Othello critics

A.C.Bradley

Othello’s rise to the highest standard of nobility deliberate move by SP as it emphasises the pubiclity and symbolic universality of the fall.

• “Othello is the greatest poet of them all”

• Othello is a victim of Iago’s “irresistible force”

modern and early 20th century critics

Samuel Johnson

play reflective of life and presents human nature- audience hate Iago from the first to last scene

traditional critics

Martin Wangh

Freudian perspective of Iago having latent homosexual desires driving his obsession with Desdemona with love and hate closely interrelated.

W.H. Auden

Iago is a “practical joker of a peculiar appalling kind”

F.R. Leavis 

Othello acting from the start to end of play, thriving on the “histrionics” of it all throughout.

modern and early 20th century critics 

Thomas Rymer

Play a cautionary tale against marrying against parent’s wishes as Desdemonda elopes with Othello and is a “fool” for marrying a “Blackmoor”. 

Iago is too evil to be real.

The play is a “bloody farce”

traditonal critic

E.A.J. Honingmann

Iago is intelligent but has an obvious downfall- an inability to comprehend power of love. Espically Emilia’s love for Desdomnda.

20th century and contemporary critics

George Wilson Knight

Othello’s shift from using noble and poetic free verse to erratic and clipped prose represents his descent to madness.

Iago “hates the romance of Othello and the loveliness of Desdemona because he is by nature the enemy of these things. He is cynicism loathing beauty, refusing to allow its existence.. Iago is cynicism incarnate”

Ania Loomba

We have the question the English attidues towards foreigners as would they view Venice as a model society or a cautionary tale against giving foreigners positions of power.

feminist and post-colonist approaches 

Samuel Taylor-Coleridge

Iago is driven by “motiveless malignity”

Unrealistic for a woman like Des to fall in love with “a veritable n****”

As Othello puts Desdmonda on a pedastool can’t cope with idea that she’s anything less than perfect. 

Iago’s cold and calculated nature contrasts Othello’s strong emontial reaction “Iago is a passionless character, all will in intellect”

Rodrigo’s impulsiveness and lack of character make him a easy victim for Iago’s games.

trad critic

Germaine Greer

“Othello is a black General in a white army… he has created for himself a personality that they can accept”. 

“Othello is a victim of imperialism”

feminist and post colonial approaches

Michael Neill

the bed is a symbol of anxiety linked to idea of race and adultery

the bed is symbolic of sexual activey as it can manipulate (adultry rumours) and trangress social boundaries as some may perceive it as violating the natural order with their interracial marriage. 

bed is a place of consummation and death (wedding+death bed) with sheets becoming shrouds as something symbolic of love turning into murder. 

though bed audience asked to image the hidden (infelicity) adding to themes of truth and deception +visabilty and invisibility 

Stephan Greenblatt

his work on new historicism (such as on Shakespeare’s work being the product of the social and cultural context) means that Othello should be viewed though the lens of being created in the context of being made in a racist and divided England defined by wealth inequality, a complicated relationship with region and entrenched power systems.

Did work on self fashioning- process of constructiong your idendity to fit into a set of socially acceptable standards- easily applicable to the deceptive Venetian society in Othello; the manipulation/false appearances iago uses.

George Bernard Shaw

Othello doesn’t fit into ‘tragic hero’ archetype as not a new man from beginning to end

• “Othello is too stupid to be a tragic hero”

Iago is both poorly written and one-dimensional

• “Iago is a melodramatic villain”

• “Iago is a helpless mess”

Helen Gardner

Othello is “a man recognised as extraordinary” whose defining trait is how potent his “solitariness” is as an outsider.

modern and early 20th century critic

F.R. Leavis

Othello is ‘tragically possessive’

20th century and contemporary critics