Hello all,
Considering that all Y13s have now completed their drama A-level this last Wednesday, I thought it would be apt to upload my own notes on Othello. Although I never completed this set of notes, I hope that they’ll serve useful to anyone hoping to decipher the play.
These notes make up an eclectic mix of language and structural analysis, essential contextual points, and some critical quotes that one can employ in essays.
Hello all,
Below I’ve just dumped an essay plan on the presentation of social class in Othello. A tricky question that should anyone be inspired to write an essay of their own on this topic, I hope the following will provide some useful ideas.
Please look forward in the next few weeks for the next crop of talent to take over the English blog with their own writings and talents. But, in the meantime, enjoy the following piece!
EXPLORE THE PRESENTATION OF SOCIAL CLASS IN OTHELLO
CRITICAL RESPONSE: If Berry is correct to assert that the causes of tragedy in the play lie in the relationships of ranks and class, then it is imperative to believe that Iago’s initial and foremost motivation is to secure military promotion and thus seek to discredit Cassio to obtain the promotion he was denied originally, or even seek to destroy Othello to punish him for choosing Othello in his place. Indeed, both outcomes do occur, but not necessarily for the reasons that Berry suggests. It would appear that he neglects the ‘motiveless malignity’ that A.C. Bradley suggests and warns of Iago’s intrinsic unreliability of his communications, “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at: I am not what I am.” [1.1.63]
IAGO – ICON OF MERITOCRACY (?)
| QUOTATIONS | MEANING | CONTEXT | CRITICAL VIEW |
| “I know my price: I am worth no worse a place.” | All Iago’s intelligence, efficiency, and caprice have availed him nothing for he remains ‘his Moorship’s ancient.’ The genesis of this tragedy, thus, is in his determination to secure justice for himself, restore the hierarchical order to one of ability and merit; rather than find recourse in law, in which he is aware that there is no resolution, he takes affairs into his own hands and devotes all his intelligence and ability to his own interpretation of executive justice. | Iago’s conspiracy against Othello might be interpreted as an allegory for civil unrest and rebellion, as in the Gunpowder Plot against James I in 1605. Shakespeare condemns the corruption that runs throughout the veins of long-standing, infallible institutions, like military organization. Perhaps, the blasphemic nature of Iago’s speech is what really denotes the radicalism of his ideology, even discounting an invocation in the divine providence of God to be the base of the Venetian social order. Such ideas would have likely struck a discordant chord with the more plebeian, theological tastes of contemporary audiences. Venice worked powerfully on English imaginations during the Renaissance as an object of desire, evoking wealth, art, and Italian sophistication, but also as an object of repulsion, evoking Italianate greed and decadent sexuality. The collusion between civilization and primitivity makes for the perfect cause of Iago’s machinations, exposing this society for all of its hypocrisies and insidious effects – “There’s many a beast then in a populous city / and many a civil monster.” | John C.McCloskey – “His tragic intrigue has its genesis, consequently, in his determination to secure justice for himself.” |
| “His Moorship’s ancient,” “Curse of service,” “In following him, I follow but myself.” | Discarding the social norms dictated by hierarchical status, Iago makes a mockery of the subservience demanded of him through the pejorative term, ‘Moorship;’ he reciprocates the same disrespect he believes he has received in the passing over of his name for promotion. When confronted with injustice, he chooses to emulate it rather than reject it. The impulse that governs Iago is a keen awareness of the ordering of the Venetian social ladder. The phrase, “I follow him to serve my turn upon him,” suggests that altruistic love is impossible: all loyalties are founded on ulterior, egotistical motives. Here, Shakespeare might be alluding to the emerging system of capitalism, implying that all human relations are corrupted by the need to compete for survival. Pun upon. ‘serve’ interweaving duplicity and loyalty. | ||
| “Tis the curse of service; / preferment goes by letter and affection, / Not by the old gradation.” | Shakespeare undermines all gradations of meritocracy in Venetian, or contemporary English, society; he suggests that favoritism, nepotism, and elitism are the values that underpin our society. The “curse of service” is that that social class – the boundaries that prescribe social relations – are the inevitable consequences of unequal power, egotism, and greed (See: Cassio and “Reputation, reputation, reputation. I have lost the eternal part of my soul, and what remains in bestial”); here, A.C. Bradley’s description of Iago’s ‘motiveless malignity’ appears rather a reduction of his cynical thought. Iago is not merely a malcontent, intent in inciting chaos, but a symbol for the discontentment of the lower classes. Iago, an ensign, is subordinate to the majority of characters in the play: he desires to uncover the “pitch” that lays beneath the naïve “virtue” of the Venetian cast. | ||
| “In Venice they do let God see the pranks / They dare not show their husbands. Their best conscience / is not to leav’t undone, but keep’t unknown,” | Iago is a fierce critic of the decadent sensuality of Venice as the, “Pleasure capital” – he condemns “unbittered lusts” and the “fruits of whoring.” He is a keen opponent of the sexual and moral liberties within Venice, and the façade it perpetuates (a habit that he returns in “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at: I am not what I am.”) In this way, Iago is a conservative traditionalist, preaching the inherent dangers of sexual desire and falsehoods whilst pushing for the change of his own personal liberties. Above all, in his paradoxical sense of progressivism, Shakespeare presents Iago’s ideology as ultimately shaped by egotism. He is in no way a moral guardian, but intelligently seeks self-benefit in social anarchy. |
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IAGO AND CASSIO
| QUOTATIONS | MEANING | CONTEXT | CRITICAL VIEW |
| “One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,” “That never set a squadron in the field, nor the division of a battle knows” “Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership” | Here, Iago’s worlds might elicit surprising sympathy amongst a naïve audience for the voices the typical antipathies of doers and thinkers, men of action and mere scholars, workers and bosses. Still, such a complaint in motivated by hatred and fed by jealousy and resentment, thus intrinsically unreasonable, even in perfectly egalitarian society it is not expected that soldiers who have fought, “At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds” are only qualified for command positions. We recognize that to serve, and command entails completely different abilities and responsibilities. | Bradley wrote that Iago was not of gentle birth or breeding. For all his powers, he is a vulgarian, schooled in the barrack-room raconteurs by which Iago talks about Othello’s marriage-night (“He’s made forever”) even in the sexual connotation of ‘boarded’ that Iago intends to convey. The word ‘knave’ by which Iago repeatedly dubs Cassio, had its origin in class, being often used in contrast with the word ‘knight; and developed to mean ‘a base and crafty rogue.’ This context indicates that Iago means to impugn the gentlemanliness that so clearly distinguishes Cassio from him. He brings Cassio to his social level first in words, only secondly in deeds. Elizabethans knew well from campaigns in Ireland, the Netherlands and at Cadiz the hazards of inexperienced gentlemen being appointed to command positions. | Ralph Berry says ‘class as motivation is central to motivation in Othello. |
