An explanation about the soliloquies in Othello, the shakespearean play.

Good Morning Mr nic and fellow class mates, I have chosen a dramatised reading to perform today. In the moments before this soliloquy Iago has just finished telling Roderigo, that he should go out and make some money so he can buy gifts for the lovely Desdemona.

Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:

For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,

If I would time expend with such a snipe.

But for my sport and profit. 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. He holds me well;

The better shall my purpose work on him.

Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:

To get his place and to plume up my will

In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:--

After some time, to abuse Othello's ear

That he is too familiar with his wife.

From the Library of Congress: TITLE: Thos. W. Keen...

English: Photographic full-length portrait of Edwi...

Illustration of Othello and Iago

He hath a person and a smooth dispose

To be suspected, framed to make women false.

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 the nose

As asses are.

I have't. It is engendered. Hell and night

Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

This passage is the first of Iago's soliloquies; it is located in Act1 Scene 3 lines 383 through to 405 on page 81. Of all the characters in Shakespeare's Othello, none is more complex and unknown to the audience than Iago. He is portrayed by every character as being an honest and trustworthy person. Yet, as the audience is well informed by this stage, especially...