| “No one in Othello comes to understand himself or anyone else.” | Bayley |
| “Iago maintains to the end the dreadful integrity of his own ignorance.” | J. Bayley |
| “Othello retains to the end his agonized incomprehension.” | J. Bayley |
| “His love for Desdemona was to him a marvellous revelation of himself.” | J. Bayley |
| “She is going to heaven and he is going to hell.” | J. Bayley |
| “fails to see its dramatic point. The reason for this failure lies in Iago’s parodying.” | W. Knight |
| ‘By far the most romantic figure among Shakespeare’s heroes… he does not belong to our world’ | A.C Bradley |
| ‘His trust where he trusts is absolute. Hesitation is almost impossible to him. He is extremely self-reliant and decides and acts instantaneously’ | A.C.Bradley and Othello’s error of judgement in trusting Iago |
| ‘the contradictions within his ideology destroy him. He is living the life of a chivalric warrior in a world run by money and self-interest’ | Sean McEvoy on Othello’s conflict of identity. |
| ‘is the love of a possession. She is a prize, spoil of war’ | Caryl Phillips on Othello’s love of Desdemona representing patriarchal control. |
| ‘either intends to give pain or allows him to bask in his sense of his own superiority’ | E. A. J. Honigmann about Iago’s humour |
| ‘discovered his mistake, but there is no tragic self discovery’ | F. R. Leavis claims that the play doesn’t involve the hero’s learning through suffering |
| ‘In spite of her assertiveness in choosing her own husband she accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males’ | Marilyn French about Desdemona in society |
| ‘too-knowing, too-independent’ | Lisa Jardine about Desdemona |
| ‘miniature of the nuptial linens’ | Callaghan considers the economic and symbolic value of the wedding sheets and handkerchief in the Renaissance and its cultural significance and how it is important to the stability of the marriage of Desdemona and Othello |
| ‘The female in question may be completely innocent.. yet in play after play she demands her own death or else claims responsibility for her murder’ | Due to Shakespearean society, Tennenhouse suggests the context of the time permits Desdemona’s murder |
| ‘Othello’s colour and gender make him occupy contradictory positions in relation to power’ | Ania Loomba and how Othello inhabits a liminal position in Venetian society |
| ‘The play seeks to examine and dismantle ideas about racism and sexism’ | Ania Loomba and the purpose of the play and breaking down hegemonic ideologies |
| Shakespeare’s contemporaries feared ‘the black man had the power to subjugate his partner’s whiteness’ | Karen Newman argues that Othello corrupts Desdemona (Post-Colonial) |
| ‘the stuff of which he is made begins at once to deteriorate and show itself unfit’ | F.R. Leavis Othello’s foolishness and weakness of character makes him responsible for his own downfall |
| ‘subordinate and merely ancillary”the mind that undoes him is not Iago’s but his own’ | F.R. Leavis and Iago’s role |
| ‘subordinate and merely ancillary”the mind that undoes him is not Iago’s but his own’ | F.R. Leavis and Iago’s role |
| ‘amoral artist’ who seeks to fashion as world in his own image | Hazlitt’s view of Iago’s role as a Machiavellian villain |
| ‘The are two kinds of women, one being superhuman and totally virtuous, the other a deceiver, because of sexuality.”she is subhuman, bestial, capable of any degradation, and the two kinds are mutually exclusive.’ | Marilyn French and the Madonna-***** complex |
| ‘One can cross into the subhuman at any time, but once in it, can never return’ | Marilyn French in how Desdemona is tainted and unable to regain her virtue after Othello’s original suspicion |
| ‘his victims lack humour, Iago appeals to us as more amusing’ | E. A. J. Honingham argues Iago is a seductive character in the way he uses language (his rhetoric) and humour which secures his position as a vice |
| Cannot tolerate the existence of good in the world and his delight lies in the spoiling of it so that ‘there is nothing left to envy’ | Iago and Kleinian Envy by Freud |
| ‘he is the stage manager… controlling his victims effortlessly’ | Warren – the importance of Iago’s presence on stage |
| ‘we exult in the power of love and man’s unconquerable mind’ | A.C. Bradley and how the end of the tragedy evokes catharsis as Othello never falls completely in the minds and hearts of the audience |
OTHELLO CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS
September 9, 2019