Critics' Comments (AO5)

Question 1

What are the 8 subjects of your critics’ comments?

Answer 1

Othello
Iago
Desdemona
Emilia
Cassio
Bianca
Roderigo
Miscellaneous

Question 2

Who are your 6 critics for Othello?

Answer 2

Bell
Greer
Phillips
Ryan
Traub
T.S Eliot

Question 3

Bell on Othello

Answer 3

“it is not so much Iago’s suggestion…that sparks Othello’s jealousy, but the realisation that she is actively interested in sex…and is therefore not the virtuous girl he wooed”

Question 4

Greer on Othello’s jealousy

Answer 4

“it is only Othello’s jealousy, not Iago’s hatred, that is the real tragedy”

Question 5

Phillips on Othello

Answer 5

‘A man of action, not a thinker’

Question 6

Ryan on the conflict in Othello

Answer 6

Shakespeare makes it plain from the start that it’s not just Iago the newly-weds are up against, but the status quo

Question 7

Traub on Othello

Answer 7

Othello is vulnerable because he internalises Iago’s negative view of black men

Question 8

T.S Eliot on Othello (2 points)

Answer 8

Othello’s final speech was a “terrible exposure of human weakness”

full of “an attitude of self-dramatization”

Question 9

Who are your 6 critics for Iago?

Answer 9

A.C. Bradley
Adelman
Bowen
Coleridge
Kovel
Leavis

Question 10

A.C. Bradley on Iago

Answer 10

“Goodness annoys Iago” because he has been overlooked

Question 11

Adelman on Iago

Answer 11

‘Iago successfully attempts to rid himself of interior pain by replicating it in Othello’

Question 12

Bowen on Iago and Othello’s relationship

Answer 12

‘the embodiment of the sly politician exploiting the noble warrior’s struggle’

Question 13

Coleridge on Iago

Answer 13

“the motive-hunting of motiveless malignity”

Question 14

Kovel on Iago (2 points)

Answer 14

‘Iago drives Othello mad by revealing the contents of his own unconscious to him’.

He destroys Othello’s confidence, ‘pricking the bubble of phallic pride’

Question 15

Leavis on Iago (2 points)

Answer 15

‘Iago is subordinate and merely ancillary’

‘He is not much more than a necessary piece of dramatic mechanism’

Question 16

Who are your 5 critics for Desdemona?

Answer 16

Freebury-Jones
Greenblatt
Jardine
Ranald
Tennenhouse

Question 17

Freebury-Jones on Desdemona

Answer 17

Desdemona is caught up in the crossfires of militaristic, male insecurities

Question 18

Greenblatt on Desdemona (2 points)

Answer 18

Desdemona’s marriage was her attempt to gain power in a society ruled by men

Othello and Desdemona’s passion is based on lust

Question 19

Jardine on Desdemona (4 points)

Answer 19

Desdemona becomes a stereotype for female passivity

‘glorious in her resignation in the face of husbandly chastisement’

Desdemona is punished for being ‘too knowing’ and ‘too independent’

Desdemona’s death is a lesson in what happens if the male hierarchy is disobeyed

Question 20

Ranald on Desdemona

Answer 20

She entertains Cassio ‘in a matter too free to be consistent with virtue’

Question 21

Tennenhouse on Desdemona and women (2 points)

Answer 21

Desdemona’s death is an example of silencing the rebellious female voice

Women who challenged the patriarchy “demand their own deaths”.

Question 22

Who are your 3 critics for Emilia?

Answer 22

A.C Bradley
Bayley
Gay
Newman

Question 23

A.C. Bradley on Emilia

Answer 23

‘Her stupidity in this matter is gross, but it is stupidity and nothing worse’

Question 24

Bayley on Emilia

Answer 24

She is ‘the mouthpiece of repressed femininity’

Question 25

Gay on Emilia

Answer 25

Emilia is the truly tragic female figure in the play

Question 26

Newman on Emilia and Desdemona

Answer 26

‘[Their] conversations reveal Desdemona’s naivety, virtue and loyalty’

Question 27

Who are your 4 critics for Cassio?

Answer 27

Adamson
Johnson
Walker
Warren

Question 28

Adamson on Cassio

Answer 28

Cassio’s rupture with Othello…provides a number of disquieting foreshadowings of Othello’s future

Question 29

Johnson on Cassio

Answer 29

Cassio is brave, benevolent, and honest

Question 30

Walker on Cassio

Answer 30

‘a slave of passion’

Question 31

Warren on Cassio (2 points)

Answer 31

‘can be accused of using women in the same way that Iago does’

’ Cassio’s worthiness outweighs his weakness’

Question 32

Who are your 4 critics for Bianca?

Answer 32

Berry
Bunten
Chugh
Norris

Question 33

Berry on Bianca

Answer 33

“Bianca, the lower-class courtesan, is the only character who bridges the social gap between Othello’s world and Cassio’s.”

Question 34

Bunten on Bianca

Answer 34

‘Bianca reflects the paradox of Venetian sexual morality’

Question 35

Chugh on Bianca

Answer 35

Bianca’s function is to call Cassio’s credibility into question

Question 36

Norris on Bianca

Answer 36

She reflects the angers and hurts of many of the characters and the nature of real and imagined jealousies

Question 37

Who are your 3 critics for Roderigo?

Answer 37

Honigmann
McInnis
Ryan

Question 38

Honigmann on Roderigo (2 points)

Answer 38

“Roderigo activates poisonous impulses in Iago”

“Roderigo’s over-mastering, self-destructive desire for Desdemona mirrors Othello’s”

Question 39

McInnis on Roderigo and Iago’s relationship

Answer 39

“a darkly comic commentary on the absurdity of human desire and the lengths to which we will go to achieve it””

Question 40

Ryan on Roderigo

Answer 40

Roderigo is the play’s privileged loser, a nobleman who can pay his way to the top but has no innate claim on it.

Question 41

Who are your 2 miscellaneous critics?

Answer 41

Cox
Wheale

Question 42

Cox on the play

Answer 42

Binaries dominate the play of Othello

Question 43

Wheale on Venice and Cyprus

Answer 43

“…these locations dramatise the singular vulnerability of the Moor himself, a figure who is an alien…unassimilated to Christian European culture “