Othello: Key Points and Analysis

Cultural Insiders and Outsiders

  • Insiders characterize the outsider.
  • Elizabethan audience's view of Othello: lascivious, animalistic imagery.
  • Brabantio (white, Christian, Venetian) echoes these sentiments.

Views on Women

  • Cultural narratives of women in 1603 Elizabethan England.
  • Possessive language towards Desdemona.

Introduction of Othello

  • Initial assumptions vs. Othello's actual character.
  • Challenging stereotypes about Othello and his race.

Contextual Influences

  • Cultural narratives in Elizabethan era vs. 1980s London.
  • Texts as mirrors reflecting societal views.
  • Conflicts in values during the Elizabethan era (e.g., female monarch in patriarchal society).

Act Two, Scene One: Meeting Othello

  • Cultural insiders' (Brabantio, Iago, Rodrigo) characterization of Othello: animalistic traits, graphic sexual imagery, racial epithets.
  • Shakespeare's initial affirmation of xenophobic racial attitudes.

Othello's Eloquence and Virtue

  • Othello's articulate, eloquent, and commanding language challenges initial assumptions.
  • Evidence: "Let him do his spite. My services, which I have done the scenery shall out tongue his complaints."
  • Shakespeare's critique and challenge of societal values.
  • Othello's potential and virtue despite negative stereotypes.

Direct Characterization of Othello

  • Epithets used to describe Othello reveal character.
  • Othello's qualities, title, legal right to Desdemona.
  • Tricolon: revealing fitting qualities; not using witchcraft to woo Desdemona.

Act One, Scene Three: Venetian Officials

  • Iago and Rodrigo allege witchcraft and black magic by Othello.
  • Brabantio's disbelief that a black man could win over his daughter.
  • "Fair desirability" as an attribute.

Positive Epithets for Othello

  • "Valiant" due to military prowess and service to the state.
  • Respect for military abilities despite not being born into aristocracy.
  • Acceptance within the military domain.

Brabantio's Disgust

  • Disdain for Othello marrying his daughter.
  • Ironic addressing of rudeness, contrasting with eloquent speech.

Othello's Control of Language

  • Aware of his perceived rudeness and the power of language.
  • Uses language to his advantage but eventually loses control.
  • Iago's manipulation of language.