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Critical Analysis for Othello - Coggle Diagram
Critical Analysis for Othello
Iago
Evil or fairly motivated?
EVIL : "Motiveless malignity" - Samuel Taylor Coledridge.
EVIL: "We see into the hollowness of Iago's heart". - William Hazlitt
FAIRLY MOTIVATED: "The audience becomes complicit in Iago's intentions... Many actors who have played the part have been capable of getting members of the audience to share Iago's delight." - Sean McEvoy.
Othello
Weak and misogynistic, or a hero?
WEAK: "Othello is a 'terrible exposure of human weakness'" - T.S Eliot.
WEAK: "Iago's manipulation of Othello (the cause of tragedy), occurs only because of the views of women the Moor already possessed"- Liz Lewis.
WEAK: "The tragic protagonist was responsible for his own downfall- Iago's role is subordinate and merely ancillary". - F.R Leavis.
HERO: "Most romantic figure amongst Shakespeare's heroes"- A.C Bradley (traditionalist interpretation).
HERO: "Othello 'retains beneath the surface the savage passion of his Moorish blood and also the suspicions regarding female chastity, common among Oriental peoples" - A.C Bradley.
Desdemona
Victim of inescapable misogyny or weak and pathetic?
VICTIM: "Her identity disappears as Othello's jealous becomes more defined" - Liz Lewis.
WEAK: "She accepts her culture dictum that she must be obedient to males", she is "self denying in the extreme". - Marilyn French.
WEAK: "Desdemona passes from being his ally who would guarantee his white status to becoming his sexual and racial other" when he sees her as an adulteress" - Aria Loomba.
Women
MISOGYNY. "The good nature of a woman is to be mild, timorous... and shame-fast" - Sir Thomas Elyot.
Women in the play must be mild in order to fulfil the tragic nature of their deaths.
MISOGYNY. In 1558, John Know claimed women must be "feeble and foolish".
MISOGYNY. "Woman is an excellent ornament of man... the authority of man extends to women and wives" - Cornelius a Lapide 1638.
FOR WOMEN. "Jacobean tragedies offer up their scene sof excessive punishment as if mutilating the female could somehow correct political corruption" - Tennenhouse, "Power of Display" 1986.
Masculinity
FOR MEN. "A man of his natural perfection is fierce, strong in opinion" - Sir Thomas Elyot 1531.
Suggests at the beginning Othello was not a perfect man for he expressed sensitivity, this allowed him to become a vulnerable man, and Desdemona promiscuous. By the end he is transformed to a fierce man for his violence which results in his tragic downfall.
Othello's harmatia is his hyper-sensitive masculinity and pride.
Perhaps if he were not pressured by society, Desdemona would still be alive. Iago a mouthpiece for the flaws of masculinity?
Venice
"Italian women are very lewd and wicked" - William Davies 1614.
Venetian women were typically promiscuous, Othello can't be blamed for his suspicions.
Venice was "challenging the old Feudal powers...a racial and religious melting pot" - O'Toole 1990.
Race
"Banishing the great number of blackamoors which are crept into this realm" - Queen Elizabeth I, 1601.
"Southern men are more hot, lascivious and jealous" - Robert Burton, 1616.
Othello's downfall is surplus tragic because he allows the prejudices forced upon him to override his own judgement and rationality and thus influence his actions: brutish and violent - societies expectations are met, perhaps more angering for a contemporary audience, but expected for a Renaissance audience.
"He is studded with stars ... but he is black" - Victor Hugo.