1. Act 3 Scene 3
• Desdemona promises Cassio that she will
help him
• Iago notices Cassio leave Desdemona’s room:
“Ha! I like it not” (Draws attention to Cassio’s
suspicious exit)
• Desdemona pleads for Cassio’s job back
• Iago drops more hints about Cassio but
insists he is honest “Men should be what
they seem” (Irony!)
• “Good name in man or woman, is the jewel
of their souls” – Saying reputation is
important, unlike in the last scene when he
said the opposite!
• Warns Othello of jealousy: “Beware my lord
of jealousy, it is the green-eyed monster
which doth mock the meat it feeds on”

2. Iago’s wife Emilia picks up
Desdemona’s dropped handkerchief –
“her first remembrance from the
Moor” mentioning Iago has asked her
“ a hundred times to steal it”
Act 3 Scene 3
• Othello assures Iago he is not a
jealous man and he is confident
that Desdemona is faithful
• Iago warns him to watch
Desdemona to Cassio & that she is
capable of deception:
Remember, she lied to her father in
order to marry Othello!

3. • Emilia hands the handkerchief over
to Iago
• Iago: “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”
• Othello is convinced of
Desdemona’s unfaithfulness – but
demands hard evidence:
“Make me to see’t”
• Othello easily wracked with
suspicions:
“I think my wife be honest, and think
she is not”
Act 3 Scene 3

4. • Iago tells Othello it will be
Impossible to catch them in the act:
“Were they as prime (lecherous) as
goats, as hot as monkeys” – more
animal imagery!
• Iago reports he has heard Cassio
talk of Desdemona in his sleep.
• Iago says that he has seen Cassio
wiping his beard with a
“handkerchief spotted with
strawberries” – this enrages
Othello who is overcome with
jealous grief and vows revenge.
• (Didn’t he say that he was not a
jealous man not so long ago?)
Act 3 Scene 3

5. • Iago swears to serve Othello, who
instructs him to kill Cassio.
“Within three days let me hear thee say
that Cassio’s not alive”
• Othello vows to kill Desdemona himself.
“Damn her, lewd minx!”
“I will withdraw to furnish me with some
swift means of death for the fair devil.”
• He appoints Iago to be his lieutenant.
Act 3 Scene 3