Othello Critics

Question 1

‘critique of the tragic consequences for married women trapped within a sexist patriarchal system that condones their subjection and even their abuse.’

Answer 1

Irene Dash

Question 2

‘Motive hunting of motiveless malignity’ - Iago

Answer 2

Coleridge

Question 3

‘The audience becomes complicit in Iago’s intention and, like it or not, is soon involved in his vengeful plotting.’ - Iago

Answer 3

Sean McEvoy

Question 4

‘This racism isn’t just the context in which Othello lives. It has entered his mind and his soul. It is an integral part of him’ - Othello

Answer 4

Fintan O’Toole

Question 5

‘Iago’s brilliance lies not in what he puts in Othello’s mind, but what he draws out of it’

Answer 5

Fintan O’Toole

Question 6

‘Iago chooses silence [as]… one final insult’ - Iago

Answer 6

Simon Bubb

Question 7

Iago’s revenge tragedy - ‘a clash between the revenger’s pursuit of personal justice and the legal system which had failed him.’

Answer 7

Sonia Massai

Question 8

‘Jealousy is the fatal flaw’ - Othello

Answer 8

Bonnie Greer

Question 9

Desdemona is a ‘character who is misunderstood’ by the men in her life

Answer 9

E.A.J Honigmann

Question 10

‘Desdemona is helplessly passive’ - Desdemona

Answer 10

A.C. Bradley

Question 11

‘the soft simplicity of Desdemona’

Answer 11

Samuel Johnson

Question 12

‘the play is a critique of male anxieties about the dangers of freely expressed female desire’ - Theme

Answer 12

Karen Newman

Question 13

‘It does not just matter that a woman is called ‘w***e’, it matters when and where she is…’ -Lack of Justice for women

Answer 13

Lisa Jardine

Question 14

‘fear of Iago, though not expressed explicitly, explains Emilia’s attitude as Shakespeare’s tragedy unfolds’. - Emilia

Answer 14

E.A.J. Honigmann

Question 15

‘most underrated and constant victim is his wife, Emilia.’ - Emilia

Answer 15

Roxanne Schwab

Question 16

‘We are forced to conclude that his worthiness outweighs his weakness’ - Cassio

Answer 16

Rebecca Warren

Question 17

‘Othello is both a fantasy of social tolerance and a nightmare of racial hatred’ - Racism

Answer 17

Ania Loomba

Question 18

Through Cassio, Shakespeare explores the ‘ambiguity of an individual who strives towards his best self, but is corroded from within’

Answer 18

Eileen Cohen

Question 19

Bianca ‘reflects the paradox of Venetian sexual morality’

Answer 19

Peter Bunten

Question 20

‘her own verbal energy represents a danger to men’s sense of propriety and order in their world.’ - Bianca

Answer 20

Eamon Grennan

Question 21

Desdemona “is killed not only by Othello and Iago but by all those who see her humiliated and beaten in public, and fail to intervene” - Lodovico and Gratiano

Answer 21

Ruth Vanita

Question 22

‘So close are Iago and Othello, indeed, that they start to melt into each other.’ - Language in Othello

Answer 22

Fintan O’Toole

Question 23

‘There are moments when language fails, when the person senses the tragic mood and reaches for song.’ - The Willow Song

Answer 23

Ato Quayson