Othello - Critics

Honigmann - Iago and Othello as outsiders

‘Both are outsiders, Othello as a Moor, Iago as a Malcontent with a grudge against privilege. Both stand apart from their fellow men, both want to be accepted.’

Honigmann - Emilia and Desdemona vs Iago

‘Emilia’s love for Desdemona is his undoing’

Jardineabout Desdemona’s submissiveness

‘Desdemona becomes a stereotype of female passivity’

French - Emilia’s attitudes

‘One of the effects of Emilia’s speech is to counter the male attitudes of the play’

Coleridge - Iago’s motives

‘Motiveless malignity’

Loomba - Othello’s predisposition and interracial marriage

‘Iago’s machinations are effective because Othello is predisposed to believing […] the necessary fragility of an “unnatural” relationship’

T.S. Elliot - Iago not being main cause of Othello’s downfall

‘Iago simply exploits a weakness that already existed in Othello’s character’

Philips - Othello’s insecurity

‘Othello feels profoundly threatened and insecure’

Philips - Othello’s objectification of Desdemona

‘Othello’s love of Desdemona is the love of possession. She is a prize, a spoil of war.’

Loomba - stereotypes about Black and Muslim people

‘Usually typed as Godless, bestial and hideous, fit only to be saved by Christians’

M. Simpson a 3 characters as outsiders

‘Bianca is like Othello and Cassio, an outsider’