Othello

Madness

‘in Othello we are shown, as nowhere else in Shakespeare, the tremendous power of guilt to shake the foundations of human reason and drive men to madness and despair’ - AC Bradley

Internalised Racism

‘Othello’s insecurity about his racial identity infects his entire personality’ - Edward A Snow

Subverting Stereotypes

‘Othello’s character, in many ways, subverts the stereotypes that the white Venetians and the Elizabethan audience have about him’ - Catherine M.S Alexander

• there are ways you can agree and disagree

An Unnatural Marriage

‘Othello and Desdemona’s relationship displaces the culturally acceptable relationship between Cassio and Desdemona’ - Arthur J Little

Narrative Self-fashioning

• ‘Othello’s identity depends upon a constant performance, a loss of his origins’ - Stephen Greenblatt

• ‘we recognise a ludicrous and nervous vanity in Othello’ - Anthony Hecht

Othello’s language as a signpost of his turmoil

‘the audience can sense […] the progressive disintegration of his reason, and the tragic loss of his self control’ - James L Calderwood

Neil

“othello is the study of an assimilated savage who relapses into primitivism under stress”

Blameless Othello

Othello didn't 'kill Desdemona in jealousy'- rather it was forced upon him by 'the almost superhuman art of Iago' - Coleridge

Othello’s Weakness

Othello is not niave and noble victim of Iago’s superior intellect but an egoist whose ‘self pride becomes stupidity… an insane and self deceiving passion’

Jealousy, Racism, Sexism

‘othello’s vulnerability as a black outsider […] is inseparable from his thraldom to a patriarchal concept of masculinity and a misogynistic concept of marriage’ - Kierman Ryan

Tragic Flaw

‘Othello’s tragic flaw is that he is human’ - Marvin Rosenberg

• this means that he is always under scrutiny, suggesting that any misstep is amplitude and punished

• alternatively, having a jealous disposition is natural for everyone

Jealousy

‘Othello does not kill Desdemona in jealousy, but in a conviction forced upon him by the almost superhuman art of Iago’ - Samuel Coleridge

Puppetry

‘Iago manipulated Othello, but Othello is no mere puppet, by the middle of the play, his thoughts and feelings echo Iago’ - Henry L. Warnken

Foils

‘Cassio seems to represent the impishness of youth […] whilst Othello represents the wisdom, experience and backbone’ - Veronika Walker

Irony

‘Nothing that is in Iago is absent from Othello’ - Arthur M. Eastman

• a sense of authority

• an almost overpowering frustration

• a general tendency to confront or manipulate situations so that one achieves ironic mastery

• a tendency to project one’s own nature, to assume that others also confront life ironically

• taking justice into their own hands

Military

both Othello and Iago ‘acts with the self reliant egotism characteristic of commander in the field’ - John C. McCloskey

Postcolonial Theory

• focuses on the impact imperialism and colonisation has had on the world

• seeks to rectify the imbalance of the colonist and the colonised by allowing members of these societies to speak for themselves

• read Othello through a postcolonial lens to contrast the perspectives of a contemporary audience and a modern audience

• consider Othello converting the Christianity, his eloquence etc.

Blackness as Monstrous

the white male characters feel threatened by the ‘power and potency of a different monstrous sexuality’ symbolised by Othello - Karen Newman

Mirror Stage

• Jacques Lacan proposed that every individual experiences self alienation due to their perception of themselves

• this causes a split in their psyche which means they feel isolated from reality

• this is the mirror stage = the self becomes aware of its evil nature and marginalises itself in order to protect others

• Othello’s awareness of his jealous disposition makes him steer away from all the other characters