Critics Flashcards
Key critics in the Othello Critical Anthology
What did Kastan argue?
Kastan highlights the fearful incomprehensibility of tragedy. The downfall of Othello raises questions about what was to blame: his personal flaws, Iago’s influence, or fate, leaving the audience fearful.
Kastan quotes:
the “fearful comprehensibility” of tragedy
“the refusal of any answers starkly prevents any confident attribution of meaning or value to human suffering”
Give an example of Kastan’s argument in ‘Othello’.
The end of ‘Othello’ leaves more answers than questions about what caused Othello’s tragic downfall.
What did Nuttall argue?
The audience’s enjoyment in tragedies like Othello stems from witnessing the emotional disturbance and complexity evoked by these works, rather than their ability to soothe
Nuttall quotes:
“If people go again and again to see such things they must enjoy them”
Give an example of Nuttall’s argument in Othello:
The audience are experiencing an emotional disturbance as they fear for the central characters but also experience entertainment.
What did Bradley argue?
Othello’s fall from grace is an essential part of the play’s structure because it evokes pity and fear in the audience as we cannot escape the fate we are given.
Bradley quotes:
“Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible.”
“the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation.”
Othello and Iago are “star-crossed mortals”
Give an example of Bradley’s argument in Othello:
Othello’s inevitable downfall from a military position threatens to bring down the entire state of Venice which creates a deep-settled fear in the audience.
What did Honigmann argue?
Iago gets pleasure from seeing the other characters suffer, especially Othello
Honigmann quotes:
‘[Iago] is anything but straightforward.’
‘Joker in the pack’
Give an example of Honigmann’s argument in Othello:
Act 1, Scene 3
‘I make my fool my purse’ - displays Iago’s duplicitous nature as a Machiavellian villain
What did Loomba argue?
Othello will always be a victim to racial stereotyping and under this societal pressure to break away from these expected norms he only reverts back to the stereotypes that confine him
Loomba quotes:
“Othello is both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance, and a nightmare of racial hatred and male violence.”
Give an example of Loomba’s argument in Othello:
Act 4, Scene 1 - Despite remaining civil through the use of iambic pentameter, Othello’s venomous language harkens back to the idea that this stereotypical black man in Renaissance Society cannot communicate any other way.
