Critical interpretations

Question 1

Ania Loomba’s central conflict in Othello

Answer 1

Conflict between white patriarchy’s racism and threat posed by a black man and a white woman

Question 2

Othello’s split consciousness

Answer 2

Described as ‘a near schizophrenic hero’ by Loomba; his final speech portrays simultaneous Christian/Infidel, Venetian/Turk, state keeper/opponent

Question 3

Othello’s honorary white status

Answer 3

Initially seen as honorary white, but becomes a ‘total outsider’ due to his relationship with Desdemona, rupturing his entry into the white world

Question 4

Lisa Jardine’s feminist reading

Answer 4

Explores gender politics, roles of male and female characters in relation to the patriarchal context of the play

Question 5

Leonard Tennenhouse’s view on Jacobean tragedies

Answer 5

Asserts that Jacobean tragedies offer scenes of excessive pun-est emution has fon de to yee police he stone su

Question 6

Desdemona as the embodiment of power

Answer 6

Tennenhouse suggests that Desdemona is the embodiment of newer he appears

Question 7

Marilyn French’s exploration of masculine value system

Answer 7

Explores the masculine value system at work in Othello; suggests Desdemona accepts her culture’s dictum of obedience to males and is self-denying to the extreme

Question 8

Lisa Jardine says Desdemona becomes.?

Answer 8

“Shadow of sexual fraility hovers over her [dedemona] throughout the play”