Minor characters context + analysis Flashcards
Analyse the quote said by Brabantio “Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters’ minds”
Disowns his daughter for her independent choice echoes Lords Capulets reaction in Shakespeare’s 1595 R&J - share the same patriarchal attitude - both men realise and are threatened by their daughter’s autonomy + sexuality seeking to quash it
The perceived threat of the exotic to the order of white society - Othello has corrupted Desdemona in Brabantio’s eyes
Analyse the quote by Brabantio A1 S2 “such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight”
Brabantios forceful uncontrolled rhetoric contrasts to Othello’s poetic articulate rhetoric - racist epithets such as “sooty bosom” + outright discrimination astound the post modern viewer evoking pathos
Challenges Othello a seemingly ideal renaissance man - a polymath - for the ownership of Desdemona
Brabantio claims Othello has bewitched Desdemona using “spells and medicines” A1 S3 what is the significance of this
Othello being a black man with origins from Africa was stereotypically related to black magic and witchcraft
B believes it is inconceivable D fell in love with O of her own volition
Branabtio says to Desdemona “i am glad at soul i have no other child” A1 S3
He disowns D - similarly to Lord Capulet as they both reject their daughters for perceived disobedience
Recognisable trope - patriarchal father rather sever ties than reconcile or accept Desdemona’s sexual liberation
Brabantio exits A1 S3 with a rhyming couplet that acts as a warning “look to her, Moor, if thou hast to see: she has deceived her father, and may thee”
A singsong cautionary tone - suits Brabantio’s paternalism
O is haunted by the warning later in the play
A proleptically warning easily recognised by a well versed Shakespearean audience like in other plays e.g. hamlet
Roderigo says “i will incontinently drown myself” A1 S3
Melodrama - the destructive power of jealousy and love
- the word “drown” perhaps suggests he is utterly consumed by his unrequited love and is pinned into a microcosm of rejection that leaves him open for exploitation
- “incontinently” which alludes to a lack of moral restraint ameliorating how love has dispossessed him of reasonable consideration becoming the hamartia for his downfall
Cassio refers to Desdemona as “the divine desdemona” A2 S1
Innocence in conflict with venetian stereotypes of hypersexuality
The ingenue archetype - we see a prominent part of Desdemona’s personality is her innocence and virtue - partly a concoction of the male fantasy
Cassio’s perception of D = flawless, pious, virtuous, worthy of deification, a prize
Language of love is hyperbolic & extreme but platonic love
Cassio refers to Desdemona as “our great captains captain” A2 S1
She is Othello’s commander - atypical portrayal of femininity
Militaristic & alliterative language
D is subversive in others perceptions of herself - transgresses societal expectations of women being an ‘accessory
D encroaching out of the typical domestic sphere ’
