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’
‘motivated by the possibility that the one he considered to be so pure should be proved impure and worthless’
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’
