race and gender, marriage
Kiernan Ryan – ‘The destruction of Othello and Desdemona lays bare the barbarity of a culture whose preconceptions about race and gender cannot allow a love like theirs to survive and flourish’.
race and class, iago + othello
G.K. Hunter - ‘The dramatic function of Iago is to reduce the white ‘reality’ of Othello to the black ‘appearance’ of his face’
iago, machiavellianism
A.C. Bradley - ‘His creed is that absolute egoism is the only rational and proper attitude’
gender, desdemona, emilia
Lisa Jardine - ‘Without Emilia’s speech, the willow scene becomes a stylised, emblematic representation of female passivity’
THAT iago quote
Jan Kott - ‘Iago is a diabolical stage manager’
basic iago quote
Coleridge - ‘motive hunting of motiveless malignity’
marriage, society
Stephen Greenblatt - ‘discussions of married love begin and end by affirming the larger order of authority and submission within which marriage takes its rightful place.’
desdemona, positive
E.A.J Honigmann - she is ‘misunderstood’ by the male characters - possible to see her as ‘the strongest, the most heroic person in the play.’
desdemona, negative
Thomas Rymer - ‘a poor chicken, a fool and a silly woman’
iago, class
E.A.J Honigmann - ‘a malcontent with a grudge against privilege’
military quotes, othello, betrayal
iago
Jonathan Shaw - [Othello’s] ‘moral code is derived entirely from his military upbringing’… ‘betrayal is the most heinous of military sins, so it is the last to be suspected’
Jude Kelly - Iago’s actions are those of a ‘military strategist’
othello, race, tragedy
August Schlegal - ‘a hero who spurns at danger, a worthy leader of an army, a faithful servant of the state’ but he ‘gives the upper hand to the savage over the moral man’
context, othello’s backstory. othello, desdemona
Virginia Mason Vaughan - ‘The Moor’s stories allow Desdemona to experience the exotic/erotic delight found by many early modern readers in travel narratives’
iago, betrayal, context
Andrew Davies - ‘He’s evil, of course, but somehow we root for him.’
othello’s final speech, conflicting critics
- Coleridge – ‘his mind is majestic and composed’
- T.S Elliot – ‘cheering himself up’
iago + othello, betrayal
Jonathan Shaw - ‘Iago is cut from the same cloth as Othello. Both place an absolute faith in trust, both react extremely when they feel trust betrayed’.
jealousy, othello
Greer - ‘jealousy is destroying him. It is this trait of his nature that undermines his life’
othello, jealousy, iago
Greer - ‘Othello’s jealousy, not Iago’s hatred, is the real tragedy’
gender, desdemona, society
French - [Desdemona] ‘accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males’
othello, negative
F.R Leavis - a ‘credulous fool’
