Critical Interpretations

Question 1

Loomba

Answer 1

‘Othello is a victim of racial beliefs because he becomes an agent of misogynistic ones’
‘black and Muslims were regarded as given to unnatural sexual and domestic practices, highly emotive and irrational. They existed outside the Christian fold’
‘Othello is predisposed to believing his pronouncements about inherent duplicity of women, and the fragility of an unnatural relationship (interracial)’

Question 2

Honigmann

Answer 2

Both Othello and Iago are outsiders. Iago as a malcontent and Othello as the Moor. Both want to be accepted by society.
The two are parallels they both take their wives abroad on active service, feel betrayed by them, murder them and then destroy themselves.

Question 3

Boose

Answer 3

Desdemona falls in love with romance and dies in an erotic manner

Question 4

Philips

Answer 4

Othello’s love of Desdemona is the love of possession. She is a prize, a spoil of war.

Question 5

French

Answer 5

Desdemona dies a martyr and remains submissive. She accepts ‘her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males’
Emilia’s speech counters the male attitudes of females in the play.