Critical Statements Flashcards
(46 cards)
Rebecca Warren on Cassio
his worthiness outweighs his weakness
can be accused of using women in the same way Iago does.
love
E. Honigmann on Emilia
“Emilia’s love for Desdemona is Iago’s undoing.” - 2001
Evan Wendel on Emilia
Emilia is a symbol of defiance.
John Wain on Desdemona + Othello’s relationship
[Othello] does not see [Desdemona] as a real girl, but as something magical that has happened to him.
Thomas Rymer on the tragic ending
“There is no instructive moral or poetic justice because Othello isn’t punished, so the ending is barbarous.” - 1639
F.R Leavis on Othello as a tragic hero
“Othello is too stupid to be regarded as a tragic hero.” - 1988
A.C Bradley on Othello
“Othello is a sympathetic and noble character whose downfall is created by a being of pure evil” - 1904
Andy Serkis (actor) on Iago’s character
“He’s not the devil. He’s you or me being jealous and not being able to control our feelings.” - played Iago in 2002.
E. Honigmann on the audience’s relationship with Iago
Iago is a seductive character, who makes the audience collude with him, because his victims lack humour, Iago appeals to us as more amusing.
Samuel Johnson on Iago
Iago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to the last hated and despised.
Sir Trev Nunn on Iago
“The most jealous character is not Othello, but Iago.”, 2009
Thomas Rymer on Othello
“His [Othello’s] love and jealousy are no part of a soldier’s character, unless for comedy.”, 1693
Ania Loomba
Othello is a victim of racial beliefs precisely because he becomes an agent of misogynistic ones.
Helen Faucit on Desdemona
merely amicable and yielding creature.
Coleridge on Iago
motiveless malignanty
Loomba
Women and Blacks exist as ‘the other’.
Berry on Othello
identity depends upon a constant performance, a loss of his own origins.
Melville on Iago’s rage against female sexuality
‘spiteful attacks on otherness to soothe his social importance’
Hymen on sexuality
“Iago is motivated by a strong latent homosexuality”
space
Anderegg
“Shakespeare’s play actually unfolds in no space at all, at least in no place that needs to be specified” (disagree)
Desdemona location
Foakes
“there is no private, indoor scenes until her death scene”
“he does not understand the basic human impulses that bind human being together, in a word, love.”
Honigmann on Iago
Honigmann on Iago
“he does not understand the basic human impulses that bind human being together, in a word, love.”
his worthiness outweighs his weakness
can be accused of using women in the same way Iago does.
Rebecca Warren on Cassio
