OTHELLO CRIT VIEWS

Peel - Time and again Othello seems

to need to rely on others to see for him

Peel - Othello has not lost his sight but lives

in a fog of half images

Emery - and his seizures as a form

of demonic possession

Loomba - For Desdemona’s father, such colourblindness

is not possible

Greenblatt - Desdemona’s marriage was an

attempt to gain power

Coleridge - motiveless

malignancy

SHER - ‘motiveless malignancy’ has

somehow lodged in the public consciousness, even thouh it’s complete nonsense

Walker - Cassio on the

flip side is a slave of passion

Walker - Othello is a king no argument

in his opening speech to the Venetian court

Melville - his control of their heartstrings mirrors

his control of Roderigo’s purse strings

Melville - Iago’s rage against female sexuality may therefore be just one

example of his spitteful attacks on otherness

Hunter - othello becomes a …

tragedy of the loss of faith

Leavis - could it be arguesd that there are other factors that lead

to his tragic ends, for example pride and naivety

Mares - Vice was a favourite with the audience and was

on intimate terms with the audience

Honigmann - Shakespeare wanted Othello

to be a man of mystery

Greenblatt - Iago represents the way concepts of identity modified from

medieval notions of fixed identities to early modern fluid ones

Newmann - Desdemona’s decision to marry a black man

is portrayed as heroic rather than demonic