Othello Context Flashcards
Katsan comments on tragedy
“Shakespeares tragedies provoke the questions about the cause of pain and loss the plays agonisingly portray, and in the refusal of any answers starkly prevent any confident attribution of meaning or value to human suffering”
Nuttall comments on the pleasure of tragedy
“In tragic theatre suffering and death and perceived as matter for grief and fear, after which it seems that grief and fear become in their turn a matter of enjoyment”
A. C Bradley comments on Shakespearean tragic hero
“He falls suddenly from the height of earthly greatness to the dust”
“No play at the end of which the hero reminds alive is, in full Shakespearean sense, a tragedy”
Mack comments on tragedy and madness
“Madness verbally assigned to other Shakespearean tragic hero’s-contained both punishment and insight”
Charles lamb comment on Shakespearean villains
“Ambition, the aspiring spirit, the intellectual activity which prompts them to overlap those moral fences”
Leavi’s interpretation on Othello
Refuses to believe in othello essential dignity and instead draws attention to his habit of self dramatisation. He has not learned from his suffering and he does not really examine himself “ when he discovers his mistake his reaction is an intolerably intensified form of the common “I could kick myself”
Loomba critic on Othello race and society
“Othello is both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance, and a nightmare of racial hatred and male violence”
“Othello is a victim of racial beliefs precisely because he becomes an agent of misogynist ones
“Black skinned people were usually typed as godless, bestial and hideous”
Loomba critic on Venice
“The English saw Venice not simply as a place for female deviance but also an ideal republic and hub of international trade”
“Venice became an ideal that was invoked by English writers subtly to critique domestic affairs”
Loomba critic on Venice
“The English saw Venice not simply as a place for female deviance but also an ideal republic and hub of international trade”
“Venice became an ideal that was invoked by English writers subtly to critique domestic affairs”
Would this play have unsettled or reinforced hostility?
England was increasingly hostile to foreigners, both officially and at a popular level, London had witness serval major riots against foreign residents and artisans. Venices openness could also be viewed as dangerous by a society fairly suspicious of outsiders
The ten commandments
Family to Shakespeare’s audience as written on the walls of church’s
Sixth commandment-suicide is forbidden and a sin, as your taking away a god given life
Seventh commandment-adultery as a sin. Shakespeares day, men could have sex before marriage but women could not
Chain of being
While Shakespeare was writing the play the universe was seen according to God being at the top, then spirits, then human beings, then animals, then plants
The renaissance
The respect given to achievement and abilities, the wars and colonial expansion, the romanticization of love and the intensity of emotions displayed by the play and the chivalry as well as chauvinism of men are a few exemplary features of the Renaissance spirits that make Othello a Renaissance drama
Morality plays
English Saran began in the church, with small performances. This then developed into theatre on the streets. In the later Middle Ages morality plays developed and focused on the spiritual struggle of individual souls. The seven daily sins personified. Clear influence on Shakespeares dramas
Printing
The spread of knowledge was hugely accelerated by the invention of printing in Germany. Material attacking institutions was spread and Shakespeare had read many of these printed works
Women acting
In Shakespeares day women were not allowed to act on stage, all women roles were played by young boys. This would have been the case for Othello
Staging in Othello
Scenery- due to theatres being open air, scenery was minimal meaning actors had to indicate to the audience what they need to imagine
Arrival and exit of actors- side by side episodes creates dramatic tension such as in act 5 when Othello is shown eves dropping on what he believes to be Cassio talking about sexual behaviours with his wife and then Othello talks to the audience in fury
Religion
Shakespeares often uses themes and language from the bible. While Shakespeare was a Christian not all his plays were set in a Christian world, it’s important to note Othello was. This means the characters are just concerned with what might happen to them after death. They add conscious of gods judgement
When Othello was set
Late fifteenth century between Cyprus recalling an oversees colony and being taken over by the Turks. Shakespeare wrote the play 100 years later (1603) making the play feel contemporary, with the views of characters being like the popel in the 1600s. Racist terms are used in the play would have shocked Shakespeares audience
Soliloquies in Shakespeare
Soliloquies make characters mind “psychologically naked”
Goddard
“Shakespeare bestows the “highest intellectual gifts on Iago”
Leonard Tennenhouse
Dead woman’s death is an example of silencing the rebellious female voices”
Features of a Shakespearean tragedy
Aristotle form- place time and action
Tragic flaw
Five part structure (exposition, development, crisis, further development, final crisis)
Charivari definition
Practice of noisy festive abuse in which a community enacted its specific objection to inappropriate marriages and more generally exercised widespread surveillance of sexuality
Social struggle
Othello, desdeoma, Cassio and Rodrigo are seen as members of the upper, ruling class while Iago is apart of the lower, working class. Traditionally the educated class would understand struggle in terms of upholding right against wrong. However, the educated class would interpret as a fight to survive. Iago has not been given the promotion he thinks he deserves and would have enriched himself nd promoted him to the upper class.
Moral values
When Othello realised his jealousy was groundless he regains his faith in human nature and kills himself as an expression of morally deserved retribution. This allows the play to end in reassertion of the moral world. If Iago had succeeded he would have become permanently better off, the fact he fails reinforced the importance of mortality before materialism.
Post colonial lens
Successful colonialism depends on the process of othering the people colonised. Literature written by colonised people includes attempt to articulate more empowered identities and reclaim cultures in the face of colonisation
