critics - othello Flashcards
coleridge
‘not as a negro, but a high and chivalrous moorish chief’
‘noble moor’
‘othello does not kill desdemona in jealousy, but in a conviction forced upon him by the almost superhuman art of iago’
f.r leavis
‘self-pride becomes stupidity, ferocious stupidity, an insane and self-deceiving passion’
‘he has discovered his mistake, but there is no tragic self discovery’
‘tragically pathetic’
‘dies acting his ideal part’
‘othello is too stupid to be regarded as a tragic hero’
a.c bradley
‘othello’s race isn’t important’
‘purely noble, strong, generous and tragic hero – merely a victim’
most romantic figure among shakespeare’s heroes and the greatest poet’
‘unusually open to deception’
‘the consciousness of his position never leaves him’
greenblatt
‘othello is both a monster and a hero’
bartels
‘shakespeare uses the stereotype of the moor as a means of subverting it’
koomba
‘othello is a victim of racial beliefs’
seaman
‘othello’s fall is a version of adam’s, while desdemona’s is an inversion of eve’s’
phillips
‘othello’s love of desdemona is ‘the love of possession. she is a prize, a spoil of war’
‘othello is a man of action, not a thinker. in his first speech he subconsciously acknowledges the social pressure he is under’
‘othello feels constantly threatened and profoundly insecure’
kastan
‘[othello has a] fall from prosperity to wretchedness’
gilbert
sees othello as an allegory for catholicism and its persecution in elizabethan england, which perhaps casts a sympathetic light upon the religion
hollindale
‘othello’s insecurities come from internalised xenophobia and the unnaturalness of his and desdemona’s love, despite there being no laws against it’