| “It must not be. If Cassio do remain, he hath a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly.” | Iago’s self-serving speech suggests that he is deeply hostile towards Iago: a hostility that perhaps stems from class antagonism. Class is the single-most and defining aspect of the relationship between Iago and Cassio. | ||
| Iago: “Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carract. If it prove lawful prize, he’s made forever.” Cassio: “I do not understand.” | The central feature of this passage is in emphasizing that Cassio and Iago have a communication problem: “I do not understand.” Iago shrouds his communication in metaphor. Arguably, Cassio understands Iago’s words, but rejects the register of the discourse and its attempts to situate Cassio within Iago’s linguistic milieu. When Cassio claims not to understand Iago’s communication, he rejects the offensive code employed of someone by a lower social status. Key in this is that Cassio and Iago employ different speech codes based on social class. | ||
| Cassio: “Let it not gall your patience, good Iago, That I extend my manners; ‘tis my breeding that gives me this bold show of courtesy.” | Shakespeare confirms Cassio’s social superiority in the gentlemanly courtesies he extends to the wife of a colleague of a lower social class, even commenting on the gaping social gulf between them. | ||
| Cassio: “Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation, I have lost the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!” | Desperate repetition of ‘reputation’ – importance of one’s reputation, social standing as a man of status – long-living, more so than the corporeal body. Self-interestedness of the personal pronoun, ‘my.’ Exclamative – devastation at loss of his status. This loss of respectability is mirrored in Shakespeare’s choice of prose rather traditional meter. Essential part of reputation in Venetian life – delegates power, respectability, and morality. In this way, Iago defrauds the corruption inherent to even Venetian society, forming a microcosm for the larger social landscape through Othello’s Venetians. Reputation is a greater quality than the merit of one’s character or achievements – Iago implies Cassio was promoted through corrupt favoritism, not merit. |
CONSENUS BETWEEN OTHELLO AND IAGO – VALUE OF EGALITARIANISM AND ACHIEVEMENT
| QUOTATION | MEANING | CONTEXT | CRITICAL VIEW |
| Othello: “My parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?” | Ordinarily, we might accuse such certainty of his services to the state as being hubristic, but his racial status relieves him of such a label. He demonstrates a belief in the show of his history of achievements and ability ‘broils and battles’ that Iago believes he has been denied. | The portrayal of Othello as existing within the uppermost ranks reflects the contemporary ethnic diversity of Venice in which the interchange between Europe, Africa, and Asia became common – in Venice, many African moors achieved the highest ranks in society, such as Allesandro de Medici who ruled Florence. | ‘Othello’s tragedy is that he lives according to a set of stories through which eh interprets the world…He is living the life of a chivalric warrior in a world run by money and self-interest.’ – Sean McEvoy |
| Iago: “Not to affect many proposed matches of her own clime, complexion and degree, whereto we see, in all things nature tends” | Iago awakens Othello’s mind to the alien nature of his relationship, of early prejudices to racial miscegenation as a gross betrayal of a ‘natural order’ – Othello’s fragile self-image, inextricably tied to how Desdemona validates him, collapses at thought of his social inferiority. Iago exposes Othello to realizing the gap in age, sympathy, and manners between him and Desdemona – this incongruity lends some credence to the insinuation that the marriage cannot last. According to the racialized prejudices of the Jacobean audience, which stress the supremacy of white characters, Othello’s very presence as a military commander, sitting at the top of the social strata and married to a white woman of high wealth and esteem would all appear very ‘unnatural’ – the tragedy of Othello meets at this intersection of race and class. |
“My parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?”
INTRODUCTION: Through Othello, Shakespeare explores all the gradations of social class that colored his contemporary society, revealing the corruption that courses throughout long-standing, once infallible institutions like military rank. Shakespeare depicts Iago as an insurrectionist, impelled to the destruction of such a hierarchy from the inside and determined to bring about the anarchy and order in which all notions of authoritarian power are destroyed. The class antagonism between Iago and Cassio emphasizes the falsehoods upon which the exterior walls of Venetian class society were built: the communicative codes of blank verse necessarily exclude the ‘vulgarian’ figures of Othello and Iago. Othello’s assimilationism into the world of gentility and manners produces resentment and jealousy in Iago; the former betrays the value of egalitarianism that Iago holds sacred. Thus, the genesis of the tragic course lies in the hierarchy of social class – an inevitable consequence of greed, egotism and power relations – and the attempt to destroy its bearings in the colony of Cyprus.
– Tara Flynn
Hello all,
Below is an essay plan on the portrayal of Desdemona in Othello. I hope it’ll be able to provide some inspiration for some essays of your own. In the lead-up to exams, it’s always a good idea to plan out potential essays; there is particular impetus to plan one out for Desdemona considering a character question on her has yet to appear in past exam papers. I hope the rough plan below will be useful!
Explore the presentation of the character Desdemona in the play.
“O these men, these men! Dost thou in conscience think […] that there women do abuse their husbands in such gross kind.”
Main argument = Desdemona is a character in whom love endures, even empowering her being – this virtue renders her a paragon of wifely virtue. However, the key to her undoing is that whilst she loves Othello, she does not fully understand him, and her venetian sympathies only estrange her further from their marital course. That is not to say, however, that she lacks affection for Othello. A.C. Bradley’s understanding of Desdemona as “helplessly passive” unfairly diminishes her character, in setting the example of Christian kindness regarding how to avoid hate of self or other, she upholds Erasmu’s conception of the woman warrior.
Dramatic function = Despite subscribing to the patriarchal dogma of her age, in her Venetian confidence of her own merit, und innocent to even the suspect of jealousy, she is tragically unaware of the dangers of the masculine ego: she maintains that her husband is better than such a base emotion, even when faced with the violence of his fury and is ultimately killed upon its altar. In this way, she commits herself to the fate of martyrdom. The ironic truth of her faithfulness turns her death into a call to arms for women. In death, Desdemona becomes a saint: “heavenly true.”
Sub-argument one: Self-assertion of earlier scenes – interference in military matters and Cassio’s reinstatement – compared to her seeming passivity of the latter half of the play – dichotomized person.
Despite Brabantio’s characterization of her as a “maid never bold” (Act 1, Scene 3), there are key moments in the play that present Desdemona’s assertiveness and self-assuredness.
Desdemona: “Why then, tomorrow night, or Tuesday morn; On Tuesday, noon or night; on Wednesday morn! I prithee name the time, but let it not exceed three days.” [3.3.63] [Bv]
Desdemona takes liberties with her husbands that refute the patriarchal standard for female subservience, a public notion as Cassio declares her ‘Our great captain’s captain,’ that in her request for Cassio’s reinstatement she oversteps her boundary – military affairs do not involve her. Her officiousness in military matters might even be interpreted as a colonial attitude. The pushiness implicit in the repeated time frames could be taken as emasculating.
