Othello Critic Quotes

Question 1

Thomas Rymer - Bloody Farce

Answer 1

“… the tragical part is, plainly none other, than a Bloody Farce, without salt or savour.”

Question 2

Samuel Johnson - moral / suspicion

Answer 2

“… we learn from Othello this very useful moral… not to yield too readily to suspicion.”

Question 3

A.C. Bradley - modest / worth

Answer 3

“… a great man naturally modest but fully conscious of his worth…”

Question 4

T.S. Eliot - weakness / speech

Answer 4

“… I have never read a more terrible exposure of human weakness… than the last great speech of Othello…”

Question 5

Claire Johnstone - assertive women

Answer 5

“Shakespeare uses his tragedies… to present vocally assertive women who (in life at least) refuse to be seen and not heard.”

Question 6

Caryl Phillips - possession / spoil

Answer 6

“Othello’s love of Desdemona is ‘the love of possession’. She is a prize, a spoil of war.”