Othello critics Flashcards
What does Iago’s speech in Act 1: ‘I follow but myself…I am not what I am’ show about his character?
- He derives pleasure from hiding in plain sight.
- He has covertly just told Roderigo not to trust him.
What is the effect of Iago’s discussion of ‘satisfaction’ and Othello being ‘satisfied’ in Act 3 scene 3?
Iago ensures that the only thing which can satisfy Othello is the knowledge that Desdemona is/has been with another man. Only then could he be liberated from his torturous uncertainty.
(A2:1) How does Iago’s salacious language corrupt the sexual dynamic between Desdemona and Othello?
- He suggests Desdemona’s adoration is with ‘violence’, and that Othello’s wooing tales are ‘bragging…lies’. He suggests that ‘her eye must be fed’, to ‘give satiety a fresh appetite’. He implies Othello is revolting and insufficient; that Des will soon begin to ‘heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor’.
What does Iago mean by ‘the wine she drinks is made of grapes’? (A2:1)
That she is the same as all women. He utilises a misogynistic stereotype by implying all women are hedonistic and do nothing but indulge. This image is reversed by Emilia in Act 3:4: men ‘are all but stomachs, and we all but food’.
How do Desdemona’s responses emasculate and aggravate Iago?
- ‘Most lame and impotent conclusion’ (A2:1)
- Suggests he may be impotent and therefore gives an another possible motive for his actions, which certainly have some perverted sexual motive.
What does Iago embody and how does Desdemona and Othello’s relationship threaten it?
- He embodies a patriarchal, prejudiced soceity whose foundations could be undermined by their relationship. They exhibit a ‘utopian naivety’ that is anachronistic and therefore threatens the social order.
What is the contextual conflict between ‘Turks’ and Venetians?
- Their were mutiple conflicts over Cyprus as it overlooked various trade routes.
- The competition between the Turks/Ottoman Empire and the Venetians is both religious and economic.
- Like the liminal isle of Cyprus, Othello is between the two worlds: he is neither Venetian nor Turk.
What is a post-colonial reading of Othello and Desdemona’s relationship?
- She is drawn to him because of the ‘dangers he has passed’ and his tales of cannibals and anthropophagi etc.
- Her relationship with him is perhaps symbolic of European adventurers exploring uncharted Africa, there is an exotic/erotic allure which entices them.
- Perhaps this is why it does not last.
How was the Othello’s flexibility as a play described by Emma Smith?
- It is ‘protean’.
What can said about the concept of being ‘civilised’?
- A Western social construct.
- Allows for the alienation/othering of people of different races.
What is the etymology of the word denigrate?
In Latin it means ‘to blacken’
What can be said about Iago’s obsession with sex/eroticism?
- Emma Smith described it as a ‘voyeuristic preoccupation’ which culminates in the ‘ultimate object of its erotic obsession’, the bed which she has ‘contaminated’.
What is Othello personal and public ‘doubleness’ at the start of the play?
- He has eloped with Desdemona without asking for permission.
- He is also Venice’s potential saviour; a military hero.
What is Othello and Brabantio’s relationship at the beginning of the play?
- He has been ‘invited oft’ to Brabantio’s house, he was encouraged to retell the story of his life.
- Brabantio seems happy to abide Othello as an entertainment act, a piece of decoration.
- He perceives the marriage of Oth and Des as too much of a transgression.
What is Othello’s racial dualism?
Emma Smith: ‘the Christian citizen’s defender against a malignant Turk, and that turbaned and circumcised Turk himself’.
What does Iago’s name signify?
- Iago is likely short for Santiago.
- The patron saint of Spain was called Santiago Matamoros - the Moor slayer.
What things make Othello’s identity impossible?
- his life is one of ‘cognitive dissonance’
- A successful black man in a white society, yet never ‘of’ it.
- A man of immense self-control who loses all control.
- a brilliant soldier and leader, but clueless in the domestic sphere.
- Is the play about racism, or itself racist?
Why is the war, and its cessation, so important?
- Othello uses his military prowess as a measure of his worth.
- Without the war he becomes purposeless, and thus begins to act like a soldier in the domestic sphere - a desperate attempt to find some self-value. This vulnerability makes him susceptible to Iago.
- This is especially emphasised by his embodiment of justice in Act 5: ‘the justice of it pleases’.
When does Bianca show her integrity?
Act 5 scene 1: ‘I am no strumpet; but of life as honest as you that thus abuse me’
How does Iago describe Bianca?
‘It is a creature that dotes on Cassio, as ’tis the strumpet’s plague to beguile many and be beguiled by one.’