Desdemona: “My noble father, I do perceive her a divided duty. To you I am bound for life and education:” / “And so much duty as my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father.” [1.3.180] [Bv]
The transfer, however, is represented not as a violation or betrayal but an affirmation of traditional order. In moving from father to husband, Desdemona claims to be reenacting the movement of her own mother from her father to Brabantio himself. In this exchange of loyalty and duty, she nowhere affirms her own rights against the prerogatives of male authority and therefore does not seem to challenge but reinforce the structure of order on which Brabantio’s own authority is based.
CRITICAL VIEW: ‘Desdemona becomes a stereotype of female passivity.’ – Lisa Jardine
Sub-argument two: Cultural estrangement from husband – naïve disconnectedness. Although Desdemona is secure among Venetians, she is insecure and uneasy in her marriage to a man she does not fully understand e.g., even she refers to Othello as the ‘moor’ implying estrangement.
Desdemona: “I saw Othello’s visage in his mind and to his honours and his valiant parts.”/ ” If I be left behind, a moth of peace, and he go to war, the rites for which I love him are bereft me.” / “Let me go with him.” [1.3.254] [Bv]
This implicit denial of physical attraction shows that Desdemona tries to separate Othello’s essential humanity from his appearance, but it also shows that she is sensitive to and disquieted by the insinuations that there must be something unnatural in such a love. She does not say that she found Othello’s blackness beautiful but that she saw his visage in his mind
Emilia: “Is he not jealous?” / Desdemona: “I think the sun where he was born drew all such humours from him.” [3.4.30]
Naivety and uncertain racial assimilation; pathetic irony of Desdemona’s claim that the ‘sun where he was born drew all humours from him,” linkage between hot climates and hot passions was an Elizabethan cliché.
CRITICAL VIEW: ‘She sees the image of her ideal warrior, is liable to experience moments of revulsion from the strange passionate creature she as yet knows so little.’ – Maud Bodkin
Sub-Argument three: Bewilderment, out of her depth, but not necessarily defeated in her marriage – Christian warrior in her charitable courage of sacrificing her reputation or honour, not dared by any male in the play, as a self-proclaimed suicide to save Othello.
Desdemona: “These men, these men! Dost thou in conscience think – tell me Emilia – that there women do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?” [4.3.60]
Loving and being loved means everything to Desdemona. When she believes she has lost Othello’s love, she loses herself; unlike her self-assertion in earlier scenes, she seems unsure and even infantile as she laments her lost love rather than recognizing the precarity of Othello’s mental state. Desdemona’s incredulity about sexual promiscuity reflects the patriarchal demands of Renaissance men; she sees it as an absolute that is worth more than her life.
Othello: “Are you not a strumpet?” / Desdemona: “No, as I am a Christian. If to preserve this vessel for my lord from any hated foul unlawful touch be not to be a strumpet, I am none.” [4.2.84]
CRITICAL VIEW: [Desdemona] ‘accepts her cultures dictum that she must be obedient to males and is self-denying in the extreme when she dies.’ – Marian Cox
| QUOTATION | ANALYSIS | CONTEXT | CRITICAL VIEWS |
| Cassio: “A maid/ That paragons all description” (Act 2, Scene 1) | Key element of Desdemona’s characterization is her innocence, virtue and loyalty that all denote her status as the perfect ‘maiden.’ The sole sin that she might possess is her ignorance of the machinations of military culture, inevitably creating friction between her and Othello. | Pathetic irony of Desdemona’s claim that the ‘sun where he was born drew all humours from him,” linkage between hot climates and hot passions was an Elizabethan cliché. Subordination of women to men; all that they owned would become their husband’s possessions. Venice was though of as a city notorious for its sexual liberties it offered to its inhabitants e.g., Othello calls Desdemona the “whore of Venice.” | “[Female] characters divide into virgins and saints or whores and devils.” -Marian Cox “[Desdemona] accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males and is self-denying in the extreme when she dies.” – Marilyn French Play is “a tragedy of incomprehension, not at the level of intrigue but at the very deepest level of human dealings.” – John Bayley |
| Emilia: “Is he not jealous?” / Desdemona: “I think the sun where he was born drew all such humours from him.” [3.4.30] | Desdemona is tragically unaware of the dangers of the masculine ego: she maintains that her husband is better than such a base emotion, even when faced with the violence of his fury. Her naïve outlook on married life is dichotomized with the incredulity of her female counsel, Emilia. Her cultural estrangement from her husband – even if she finds it alluring – might explain the critical paradox in Desdemona’s behavior: the contrast between her independence and aggressiveness in Venice and her helplessness and passivity in Cyprus. | ||
| Desdemona: “My noble father, I do perceive her a divided duty. To you I am bound for life and education:” / “And so much duty as my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father.” [1.3.180] | Much like her husband, Othello, Desdemona is often placed in the middle of tensions: for instance, between Othello and Brabantio, and Othello and Cassio. Her diplomacy and empathy is brought to the forefront. She is altruistic to the extreme. And so, in these ventures, the conflicts of the play eventually meet their forceful ends at her death. | ||
| Desdemona: “Prithee, tonight lay on my bed, my wedding sheets; remember, and call my husband hither.” [4.2.107] [Bv] | Although Desdemona is secure among Venetians, she is insecure and uneasy in her marriage to a man she does not fully understand.” She responds to Othello’s jealousy with the tragically inappropriate reflexes of a Venetian lady. Asking Emilia to make the bed with their wedding sheets, these gestures are intensely ironic because they reflect her lack of understanding of Othello. , | ||
| Othello: “Are you not a strumpet?” / Desdemona: “No, as I am a Christian. If to preserve this vessel for my lord from any hated foul unlawful touch be not to be a strumpet, I am none.” [4.2.84] | Despite Brabantio’s characterization of her as a “maid never bold” (Act 1, Scene 3), there are key moments in the play that present Desdemona’s assertiveness and self-assuredness. | ||
| Desdemona: “I saw Othello’s visage in his mind and to his honours and his valiant parts.”/ ” If I be left behind, a moth of peace, and he go to war, the rites for which I love him are bereft me.” / “Let me go with him.” [1.3.254] [Bv] | In the beginning of the play, Desdemona’s love has the ability to lift her spirits and liberate her from the rigorous demands of the Venetian state. Love empowers he in this regard in the declarative that she makes to the senate: “Let me go with him.” Her unconditional love endures to the very end. She is faithful to him in mid and body, rendering her a paragon of wifely virtue. | ||
| Desdemona: “If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me one of these same sheets.” [4.3.24] | At the end of the play, Desdemona commits herself to the fate of martyrdom. Her dialogue increasingly becomes morose and mournful, a key departure from the colorful imagery from earlier. Her compliance with her fate might be interpreted as a surrender, or even as a strength of will. The ironic truth of her faithfulness turns her death into a call to arms for women. In death, Desdemona becomes a saint: “heavenly true.” (Act 5, Scene 2) |
Below is the introduction to an essay on Desdemona that was planned out in Mr Durrant’s class so note that it doesn’t correspond to some of the ideas written in the plan above.
