Othello criticism Flashcards
Dolan (2001) on Othello
‘domestic tyrant who murders his wife on spurious grounds’
F.R Leavis (1937) on Othello
‘self-pride becomes stupidity, ferocious stupidity, an insane and self deceiving passion’
Swinburne (19th Century) on Othello
‘the noblest man of man’s making’
Bradley (1904) on Othello
‘the most romantic figure among Shakespeare’s heroes’
Bradley (1904) on Othello’s transformation
‘the fact that Othello was newly married makes his jealousy credible’
Fintan O’Toole (2000) on Othello’s transformation
‘Iago’s brilliance lies not in what he puts in Othello’s mind but in what he pulls out of it’
Bradley (1904) on Othello’s final speech
‘He is to save Desdemona from herself, not in hate but in honor; in honor, and also in love. His anger has passed; a boundless sorrow has taken its place’
T.S Eliot (20th Century) on Othello’s final speech
‘Endeavoring to escape reality, he has ceased to think about Desdemona, and he is thinking about himself’
T.S Eliot (20th Century) on Othello’s final speech
‘Othello succeeds in turning himself into a pathetic figure’
Coleridge (19th century) on Iago
‘a being next to the devil driven by motiveless malignity’
F.R Leavis (1937) on Iago
‘Iago is a mechanism necessary for precipitating the tragedy’
Dr Leah Scragg (1970) on Iago
‘an example of the typical stage Machiavel who personifies self-interest, hypocrisy, cunning’
Tennenhouse (1986) on Desdemona
‘Desdemona has to be destroyed because she is subversive’
Marilyn French (1982) on Desdemona
‘accepts her cultures dictom that she must be obedient to males and is self denying in the extreme when she dies’
Emma smith (2020) on Desdemona
‘she goes from being a person to being a prop.’