Critics Othello

The play doesn’t change, we change as a society Adrian Lester
There is a discrepancy between what is being said about him and what he is doing Margaret reynolds
Desdemona is an idealised idea of the female Ato Quayson
Othello is not jealous, he is trustful Dostoevsky
A drama of race relations, anxiety, miscommunication and evil Ato Quayson
The world they communicate over is so narrow it is easy for Iago to manipulate Ato Quayson
Iago’s passion for destruction is the only creative passion in the play Harold Bloom
neither felt not understood the spiritual impulses that bind ordinary humans together Honigmann
Cyprus is a bastion of male power Flachmann
Iago’s is a motiveless malignity Coleridge
We have motives, but added together they do not make an adequate cause for his actions Ato Quayson
Shakespeare could and should have tried harder Hugh Quarshie
Iago’s machinations are effective because Othello is predisposed to believing his pronouncements about the inherent duplicity of women Ania Loomba
Othello is a victim of racial beliefs precisely because he is an agent of misogynist ones Ania Loomba
It would argue a disproportionateness, a want of balance in Desdemona Coleridge
Race is simply the tool Iago uses to manipulate Othello, it is nothing more Adrian lester
Othello is racist by omission Lucian Msamati
The loneliness of colour made worse by the solitude of power Ben Okri
He is from the first scene to the last, hated and despised Dr Samuel Johnson
Shakespeare was a man not for an age, but for all time Jonson
A fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance, and a nightmare of racial hatred and male violence Ania Loomba
About the way an unequal society polices against change Ellen McDougall
Warning fair woman against speaking out, speaking up, instructing them to define female virtue as modesty Carol rutter
Iago is a practical joker W H Auden
Othello is othello’s tragedy, but Iago’s play Harold bloom
Iago annexes not only the other characters, but the resisting spectator as well, into his world and its perspective Karen Newman
Dramatic perspective can even make us the villain’s accomplices; he confides in us, so we watch his plot unfolding from his point of view Honigmann
Emilia is the moral heart of the play Jude Kelly
Emilia’s love of Desdemona is Iago’s undoing Honigmann
Shakespeare was preoccupied with the uncontrollability of woman’s sexuality Valerie Traub

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