“I have not deserved this.” [4.1]
According to Marilyn French, Desdemona possesses a “masculine assertiveness” that is opposed by an “obedience to males,” which interprets Desdemona as a character “divided.’” Caught between the Elizabethan hegemonic ideal of masculinity and her own latent sense of liberty, even female rebelliousness, which is more obviously embodied in Emilia. Desdemona functions as a tragic victim of these divisions, fulfilling by act five the view that she is little more than a ‘passive character’ overwhelmed by the misogyny of the male characters.
Below is an essay question for Othello that Mr Durrants’ class planned last week. I hope it will be useful.
EXPLORE SHAKESPEARE’S PRESENTATION OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF LANGUAGE IN OTHELLO.
| CRITICAL VIEWS (AO5) |
| F.R. Leavis comments that the theme of the tragedy is concentrated in Othello’s final speech. Grennan – “The speech of the women … occupies a pivotal understanding in the play’s moral world” |
POINTS TO CONSIDER:
| OTHELLO AND LANGUAGE Charts his downfall – mental disintegration. Lower citizen according to racialised hierarchies Uncertainty in using language / confidence in material achievements – “My parts, my title, and my perfect soul” Outsider status to the refinement of Venice Physical and dynamic force, versed in “feats of broil and battle”: perhaps, this is the reason why Iago’s deft persuasion is so effective and unfamiliar to him? | |||
| QUOTATION | ANALYSIS | CONTEXT | CRITICAL VIEWS |
| Othello: “Rude am I in my speech and little blest with the soft phrase of peace,” [in blank verse] / “Feats of broil and battle” | Despite his hesitation, Othello speaks with a measured calm in blank verse, typically reserved for civilized conversation – clashing of confidence (“My parts, my title and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly”) and uncertainty about his status and his abilities – outsider to the refinement of Venice. Othello is more characterized as a corporeal, dynamic force from his ‘feats of broil and battle.’ | Galenic system of humours (Renaissance humanism) – Othello identifies with a choleric temperament: jealous, ambitious, vengeful. Inherent racialised hierarchies for Jacobean audiences: Othello ought to be in the lower caste accordingly (Great Chain of Being) Racial other; conscious of his status | “Othello’s fatal flaw is his credulity” – Kenneth Muir “Othello’s tragedy is that he lives according to a set of stories through which he interprets the world… He is living the life of a chivalric warrior in a world run my money and self-interest.” – Sean McEvoy “He is a stranger, a man of alien race.” – Helen Gardner |
| Othello: “O blood, blood, blood!” / Othello kneels [3.3.454] | Asyndetic repetition, exclamative – obsessive focus on bloodlust, submits to defeat and even racial stereotyping | ||
| Othello: “O, vain boast, who can control his fate?” / “Where should Othello go? Now: dost where thou look now? O ill-starred wench, pale as thy smock. When we shall meet at compt this look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven and fiends will snatch at it.” | Rhetorical questioning and third-person: induced insanity. Disassociation from physical frame invoked by the third-person. | ||
AO2 LANGUAGE ANALYSIS OF ACT 4, SCENE 1: BIANCA
Establishing his social superiority and his contempt for Bianca by insulting her (‘fitchew’), Cassio feels molested, ‘haunted’ by here mere presence.
Yet, still, her social inferiority assuages his concerns for his own status – he takes joy in her dependence upon him as she ‘hangs and lolls and weeps upon [him].’
Despite the prose marking her as a low-status character, she grasps power in the violent confrontation of her language (“Let the devil and his dam haunt you!”), making insulting exclamatives and a tone of incredulity that betrays her inner sense of esteem, otherwise robbed of her by the nature of her social background as a female prostitute.
“Rude am I in speech and little blest with the soft phrases of peace.”
Shakespeare employs different varieties of language to demonstrate in Othello, in all the violence and chaos that is engendered, the great power of language to meld and manipulate the human mind (Renaissance humanism): language is the mobilisation of hierarchies of power and status in action.
Iago revels in the falseness of his performance, of “outward action,” but his self-identification as the villain of the play immediately tips the audience’s favour in Othello’s direction (despite any existing racial prejudices of the Jacobean audience). However, due to being held audience to his dramatic monologues, typical of a tragedy’s villain, we are caught in his schemes even as passive spectators; the dramatic irony of the play forces the audience into an uneasy complicity with Iago’s villainy.
Othello, in contrast, is most familiar with ‘feats of broil and battle’ that might require the actor on the stage to perform as a more corporeal, dynamic force comparative to others in the play.
Iago is a metacharacter in that he undoes the typical expectations of an actor: that is to create a convincing illusion of reality by converting dialogue into speech, script into natural behaviour. Instead, he turns his ostensible impromptu speech back into dialogue and script – note his inversion of biblical verse, “I am not what I am.” It is appropriate, therefore, for A.C.Bradley to claim he is the ‘chief playwright’ because his Janus-like profile reveals knavery to us but “honesty” to his Venetian fellow.” Iago, as a character, emblematizes the pervasive duplicity of Shakespeare’s work, that of making a play that matches life.
At the end of the play, it is Iago’s lack of speech, “Demand me nothing. What you know, you know” that defines him – truth that we are so anxious to know dissolves into silence
Play uses discriminatory descriptions, such as “Thick lips,” “Sooty bosom,” “Lascivious moor,” regarding Othello’s race in order to reinforce Jacobean prejudices against Black African residents in England and the growing European participation the slave trade is reflected in Iago and Roderigo’s comments towards Othello. Othello’s sexual relationship is seen as unnatural, establishing a black-white binary from the beginning. The crudeness in which Iago and Roderigo speak might further undermine the authority of the Great Chain of Being which informed much of Iago’s racial ideology, as he subjects him to animalistic imagery as a “Beast of two backs;” perhaps, through this blunt, dysphemistic language, Shakespeare holds a mirror to the manufactured setting of Jacobean prejudice.
The first monologue of the play is given at the duke’s discretion as he asks, “What in your part can you say to this?”, implying that Othello requires permission in the public sphere to speak at will. This makes an interesting parallel to how Desdemona is permitted to speak, ‘I pray you, hear her speak,’ here emerges a complicated intertangling of gendered and racial hierarchies manifested in speech. Both Othello and Desdemona are marginalized from the public sphere by nature of their ascribed statuses.
