Othello

Question 1

Loomba

Answer 1

Loomba “Othello is a near schizophrenic hero”

Loomba “His final speech graphically portrays the split he becomes simultaneously the Christian ad the infidel the Venetian and the Turk the keeper of the state and its opponent “

Loomba “[Othello is a] victim of a racial beliefs precisely because he becomes an agent of misogynist ones”

Question 2

T.S Elliot

Answer 2

Othello’s “self-dramatization”
“Terrible exposure of human weakness”
“A pathetic figure” (Evokes pity and not other emotion)
“Othello is responsible for his own downfall”

Question 3

Dr Johnson

Answer 3

“(Othello is) ardent in his affection”

Question 4

F.R Leavis

Answer 4

F.R. Leavis = ‘The mind that undoes him (Othello) is not Iago’s but his own’.
F.R. Leavis = ‘Othello’s downfall was a result of his own weaknesses not Iago.’

Question 5

Karen Newman

Answer 5

“Othello fears femininity”

Question 6

Marilyn French

Answer 6

Marilyn French = ‘Othello and Iago are masculine because of their Elizabethan male characteristics - ‘reason’ and ‘power’ ‘.

Question 7

Clapp

Answer 7

Clapp “Othello is the feeler, Iago the thinker”

Question 8

Jacob De Villiers

Answer 8

Jacob de Villiers = ‘Othello is a noble hero whose tragic fault is his insecurity’.

Question 9

Andy Serkis

Answer 9

Andy Serkis = ‘He is not the devil. He’s you or me being jealous and not being able to control our feelings.’

Question 10

Micheal Long

Answer 10

Michael Long suggests that Othello’s identity ‘collapses’

Contradict: it seems as if there has been a ‘savage’ undercurrent to his nobility the entire time.

Question 11

Colderige

Answer 11

Coleridge “Othello didn’t kill Desdemona in jealousy but that it was forced upon him by the almost superhuman art of lago”