Othello Critics

Question 1

A.C Bradley on Othello

Answer 1

Believes that Othello is ‘the most romantic’ of all Shakespeare’s characters. His intense emotions means he can’t think clearly about Desdemona - this is is downfall. However, he is a ‘great man’, and the tragedy of the play is that Othello is ‘exceptionally noble and trustful’ and is manipulated by Iago.

Question 2

A.C Bradley on Iago

Answer 2

Iago is ‘a thoroughly bad, cold man’ who is ‘supremely wicked.’ He is angry becaise he’s overlooked because he is not a good person - ‘goodness therefore annoys him.’ Iago also has a ‘supreme intellect’, and that makes him dangerous.

Question 3

T.S Eliot

Answer 3

Believes that Othello is deeply flawed and that his final speech is a ‘terrible exposure of human weakness.’ It is weak because it is full of ‘an attitude of self-dramatisation’ - Othello is too aware of the audience and the other characters means it’s less realistic.

Question 4

Marilyn French on Desdemona

Answer 4

Desdemona accepts that because of her society, ‘she must be obedient to males’ and therefore accepts her fate.

Question 5

Marilyn French on men

Answer 5

Othello is a masculine play because it rejects female sexuality and freedom. Men hold all the power in the play, reflecting how men hold all the power in society.

Question 6

Marilyn French on Iago

Answer 6

All women are destroyed by Iago

Question 7

Leonard Tennenhouse on Desdemona + Women

Answer 7

Desdemona’s death represents the silencing of a rebellious female voice. Therefore, Desdemona as a character must die because she is ‘the embodiment of power’ - explict when she first arrives in A1.
Elizabethan/Jacobean tragedies use violence against women to challenge the patriarchy.
Women who die in these plays blame themselves for their deaths.

Question 8

Coleridge on Iago

Answer 8

He argues that Iago is ‘a being next to the devil’, driven by ‘motiveless malignity.’
Essentially, he operates without adequate motivation and is simply bad because he is bad.