Grennan comments that “The speech of the women … occupies a pivotal understanding in the play’s moral world” and it is Desdemona’s powerful declarative, “I have not deserved this.” As the clipped line makes a sharp departure from the regularity of the iambic pentameter, she too cuts through the mystification of moral groundings of the play as she demands why she, who has made no false action, is being punished.
Othello: “Rude am I in my speech and little blest with the soft phrase of peace,” [in blank verse] Despite Othello’s unsurety in his practice of civilised speech, he demonstrates the ability to deftly compose a measured form of blank verse as to his needs in his monologued depiction of his and Desdemona’s courtship, thus the audience bears witness to his communicative faculties that lead the duke to admit, “Your son-in-law is more fair than black”.
Progressively, throughout the play, however, we observe that he is increasingly robbed of his abilities of communication that is in stark contrast to the confident (even bordering upon hubristic) declaratives of his earlier statements that “My parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall serve me rightly.”
Indeed, as Kenneth Muir writes, “Othello’s fatal flaw is his credulity” and what demonstrates this hamartia better than his failure to grasp the signs of language – signifiers and the signified fail to exist in any dramatic reality, ensnared in the Bradley-like doubled illusions of Iago represented in his ironic subversion – “I am not what I am.”
Shakespeare, tracing the course of Othello and Desdemona’s marriage, from their covert marriage merely appearing as husband and wife upon the stage in act one, scene three that is, at this point, perfectly harmonious from the rich, romantic tapestry of chivalric love evoked from their shared lines of pentameter, “O my fair warrior!” / My dear Othello!” By act 4, their relationship has been irredeemably fractured, even beknownst to Desdemona in the cruel irony of their dialogue, “The handkerchief!” “I pray, talk me of Cassio.” “The handkerchief!” stresses the interplay of direct and indirect speech, stressing the newly broken chasm between their once-perfect harmony.
Concluding: As a playwright himself, Shakespeare knows all too well the power that language, both implicatory and suggestive, can hold on and enmesh the human mind. It is the method by which our social world and relations come to fruition. Othello’s tragedy is a consequence of his failure to express – produced more of social unsurety than ability. He is destroyed by the symbolic value of language to Venetian society; something that he fails to comprehend by the end of the play.
“I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear.”
For Grennan, as dramatic means and thematic ends, ‘speech is of vital importance to this play.’ Othello explores a cross-section of Jacobean society, presenting a variety of language representing race, gender, and social status – more specifically, the antagonisms between European and the ‘other,’ male and female, wealthy and the destitute. Finally, Shakespeare’s purpose is to engage the audience in the characters’ power struggles, dynamics and often, their powerlessness as revealed in the language they use. For Honnigman, Iago enjoys a ‘God-like sense of power’; this power is manifested most obviously in his manipulative use of language.
Hello All,
Apologies for the long hiatus, but we are back in action having completed our mocks. Many thanks to Efe and Alex for filling in whilst we were gone. In the coming weeks, look forward to an abundance of English content.
The following is an in-class Othello essay that I wrote in Year 12. It was given full marks for its eloquent expression with a flair for incorporating the wider socio-religious contexts. Looking back, there are sections where my line of argument loses clarity from being excessively verbose. I would have also liked to have included a structural addition in terms of the features of greek tragedy.
Explore the Presentation of Fate in Othello.
‘What may you be? Are you of good or evil?’
Shakespeare explores, through Othello, the tension between the tragic inescapability of external forces and the notion of free will as heralded by Renaissance humanist thought. In this, the audience is left a victim of fate as a mystifying force that obscures the ‘cause’ of Othello’s downfall, that of masking the malevolence of man in Iago’s schemes. As Lytton Strachey notes, ‘[Iago’s] wickedness should lie far deeper than anything that could be explained by a motive’ wherein the blurring boundary of ‘cause’ may be ascribed to an attempt of absolution, negating, and overlooking man’s own involvement. Fate is but a convenient pretext that separates man from the terrors of his own action. This becomes evident in Iago’s drafting of the tragic narrative — a figure that encapsulates the human potential to ‘follow but [himself].’ Thus, Othello’s own tragic journey is a signifier of a Renaissance drift from assumptions of Calvinist predestination to a point of ambiguity where human motives, whilst elusive, drive the tragic momentum of the play. As the audience, we are left to distinguish between the ‘fated’ and ‘free’ parts of life. Our tendency and capacity to transcend these cultural and normative barriers: Othello ultimately falls prey to this tension, unable to wrench himself free; his demise is ultimately a product of his own actions.
In all purposes, Iago appears as a puppeteer of fate: he is a figure who probes, questions and actively transgresses against traditionalist Christian discourse which provided members of Jacobean society with identities, moral constraints, and ideas of political dominance and submission like that observed of ‘lieutenant’ Cassio and Othello, his general. Graham Bradshaw writes that Iago is ‘Shakespeare’s most extraordinary example of a dramatist.’ Even Iago appears to relish in the role, within one soliloquy, he makes direct address to the audience to, ‘And what’s he then that says I play the villain.’ As a character, he possesses a double awareness, that of his purposeless purposiveness and in his dramatic function as a ‘villain’ to Othello of ‘noble nature.’ The ‘he’ that relates to the audience is both accusatory and dismissive whereby Iago, now a figure of fate, is to be observed by the audience that is to occupy a role of pseudo-divinity, of ‘Heaven [as his] judge.’ Perhaps, the ‘motiveless malignity’ (that Coleridge writes of) provides the audience little catharsis for ‘what you know: you know,’ relegating the audience, his witness, to the perilous occupation of the divine in the emergence of the enlightenment and dawn of secularism. The narrative of the play is so deftly intertwined to Iago’s Machiavellian machinations that it indeed does become ‘Iago’s play’ in wielding power and authority to influence even the ‘peculiar end[s]’ of other characters. Indeed, he becomes the external force, of uncontrollable and elusive circumstance’ upon which Othello’s fall is predicated. Iago acts a secular agent, yet with the fluidity of the divine in shaping creation, his Renaissance didacticism that ‘our bodies are gardens to which our wills are gardeners’ as an extended metaphor, constructed upon ironic reference to the Garden Eden that calls for the allocation of free ‘will’ — notably, it is the notion of ‘will’ as an idea of self-determination to seek a balance of psychological interiority that is also a sentence of moral culpability. The prose in which he speaks denotes the blasphemic error of his speech, rejecting the Calvinist dialogue of predestination but also in a solicitation of moral repercussion. Shakespeare, in his manifestation of Iago, may represent an undeniable fact of the endemic presence in human society, that of pointless malevolence towards one’s fellow beings (‘honest knaves’) that presents the inexhaustibility of this ethical mystery to those that believe that human behaviour may be rationally governed. Shakespeare’s exploration of the hubris of the ‘villain’ who expedites the tragic momentum of the play also navigates the peril of the virtues of Christian predestination and the potential evil inherent to man’s free will.
