Othello A05

Question 1

Julia Briggs, about race in England

Answer 1

“Although the number of people of colour in England was growing during the sixteenth century, they were still unusual enough to be treated as wonders”

Question 2

Briggs, A05 about place of Africans in England

Answer 2

“from the 1570’s African slaves were regularly brought to England”, “black entertainers” (Scottish court)

Question 3

A.C. Bradley:

Answer 3

“Othello is by far the most romantic of Shakespeare’s heroes.”
📝 Supports a noble, tragic view of Othello as a deeply feeling man.

Question 4

F.R. Leavis:

Answer 4

“Othello is egotistical and self-dramatising.”
📝 Useful to challenge the idea that Othello is purely a victim — shows tragic flaws.

Question 5

Ania Loomba

Answer 5

“Othello is both a victim of racism and a complicit enforcer of it.”
📝 Excellent for postcolonial readings of race, power, and identity.

Question 6

T.S. Eliot:

Answer 6

“Othello’s final speech is a terrible exposure of human weakness.”
📝 Use to argue that Othello tries to excuse or romanticise his actions.

Question 7

Lisa Jardine:

Answer 7

“Desdemona becomes the stereotype of female passivity.”
📝 Supports feminist readings of Desdemona as silenced and controlled.

Question 8

Harold Bloom:

Answer 8

“Iago is a projection of Othello’s own fears and weaknesses.”
📝 Psychological reading — Iago represents Othello’s internalised doubt.

Question 9

Coleridge:

Answer 9

Iago’s “motiveless malignity.”
📝 Presents Iago as evil for the sake of evil — creates debate on human nature.

Question 10

Marilyn French:

Answer 10

“The play is structured by the patriarchy and expresses its values.”
📝 Use in essays about how all women are controlled, distrusted, or destroyed.

Question 11

Postcolonial Reading:

Answer 11

Othello is “the outsider invited in, but never truly accepted.”
📝 Helps show Othello’s precarious position in Venetian society.

Question 12

Psychoanalytic Reading:

Answer 12

Iago exploits “unresolved anxieties about race, sex, and power.”
📝 Useful for exploring deep, repressed insecurities in Othello and others.

Question 13

Feminist Reading:

Answer 13

Investigates how female characters are controlled, silenced, and victimised by patriarchal society. E.g Desdemona and Emilia

Question 14

New Historicist Reading:

Answer 14

Places the play in the context of Elizabethan racial attitudes, Venice as a powerful empire, and gender politics of the time.

Question 15

Queer Reading:

Answer 15

Looks at possible homoerotic tensions, particularly in Iago’s relationship with Othello and the nature of jealousy.