AC Bradley (famous Shakespeare critic) Flashcards
“The calamities of tragedy do not simply happen, nor are they sent; they proceed mainly from actions, and those the actions of men”
Toxic masculinity
Jealousy
Men are the cause of their own suffering
Strays from typical belief in fate, eg. Romeo and Juliet
Hamartia - Othello
Iago
“a Shakespearean tragedy is characterised by the ‘tragic flaw’”
Is this not key to the original Greek tragedy
Reborn during Renaissance into Shakespeare’s plays
“His own nature is romantic”
On Othello
Too trusting
Use of language
“‘More poetic than Hamlet’ not even Romeo’s love is ‘steeped in imagination’ as much as Othello’s”
Common theme for Shakespearean male characters
Consumed by love
Disagree - I think they all are equally delusional
With Desdemona he has “a love as strange, adventurous and romantic as any passage of his eventful history”
Agree
On Othello
He cannot live without conflict or adventure
A soldier at his core
“He stirs I believe in most readers a passion of mingled love and pity”
On Othello
Agree and disagree
Sympathy for his oppression but don’t forgive him for his blindness and aggression
I believe mingle hate and pity
“He is not observant. His mind is very simple. Emotion excites his imagination but dulls his intellect. He is full of the most vehement passion.”
On Othello’s shortcomings
I agree
Almost mirroring Shakespeares use of animal imagery
Reflecting his primitive nature
“He was trustful and thorough in his trust; his opinion of Iago was the opinion of practically everyone who knew him as ‘honest’”
On Othello’s shortcomings
Agree - everybody is deceived by Iago
“Evil has nowhere else been portrayed with such mastery as in the character of Iago”
On Iago
Agree
Uses soliloquies and manipulation
“We receive at the very outset a strong impression of the force which is to prove fatal to the hero’s happiness”
On Iago
Agree
Media res with Iago beginning
“It is only in the love tragedies ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’, that the heroine is as much the centre of the action as the hero” “So Shakespeare was happy to create two equally central women in two other tragedies, so what does this show about his intentions in Othello?”
Disagree - Desdemona and Emilia hold major roles within the play
Shows the silence women are forced into due to toxic masculinity
“Desdemona is helplessly passive”
On Desdemona
Disagree that she is helplessly passive throughout
She is not at all passive in many parts of the play but rather assertive and strong willed
Is helplessly passive only in death scene
She was as her father supposed her to be “a maiden never bold”
Completely disagree
“She is helpless because her nature is infinitely sweet and her love absolute”
Disagree
She is able to speak up for herself she is sweet but knows when to be honest
She is helpless because he physically overpowers her