Throughout Othello, the audience is at confrontation with a critical paradigm shift wherein myths of progress and liberation of the Enlightenment begin to connect to modern notions of self. S.L.Bethell describes this dynamic through the character lenses that ‘Othello [and] Iago’ participate in the age-long warfare of good and evil.’ The dichotomy between the ‘noble nature’ of Othello, rallied by a tragic narrative of the extrinsic forces upon him and the ‘motiveless malignity’ of Iago in the brutality of being his own ‘master.’ The immediate detachment of ‘virtue, a fig;’ he begins by emptying himself of all categories of virtue and kindness, in regard to that of ‘virtue’ as a Greco-Christian pursuit of good and the related notion of a fixed human nature in harmony with larger cosmic structures. It is Iago’s essential duplicity that frames him as ‘good’ or ‘honest’ to Othello preying upon his trusting character. The fact that Iago can harness this vulnerability to ‘make the moor thank me, love me, and reward me for making him egregiously an ass.’ This praise from the antagonist distinguishes his ‘fated virtue’ into an intellectual error deriving from the supposed ‘honesty’ that initially promoted him. Iago, architect of fate, manifests Othello’s character as an ‘honourable murderer,’ this oxymoron that negates his involvement as ‘[Othello] smothers [Desdemona.’ The final judgement that ‘naught did I in hate, but all in honour’ is a judgement affirmed by all on stage as it is noted that Iago has been the diabolical cause of all the evil that has transpired. However, in this web of necessity and plausibility, to ‘enmesh ‘em all,’ he has destroyed Othello’s own charge of innocence. Thus, the play seems to weigh in favour of the transformation of English Renaissance society from a theocentric, hierarchy stagnancy to one liberated from older traditional restraints to a ‘modern’ secular form in the dark figure of Iago.
Othello, as a play, reduces moral culpability, self-responsibility, and the consequences of one’s actions as being ‘fated’ or naturally hierarchical. The purity of living such an existence, that of being free from vice, is best seen in Desdemona in her abidance of socially normative gender roles. Where Wilson Knight remarks that ‘Othello just misses tragic dignity,’ we can account for it satisfactorily when accounting for Desdemona. Othello regards his actions, even having slain her, as being the direction of the ‘chaste stars.’ The lexical and syntactical breakdown of the final scene in his speech demonstrates the chaos within his decision, torn by questioning that of ‘what’s best to do?’ even his denial of her existence in ‘what wife?’ He is condemned by the audience for his cruel apathy, rooted in the chaos of his own self-destruction, denying the audience of any catharsis or respite. In Desdemona, she too is initially bound by prophetic foreshadowing of ‘Look to her moor, if thou hast eyes to see, she has deceived her father and may deceive thee.’ It is key to note the imperative verbal form of ‘look,’ that Desdemona is the observed centres her in the futility of patriarchal drama in her passivity then culminating in her death. Her final statement of, ‘kill me tomorrow’ acquiescing to a Christian ‘lie’ of female martyrdom, a sinless saint, that the Jacobean audience must witness fall as a cruel, yet beautifying subject of fate.
To conclude, within Othello, Shakespeare incorporates two mutually exclusive ideologies — a morality play of free will, temptation, ‘master’ and ‘servant,’ and a predestination theology. In the centre of this theological conflict, the audience must confront of the faint influence of God in Othello; yet in this play, seemingly forsaken by the divine, playgoers are forced to confront the Reformist Protestant doctrine of predestination, left to in the labyrinthine mire of human motive.
— Tara Flynn
Been a long time.
As you all know the English Blog has recently had a significant roster change due to the Yr13s working on A-Levels and carving concrete, unwinding and ambiguous paths towards the rest of our lives. But now that we are all free from A-Levels and have a long summer ahead of us, I want to return to posting on the blog until the Yr12s finish their Mocks. Since the next English test is on Othello, I thought it would be fitting to post one of my weaker Othello essays alongside the WWW’s and Targets. It received 18/21 for A01, A02 and A03 (Level 5), and it received 9/14 for A05 (Level 4). As a challenge/revision task, you could try doing this essay yourselves and see how you would have navigated around it.
While having critics is very important for A05, you do not need submerge your essay with critical quotations. You need to be judicious in your selection of critics and critiques, thinking about to what extent they reinforce, contradict or offer insightful comparison to your thesis. Because you never know what question could come up it is important that you have a wealth of critics from different eras and Schools of Thought (Post-Colonial, Liberationist, Feminists) in your back- pocket. Along with the Critical Anthology, I also used my revision guide, MASSOLIT lectures (word to my guy John), critique from Zadie Smith and books such as Fearing the Black Body. Information is luckily and scarily a renewable resource thanks to the internet, and it is up to us to take advantage of that privilege.
Explore how Shakespeare presents the character of Emilia in Othello.
Strengths (A01,A02, A03): Controlled argument. Elements of sophisticated analysis. Relevant contextual factors considered.
Targets: Develop last 2 paragraphs with more focus on the final scene.
Strengths (A05): Relevant critical views. Feminist Reading of Emilia.
Targets: More developed engagement with critical reading.
Shakespeare presents Emilia through her own autonomous paradigm, revolutionary for an Elizabethan/Jacobean society as women were expected to be obedient to their husbands in a patriarchal system. Embodying what many critics have identified as Prototypical Feminist values, her ultimate loyalty to Desdemona ends up being the peripeteia of ‘clever’ Iago (E.A.J. Honigmann), putting a final end to his ‘motiveless malignity’ (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), and thus bringing collective catharsis to audiences who have been complicit yet paralyzed accomplices to the transpiring tragedy.
From the exposition of Emilia’s nuanced characterization, she is demonstrated to have divided loyalties between the socially engrained obligation to her husband even in spite of his Machiavellian machinations, and her friendship with Desdemona. The reverence and loyalty to Desdemona is exemplified through her repeated usage of ‘madam’ and ‘mistress’ when referring to Desdemona. At a time when reputation and prestige’s importance was omnipresent, honouring her with the proper title would have conveyed her ‘fellow-feeling’ to Desdemona to a contemporary audience. Additionally, this reinforces the aforementioned analysis that her depiction embodied Prototypical Feminist values. Alternatively, she is still ‘glad I have found this napkin’, saying ‘it was the first remembrance of the moor’. This could hint at her inherent duplicity, incentivizing both contemporary and modern audiences to question the strength of her values if they can so easily be sacrificed for her ‘wayward husband’. Furthermore, the dynamic verb ‘wooed’ used to describe Iago’s influence over her implies a lack control. This lack of control is difficult to reconcile with the previously mentioned autonomous paradigm.
