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Othello > Desdemona > Flashcards

Flashcards in Desdemona Deck (14)
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1
Q

Leslie Fielder on Desdemona

A

‘a miracle of virtue’

2
Q

Angela Pitt on Desdemona

A

‘a symbol of purity’

3
Q

A.C. Bradley on Desdemona

A

‘simple and innocent as a child’

‘ardent with the courage and idealism of a saint’

‘a saint radiant with that heavenly purity of heart’

4
Q

Jan Kott (2) on Desdemona

A

‘eroticism was her vocation and joy’

‘Desdemona is faithful, but must have something of the slut in her. Not in actual but in potential’

5
Q

Thomas Rhymer on Desdemona

A

‘Maidens of quality should not run away with black Moors’

6
Q

W.H. Auden on Desdemona’s death

A

Desdemona’s acceptance of her death is because she has come to understand her wrongdoing (which is her betrayal of her father and her secret marriage to Othello)

7
Q

Jarvis on Desdemona

A

‘dies a whore’s death for all her innocence’

8
Q

Graham Bradshaw on Desdemona’s death

A

‘The murder is the marriage’s only consummation’ and thus it becomes a ‘ghastly tragicomic parody of an erotic death’

9
Q

W.H. Auden on testing her relationship

A

‘In continuing to badger Othello, she betrays a desire to prove to herself and to Cassio that she can make her husband do as she pleases’

10
Q

W.H. Auden on Desdemona’s love for Othello

A

‘the romantic crush of a silly schoolgirl rather than a mature affection’

‘it is Othello’s adventures…which captivate her rather than Othello as a person’

11
Q

Cox on Desdemona

A

‘damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t’

‘characters divide into virgins and saints or whores and devils’

12
Q

Adams on Desdemona

A

‘She falls in love for no better reason than he has told her a braggart story’

13
Q

W.H. Auden on Desdemona’s realisation in the willow scene

A

Desdemona seems to have ‘realised that she had made a mésalliance’ and should have married someone like Lodovico in 4.3 after talking to Emilia about women

14
Q

Cox on the accusations against Desdemona

A

‘Desdemona is accused of double dishonestly as lying and lying with other men’