Critics Flashcards
Key critics in the Othello Critical Anthology (10 cards)
1
Q
Tragedy
Kastan:
A
- Othello tragic downfall raises questions about what was to blame: his personal flaws, Iago’s influence, or fate, leaving the audience fearful.
- the “fearful comprehensibility” of tragedy
- “the refusal of any answers starkly prevents any confident attribution of meaning or value to human suffering”
- The end of ‘Othello’ leaves more questions than answers.
2
Q
Tragedy
Nuttal:
A
- The events of the play create an emotional disturbance that soothes the audience.
- “If people go again and again to see such things they must enjoy them”
3
Q
Othello
Bradley:
A
- Othello’s downfall evokes pity and fear in the audience as we cannot escape the fate we are given.
- “the extremes of pity and fear”
- Argues that Othello and Iago are “star-crossed mortals”h
4
Q
Othello
Loomba:
A
- Othello tries to break away from racial steryotypes but ends up becoming an agent of mysoginist ones.
- “Othello is both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance, and a nightmare of racial hatred and male violence.”
- Act 4, Scene 1 - Othello’s venomous language harkens back to the idea that this stereotypical black man in Renaissance Society cannot communicate any other way.
5
Q
Othello
Neill:
A
- Othello reverts to racial steryotypes under severe stress
- “savagery”
6
Q
Othello
Leavis:
A
- Othello creates the conditions of his own downfall through his melodramatic reactions, paticularly through his death.
- “self-dramatising”
7
Q
Other - Iago
Honnigman:
A
- Iago gets pleasure from seeing the other characters suffer, especially Othello
- Iago is “anything but straightforward”
- “Essenstial sadism”
8
Q
Other
Coleridge:
A
- Iago did not have a true motive within his plans of revenge
- “motiveless malignity”
- Iago’s motive constantly changes throughout the play: is he racially prejudice, fuelled by jeaoulsy or in love with Desdemona?
9
Q
Other
French:
A
- As the play progresses, Desdemona begins to accept her place in the patriarchal society and submits to men.
- “self-denying in the extreme” when she dies
- Desdemona “accepts her culture’s dictum.”
10
Q
Desdemona
Jardin:
A
“Desdemona becomes a stereotype of female passivity”