However despite her surface-level submission to Iago’s whims, their dialogue in Act 3 highlights her Prototypical Feminist values. Despite being maligned with the pejorative ‘Good wench!’, there is still a noticeable staccato rhythm in their dialogue. This shows that Iago is unable to unequivocally dominate per his modus operandi. The emphatic question ‘What will you give me now for that same handkerchief?’ spotlights that Emilia leverages the very little power the patriarchal system grants her to her benefit. As a result this presents her as a strong character navigating an inequitable society.
As this play was performed at a very liminal stage of British history between the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) and Jacobean reign, Shakespeare may have employed the construct of Emilia as a continuation of depicting transgressive women like he had done with Porsha and Lady Macbeth in his surrounding offerings. While Shakespeare is usually more explorative, his formulation of Emilia sends a didactic/moralistic message about the perils of underestimating their own autonomous paradigm.
Throughout Act 3, Emilia’s inner turmoil is foreshadowed through lines like ‘Poor lady, she’ll run mad when she shall lack it’, indicating that she feels a sense of female solidarity with Desdemona. This strengthens the interpretations that she embodies Prototypical Feminist values. In Act 4, through her expository and sobering dialogue to Desdemona, those values are delved into deeper. When describing the relationship between men and women, she does so using a gruesome semantic field of consumption. ‘They are all but stomachs and we all but food’ essentialises the male-female dynamic into a crass back and forth where women are disempowered and are the prey for predators. This is an example of Shakespeare’s ability to ‘transcend temporal boundaries’-Open University- as this idea of women being treated as disposable commodities has been re-introduced or revitalized in the public zeitgeist through the Me Too movement. From a modern feminist perspective, Emilia, being older and assumed wiser, may have been warning a less experienced Desdemona about the ‘Janus’ ways of misogyny. Confiding and commiserating has been an essential part of female survival for eons and Shakespeare communicates that it also an integral part of feminine kinship.
Conversely, her not identifying that she was a complicit co-conspirator in teasing Othello’s hamartia of Jealousy puts her label of Prototypical Feminist in limbo. ‘But Jealous for jealous’, this repetition reinforces Emilia’s manipulation as it presents Othello’s dire distortion as sudden and irrational instead of a natural result of the schemes she participated in. Regardless, the staccato rhythm that trademarked her earlier conversation with Iago returns when she refuses the allegations/speculations of Othello about Desdemona’s infidelity. She repeats ‘never’, creating a stunted and impenetrable dialogue, symbolizing the strength of her friendship and bravery.
In the final Act, Emilia’s loyalty to Desdemona is presented to be the ultimate unprecedented downfall of Iago. ‘Blacker devil’ is what she condemns murderous Othello as, wielding regressive racist tropes to solidify her point. There is also a transformation/anagnorisis in her finally autonomous paradigm, where she uses more declaratives like ‘Disprove this villain, if thou be’st man’ and shirks her divided duty by not obeying Iago.
In conclusion, it cannot be determined whether Shakespeare truly intended to use Emilia as a revolutionary, Proto Feminist because despite her allusions to progression, she employs slut-shaming to admonish Bianca. She calls her a ‘strumpet’ and praises Desdemona as being ‘chaste’, reproducing the same patriarchal harm she has been forced to navigate and reinforcing the Whore-Madonna Complex that inextricably links a woman’s value to her sexuality. This renders all of them, all women stuck in a paradigm of patriarchy’s creation. Despite this, her death may have brought a sense of collective catharsis, allowing audiences of all vantage points to ruminate on the themes Emilia’s depiction brings beyond the surface level.
Even though my analysis game stays strong, if I were to re-do this essay I would have used a lot more judicious quotations and explored them more seamlessly with my selected critics
Hope this was helpful and that my Attempt was sufficient enough!
All thee best
Emoefeoghene (Efe)
Here’s an essay written on the theme of Reputation in ‘Othello’, by William Shakespeare. The essay was marked as Level 5 and noted especially for its discussion of critics. However, the essay could have included an analysis of Iago’s reputation of being ‘honest’, a trait whose falseness is hidden to all but the audience through his 5 soliloquies – until the play’s end. The essay also lacked a discussion of the link between Cassio and Machiavelli due to their joint origin of Florence. This can be seen in italics in the second sub-argument.
Explore how Shakespeare presents the theme of reputation in ‘Othello’.
Throughout ‘Othello’, William Shakespeare tackles the theme of reputation by damning the tragic hero, Othello, and Cassio into a world of chaos, orchestrated by the villain, Iago. Underpinning the elusiveness of reputation through interrelational developments, Shakespeare ultimately presents the theme as being unachievable for outsiders, like Moors, though easily restorable for insiders.
Firstly, Othello’s relationship to reputation is presented as unnavigable in a world that cannot accept the colour of his skin. In Act 1 Scene 2, Othello’s nobility is explored when he says, ‘I fetch my life and being / from men of royal siege’. This suggests that Othello was born into a noble, yet “exotic”, household, and implies that his position in Venice is not above his birth rank. This would have been an interesting notion to comprehend for the Jacobean audience in a nation that had just begun participating in the sub-Saharan slave trade (1562). In her commentary of the play’s dealing with race, Ania Loomba stated that Othello is of both ‘slave past and noble lineage’. This contemporary understanding of blackamoors being slaves may have affiliated Othello with an inherent duplicity, with the Jacobean audience arguably resenting a character of African descent holding such rank in Venice. If it is considered that Venice is a foil for London in the play, Loomba’s musing on the confusion surrounding the character of Othello’s reputation is further proven through Queen Elizabeth I’s attempted deportation of people of “that kind” from her country. Perhaps Shakespeare, therefore, is presenting reputation as transient for the tragic hero. Through this, it might be that Shakespeare is playing with the classical Aristotelian tragic custom of the hero beginning the play with high rank and reputation, making it uncertain as to whether Othello does begin with any sense of creditable nobility. In saying this, it could be argued that Loomba’s insight loses some credibility as his ‘noble lineage’ seems to be made uncertain by his race. This is strengthened by Leavis’ mocking of Shakespeare’s tragic hero, writing that Othello has ‘histrionic intent’. This might be alluding to Othello’s essential duality in the play, as expressed through Iago’s racially charged insults in the play’s first scene, calling Othello a ‘black ram’ and a ‘barbary horse’ as well as Loomba’s commentary, that Othello cannot navigate being both of nobility and slavery. Leavis’ understanding of Othello seems to undo Loomba’s concept of ‘noble lineage’ as he suggests that the hero merely plays a role and is of a reputation only accessible through his unstable rank amongst the Venetians, and not any familial lineage. Therefore, despite Othello being from ‘royal siege’, the distrust and barbaric nature associated with his race, being reduced to a ‘ram’ or a ‘horse’, predestines him to seek a reputation that is ultimately elusive and unachievable, evidenced by his epiphany in Act 5 Scene 2, where he pleads to the Venetian authorities: ‘I pray you… speak of me as I am’. Despite having killed Desdemona, Othello still ultimately seeks the preservation of his reputation above all, adding to the viability of Leavis’ idea that he is simply playing a role. This involves Othello with the selfish and masculine desire to seek reputation above all else, introduced by the character of Cassio.
