othello critics

Question 1

Thomas Rymer

Answer 1

Outraged by black hero
No moral lesson - not a tragedy
Caution to not run away with ‘blackamoors’
Othello - jealous booby
Iago too villainous to believe

Question 2

Rymer date

Answer 2

1693

Question 3

Dr Johnson

Answer 3

Very useful moral - do not make an unequal match

Question 4

Dr Johnson date

Answer 4

1765

Question 5

Coleridge

Answer 5

Iago driven by ‘motiveless malignity’

No motivation

Question 6

Coleridge date

Answer 6

19th century beginning

Question 7

19th century critics

Answer 7

Desdemona is a strumpet with no morals

Question 8

Swinburne

Answer 8

Othello is ‘noblest man of man’s making’

Question 9

Swinburne date

Answer 9

End of 19th century

Question 10

AC Bradley

Answer 10

Othello is romantic and blameless
Newness of marriage makes jealousy credible
Never falls completely
We feel admiration at the end

Question 11

Bradley date

Answer 11

1904

Question 12

TS Eliot

Answer 12

Othello trying to evade reality

Speech is an exposure of human weakness

Question 13

FR Leavis

Answer 13

No tragic self discovery at the speech
Othello is ‘un self comprehending’
Responsible for downfall - propensity for jealousy and a weak character
Love = ignorance of self and Desdemona

Question 14

Iago homosexuality

Answer 14

1950s

Driven by latent homosexuality

Question 15

Leah Scragg

Answer 15

Iago is a Machiavel

Personifies self interest, hypocrisy, cunning

Question 16

Christianity of Othello - 20th century critics

Answer 16

Christian significance of certain speeches
Othello is damned - suicide against God’s law
Soul destroying sins
Contract with devil - Iago
Play affirms Christian morals - love is good vengeance is wicked pride is dangerous

Question 17

20th century - Desdemona

Answer 17

Goddess and saint
Represented goodness purity
Commitment to love

Question 18

Marilyn French

Answer 18

Masculine value system
Desdemona accepts cultures dictum that she must be obedient to males
Self denying in the extreme

Question 19

Marilyn French date

Answer 19

1982

Question 20

Lisa Jardine

Answer 20

Jacobean drama is wholly masculine
Only a male viewpoint
Desdemona is too knowing and independent
Punished for waywardness
Desdemona is a stereotype of female passivity

Question 21

Lisa Jardine date

Answer 21

1983

Question 22

Leonard Tennenhouse

Answer 22

Jacobean drama - scenes of excessive punishment as if mutilating the female could correct political corruption
Demands death or takes responsibility for murder - common trope
Desdemona destroyed bc she is subversive
Desdemona is embodiment of power in Act 1

Question 23

Leonard Tennenhouse date

Answer 23

1986

Question 24

Ania Loomba

Answer 24

Central conflict - white patriarchy and threat of interracial relationship
Women and black people are the other
Othello is near schizophrenic, split consciousness
Othello is honorary white but is total outsider due to relationship
Use play to examine ideas about racism

Question 25

Ania Loomba date

Answer 25

1987