Blank verse

Another way of looking at the language of Othello is to examine the lines. Many of them are written in blank verse, so they have ten syllables which are organised in five pairs. The first syllable is weak, the second stronger. So if we look at a typical line, we traditionally show the weak or unstressed syllable with an 'x' above it and the stressed syllable with an '/' above it:

    x    /    x    /    x    /    x    /    x    /

What wound did ev - er heal but by de - grees

(In this example, the words 'ever' and 'degrees' are split up to reflect the two syllables)

Reading it like this, we can hear an obvious beat. We can also see that the key words tend to be stronger, and just hearing these we can still make some sense of the line (wound - heal - by - (de)grees). If we only have the unstressed syllables, there is very little we can understand (What - did - er- but - de). Using this technique, you can sometimes see what Shakespeare might be trying to emphasize. It also provides a structure to the play - it holds things together and we can even anticipate where an actor will finish speaking.

It also means that when the pattern changes, there might be a reason for this. For instance, important characters tend to use this verse form a lot, but less important ones never use it. Iago is different - he switches around, and tends to stop using verse when he is telling his secrets to us.