Critics Flashcards
Marjorie Garber - Shakespeare After All, 2004
“The play offers us a glimpse of what happens when extremes of reason that deny passion are confronted with extremes of passion that deny reason”
“He has to prove that he is more than a man, that he must compensate for his own ordinary humanity.”
“Iago is not only a figure of hatred and resistance but also as a figure of desire”
> Othello’s tragedy stems from his impulse to deny his private self - try’s to not be human by overcompensating for his foreignness
becomes hyper self-conscious and ashamed for human traits - sexual desire, strong emotions
Iago unleashes what Othello tries to supress (human desire)
interplay of black and white imagery that hinges on Christian associations of black and white in morality
Emma Smith - This is Shakespeare, 2019
“In focusing our attention on Iago, rather than Othello, it makes us complicit in the Moor’s downfall.”
“For some productions, Othello’s decline into jealous inarticulacy is figured as a visible turning away from his adopted Christianity”
> tragedy built on the structure of comedy - comedic elements eg. sycophantic servant, handkerchief - dropped item is comic prop - comedic elements re-appropriated into tragedy
artistically experimental play
knowledge that Iago is evil from beginning makes Othello’s trust in him seem ridiculous
Laurence Olivier’s 1964 performance
> at the point when he hears about Desdemona’s supposed infidelity, he gets into a rage and rips a cross from his neck
return to his native religion
subconscious association of Islam with madness and murderous rage
religious connotations bound up in characterization of Othello as a moor
repudiation of Christianity
Stephen Greenblatt, 1980
(For Othello) “sexuality is a menacing voyage to reach a longed-for heaven; it is one of the dangers to be passed”
“Othello’s identity depends upon a constant performance of his “story”, a loss of his own origins, an embrace and perpetual reiteration of the norms of another culture”
“Iago’s subordination is a kind of protection, for it conceals his power and allows him to play upon the ambivalence of Othello’s relation to Christian society”
“The Moor at once represents the institution and the alien”
“Iago knows than an identity that has been fashioned as a story can be un-fashioned, refashioned, inscribed anew in a different narrative”
> Othello falls because he creates a false narrative that originates from his anxiety to self- refashion (create a new identity to be accepted into foreign society of white Venetians)
projects fabricated identity that is too humanly, morally ambitious
motivated by sexual anxiety - bound up with a strong consciousness to conform with Christian mores in Renaissance Venice
need to conform with the religious doctrines of the in society/ time for social assimilation
Othello sees his marriage as illegitimate (irrational) effect of his crippling self-consciousness
obsessed with notions of sexual purity which fundamentally conflicts with their status as a married couple (natural to have desires)
Othello’s tragedy is that of a man who tells himself the wrong story about who he needs to be in order to survive in a foreign land - repudiate any kinds of human desire or accepting he has these carnal needs
thinking of heaven and hell dichotomy
Iago is sensitive to the habitual and self-limiting forms of discourse - identity is not a static construct
Othello’s identity can be seen as a parallel to our reading of Othello as a text
A.C Bradley
“Iago stands supreme among Shakespeare’s evil characters”
“His quickness and versatility, his power of dissimulation […] would have made him a great man if they had been applied to noble causes.”
> on Iago - as a supreme villain; acts out of a love for power and destruction
brilliant manipulator
A.C Bradley
Early 20th Century (Romantic/Humanist Approach)
“Othello’s sufferings are so heart-rending, his fall so irresistible, his fate so undeserved, that he stirs in us the deepest sorrow, the most awe-struck pity.”
> believes it is a “tragic waste” - Othello is destroyed for no reason
downfall caused by human malice, not fate or supernatural forces
he is fundamentally noble and admirable— downfall is not due to an internal defect/ traditional hamartia
trust is exploited by Iago but is not a weakness in itself
tragedy is that Othello should not have fallen at all—he was deceived by “the whisperings of a liar.”
F.R Leavis
Early to Mid-20th Century (Modernist Approach)
“Othello’s love is composed very largely of self-approval and pride”
“Iago’s prompt success is not so much Iago’s diabolic intellect as Othello’s readiness to respond.”
> Othello has an egoistic, self-regarding love, and his downfall is due to his own weaknesses, not just Iago’s deception
Unlike Bradley, Othello falls too easily - insecure and prone to jealousy
tragedy is Othello’s own doing
T.S Elliot
Mid-20th Century (Formalism & Anti-Romantic Approach)
(In final speech) “He is endeavouring to escape reality; he has ceased to think about Desdemona and is thinking about himself.”
“The terrible exposure of human weakness […] is not to be dismissed”
> final speech is self-dramatizing; he lacks true self-awareness, downfall is his own responsibility
attempt to rewrite his own story in a noble light
rejects Bradley’s romanticized view of Othello as a purely noble hero
final speech is self-serving, not truly self-aware
responsible for his own downfall, not just a victim of Iago
Thomas Rymer
“The Tragedy of the Handkerchief?”
> Rymer had racial prejudices - heavily influenced
criticised Othello’s gullibility - downfall made little sense
handkerchief as a weak plot device; small object should not drive the tragedy
intense jealousy as uncharacteristic of a true soldier and, therefore, an unconvincing trait for a tragic hero
