Othello Flashcards
Marilyn French on the play:
“Nowhere in Shakespeare are relationships between males and females more searchingly, painfully probed.”
Herman Merivale on Iago
“rightly played Iago must emerge as the true centre of the tragedy”
Kean performed Iago as:
“a gay, light-hearted monster”
Spivack on Iago
“he is a creature of leaping jubilation and sardonic mirth”
Laurence Olivier emphasised the homoerotisicm in Othello by:
“Kissing Othello on the lips at the end of A3S3
A.C Bradley on the tragedy of Othello
“the tragedy of Othello is … his tragedy too … the tragedy of a thoroughly bad, cold man who is at last tempted to let loose the forces within him, and is at once destroyed”
Samuel Johnson on Othello, Iago and Desdemona
“the fiery openess of Othello”
“The cool malignity of Iago”
“the soft simplicity of Desdemona”
How old is Iago?
28
Nietzschean theory of the “Übermensch”
A person above/beyond The concept involves a character strong enough to throw off the shackles of society, prepared to defy the “herd morality” to pursue his own ambition.
Iago could be an Übermensch
Othello as a tragic hero:
Zenith: just married, strong position professionally
Hamartia: jealousy
Perpeteia: kills D, looses reputations, kills himself
Tragic virtue: “loved not wisely but too well”
Paul Celafu believed
Iago was a mind reader
- he makes bold assumptions about people
“Iago’s most remarkable gift is his insight into human nature”
Calderwood suggested:
“Iago is an amateur of tragedy in real life … staging scenes and manipulating people, in creating illusions, [and] in improvising to meet occasions. Iago is indeed a playwright”
as he thinks of people as just characters he is able to treat them like he does
Edward Pecher believes:
“Iago’s obsessive mind reading derives from his conviction that he is diminished by the mere existence of others”
