natures more than is ___ to them - list me’

Answer 9

1. valiant
2. base men
3. love
4. nobility
5. native

Question 10

What is the significance of Iago’s interpolation: ‘If thou be’st valiant - as they say base men…’?

Answer 10

• He provokes Roderigo into wanting to prove his worth and his nobility.
  2.1

Question 11

What does Iago achieve in act 2.1 with regards to Roderigo?

Answer 11

• He posits Cassio as the epitome of male virility and masculine drive by asking Roderigo ‘Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand?’
• He suggests that she is a normal woman (‘the wine she drinks is made of grapes’) as thus will submit to Cassio who is ‘framed to make women false’.
• This incites Roderigo into resolute action - he is envious, and feels less than manly.

Question 12

I: ‘I mean ___, ___and
___ —this night show it.’

Answer 12

1. purpose
2. courage
3. valour

Question 13

How is Roderigo afforded some redemption?

Answer 13

The letters.

Question 14

What is Rod’s dramaturgical function?

Answer 14

• To act as a conduit for Iago’s actions.
• Iago exhibits his powerful, Machiavellian manipulation.

Question 15

What is Rod’s psychoanalytical function?

Answer 15

• He is privy to the same jealousies and insecurities as Othello.
• Sexuality and masculinity are the fundamental anxieties of the play’s male characters.