Secondly, reputation is presented as only being stable if one is born into the “correct” race and family. Just like Othello, Cassio is an outsider, hailing from Florence. Yet, Cassio is still depicted as being white. After being a leading member of a brawl instigated by Iago in Act 2 Scene 3, Cassio refers to reputation by saying ‘I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial’. Unlike the character of Othello, Cassio understands reputation as being enduring, as shown through the adjective ‘immortal’. However, much like the presentations of Othello, Cassio too sees that, without his reputation, he would be viewed, and even view himself, as subhuman, as presented through the adjective ‘bestial’. It is arguable, contrastingly, that Othello begins his life without reputation, and can only gain unstable nobility through becoming the ‘valiant’ general in Venice because of his race, yet Cassio, who ‘never set squadron in the field’, begins life with original reputation, and can only lose it. Shakespeare may be furthering this notion through the character’s relationship to women. With Desdemona, Othello begins his romance with an unreputable elopement, having ‘betrayed her father’ and scandalising Venice. However, Cassio’s relationship with Bianca, a prostitute, is clearly not condemned in the same way, as ‘Cassio rules in Cyprus’ after Othello’s suicide, suggesting that Cassio has regained ‘lost’ reputation. Cassio’s Florentine origins might also allude to Niccolò Machiavelli, a political figure seen as condemnable by the Jacobean audience for his radically egotistical politics. Through this, Shakespeare might be shedding light on the injustice of blackness’ regrettably intrinsic culpability superseding the culpability of Cassio’s Machiavellian intent in selfishly seeking the restoration of his reputation. Could Shakespeare again be using the idea of whiteness’ justifying quality (‘Bianca’ means ‘white’) to pose his audience the question as to whether Cassio’s race is enough to justify his promiscuity, despite the fact that Othello’s race condemns his actions further? Therefore, stable reputation is presented as only being accessible by Cassio, due to his whiteness, in a world that too actively and unjustly uses race as the compass of morality.
To conclude, reputation is displayed in the play through the juxtaposing of Othello and his dramatic foil, Cassio. Ultimately, true reputation is presented as only being won through harsh military gain for true outsiders, yet easily accessible and restorable for insiders.
Hopefully this comes in useful – if even a little bit.
Alexander Stephenson
Here lies the unofficial (essential) bank of Critical Quotes for ‘Othello’, by William Shakespeare.
“Both of slave past and noble lineage.”
Loomba
The critic underpins Othello’s fundamental duality – that he holds high-status in Venice, yet is a complete outsider. Punctuated by Iago’s brutal exploitation of stereotypes, Othello’s downfall might have been seen as inevitable by the London audience, for whom Venice acts as a placeholder, due to this state of unnavigable dualism. The contemporary audience could have even seen this condition as duplicitous, holding the mindset that a ‘Moor’ should not control such a position in society.
Loomba’s approach also explores Aristotelian tragic customs, arguing that the play centers around a man of ‘noble lineage’. Could it be that Shakespeare is, in fact, playing with this norm as Othello was not cultivated by nobility, but rather humble beginnings? Perhaps the trajectory of Othello returning to his original low status by the end of the play is almost a form of sick comedy, as his heightened position may have been deemed as near delusional by the Jacobean audience.
“The motive-hunting of motiveless malignity.’
Coleridge
Iago’s lies concerning Cassio and Emilia imply that the villain has no true motive, despite Othello’s promotion above him. Is it simply his greed and lust for power that propels him to rupture the world around him? Ultimately, there is no justification for his behaviour towards Desdemona, arguably the most virtuous character in all the play, adding a more sinister, more abstract, sense to his motive, if there is any at all.
“The audience becomes complicit in Iago’s intention…’
McEvoy
“[the audience] comes close to sympathising with a villain.”
Honigmann
Through his 5 revealing soliloquies, the audience becomes Iago’s closest confidant. The dramatic irony provokes a sense of desperation in the audience, and infuses a feeling of helplessness. However, McEvoy looses credibility when compared with Coleridge. If Iago’s soliloquies are full of only lies, the audience would not be drawn into complicity. On the other hand, perhaps Iago’s false motives manipulate the audience into collusion, only for them to feel betrayed after he targets Desdemona, turning ‘virtue into pitch’.
This, in turn, may have the effect of making the audience empathise with Othello, Emilia, Cassio and Desdemona more than they would have otherwise. For this reason, Honigmann’s commentary seems more appropriate, with the audience only ‘coming close’ to conspiracy.
“[Desdemona] is self-denying in the extreme when she dies.”
Marilyn French
The play opens in the aftermath of Desdemona’s and Othello’s elopement. With this decision, Desdemona rebels against patriarchal Venice and betrays the will of her father, Brabantio. In her commentary, French argues that, by her death, Desdemona has lost sight of this rebellion. Submitting to her husbands will and making no attempt to escape her fate, French muses that Desdemona has sacrificed her independence for the will of her husband, a stark contrast from her initial decision to elope.
On the other hand, it is arguable that Desdemona’s character has not changed, and that she was never autonomous in the first place. Could it be that Desdemona’s sole loyalty to her husband drove both the elopement and her sacrificial death? With this in mind, French’s notion of her ‘self-denying’ quality seems less in contrast to her initial state and there would perhaps be more evidence for the argument that Desdemona had never even found a sense of rebellion, even during the elopement.
“[tragedy is] concerned with one person”
Bradley
“Love and death coexist in every great tragedy.”
McRae
“…the causes of suffering lie in human weakness, divine retribution, or arbitrary fate.”
Kastan
The three critics build on preexisting notions of Aristotelian tragedy, and outline how Othello differs and redefines tragic norms. These three might come in useful for how you discuss form in your essay
I hope that this comes in useful.
Alexander Stephenson
Hello everyone – long time, no see!
I thought I’d start off the year by sharing some of my advice on how to revise English Literature, based off what I tell my tutoring students inside, and outside of school. Although this is the Sixth form blog, these tips also go for GCSE, so feel free to use them whatever year you’re in.
I find it useful to split my revision into working on essay writing technique and memorisation of quotes, themes, structure etc so I’ll do the same for the tips.
Memorisation
Although at A level you don’t HAVE to memorise quotes, it does save a lot of time if you do, or if you remember key page numbers etc. At GCSE unfortunately you do have to remember your quotes!
Essay Writing Technique
So, they’re all my tips for revising English Literature; I hope some of them are useful to you.
Hope you’re all doing well!
– Elisha
WymCol English Blog 