Critics

Question 1

Honigmann - 3

Answer 1

1) His role as the play’s chief humorist allows him to bask in his own superiority
2) Dramatic perspective can make the audience the villain’s accomplices
3) Iago’s undoing is his inability to comprehend Emilia’s love for Desdemona

Question 2

Loomba - 3

Answer 2

1) Iago’s machinations are effective because Othello is predisposed to believing his pronouncements
2) Othello becomes an agent of misogyny as a result of being victimised by the racist ones
3) Othello is a representation of the crux of contemporary beliefs about black people and Muslims at the time.

Question 3

French - 1

Answer 3

1) Desdemona accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males and self-denying in the extreme

Question 4

Tennenhouse - 2

Answer 4

1) Women are cast as monsters in Jacobean society because of their sexuality
2) Social restoration can only be achieved through silencing the female political voice

Question 5

Phillips - 1

Answer 5

1) Othello’s love for Desdemona is love of a possession

Question 6

Cox - 1

Answer 6

1) Women are either divided into virgins and saints, or whores and devils

Question 7

Bunten - 1

Answer 7

1) Paradox of Venetian sexual morality as a result of the sense of hypocrisy and double standards

Question 8

Leavis - 2

Answer 8

1) Othello’s final act of suicide, while dramatic, symbolises his commitment towards the identity of a tragic hero
2) His emotional outburst shows his lack of self-awareness and regret

Question 9

Garber - 2

Answer 9

1) In emblematic form the play presents true and false images of black and white; Othello / Iago, Bianca and Desdemona
2) Othello projects a need to be seen as superhuman