Flashcards
Othello AO5
Cards in this deck (29)
- 1The tragic story is primarily concerned with the suffering of a conspicuous and distinguished person, with dimensions of the state and destiny. Tragedy reminds us of the capriciousness of fate (the "wheel of fortune"). It also pertains to the state, as the tragic character's fate is linked to the fate of the whole nation, and affects the scene around them.A.C. Bradley, 'The Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy'
- 2Othello is a play about private rather than public lives -- and is more affective thanks to it.A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy
- 3Iago is a metadramatic figure with essentially creative motives -- he is Shakespeare's authorial standin.A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy
- 4We must find pleasure in tragedy for us to want to watch it. In the tragic theatre, grief, fear and discomfort are matters of enjoyment. We enjoy a backgrounded pleasure when we watch tragedy.A.D. Nuttall, 'Aristotle and After'
- 5Othello is a play ambiguous about inequality. The tragedy is caused by inequalities of race, gender and status, both internal and external to the characters, but the play, in some respects, provides evidence for these inequalities. Through this ambiguity, Othello could either issue warning against the "open society" of Venice or make the case for tolerant societies in its model.Ania Loomba, 'Othello and the Radical Question'
- 6Women and black people exist as the Other in the play, which causes conflict as Desdemona and Othello pose a threat to this state of affairs. Othello has a split consciousness from being both black (Other) and a man (not Other), as shown in the final speech where he identifies with a number of dichotomies. Othello's honorary white status is ruptured when he goes against the rules that allow him to be involved in Venice by marrying Desdemona.Ania Loomba, Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama
- 7Othello is not a fully-formed character with psychological realism, but a white myth about black masculinity. Othello's race creates conflict through its isolation in a white world and by creating an antithesis -- so when Othello kills himself, it resolves any issues of race in the play, as the story-world becomes, once again, homogenous and without conflict.Ben Okri, A Way of Being Free
- 8Othello is a play about seeing reality, as Othello's final words (anagnorisis) demand he be spoken of truthfully and conflict is created by stories (the ideology of race, Iago as metadramatic, Desdemona loves Othello for his stories).Ben Okri, A Way of Being Free
- 9Of Othello's characters, it is Emilia who most embodies the theme of marital love, the conflict between men and women and has the greatest power to resolve the issues raised in Othello.Carol Thomas Neely, 'Men nd Women in Othello'
- 10The play does not end with the resolution of oppositions that it appears to be heading towards, but with an ominous triangle of the dead Emillia, Othello, and Desdemona, with one survivor -- Iago.Carol Thomas Neely, 'Men and Women in Othello'
- 11Love and friendship between men in the play appears in perverted forms, but the love and friendship of women is pwoerful and genuine.Carol Thomas Neely, 'Men and Women in Othello'
- 12The symbol of the handkerchief is a symbol of the power a woman's love has on men, especially in Othello and Desdemona's relationship.Carol Thomas Neely, 'Men and Women in Othello'
- 13The play is not so improbable, especially as it is set in Italy, where such transgressions of race, gender and class may happen.Charlotte Lennox, Shakespear Illustrated
- 14Shakespeare was more influenced by Chaucer's definition of tragedy as beginning in "prosperitie" and endinging in "wrecchidnesse" than by Aristotelian tragedy. The story-world of a tragedy is filled with senseless suffering, and its characters cannot formulate a worldview in the face of this. The tragedy raises questions that are not (and cannot be) answered.David Scott Kastan, '"A rarity most beloved": Shakespeare and the Idea of Tragedy'
- 15Iago is not a simple villain, but a complex character. He is a humorous and playful character, but Shakespeare complicates this by having him reveal that he does not truly enjoy his interaction. Alongside humour, Iago lacks other ordinary human emotions -- "in a word, love".E.A.J. Honigmann, 'Introduction'
- 16Othello's monologue before his suicide is self-dramatising and sentimentalaising, a mode of discourse which does not suit him. Up to then, Othello simply is. In stabbing himself, Othello affirms tht be he belongs to the world of action, rather than the world of sentimentality.F.R. Leavis, 'Diabolic Intellect and the Nobel Hero'
- 17Desdemona is initially portrayed as a spirited and independent woman, but by her death she is submissive. The only explanation for that is her marriage to a soldier subjects her to gender rules with increased force that regulate her behaviour. Both Desdemona and Emilia, victims of a patriarchal marriage complex, are forced to lose their ability to think.Irene Dash, Wooing, Wedding and Power
- 18Smothering is a symbolic choice for the initially outspoken Desdemona – it literally takes her voice away.Leonard Tennenhouse, Power on Display
- 19Despite Desdemona’s initial agency, Desdemona still implicitly accepts gendered rules that say she should be obedient to men. Othello, Emilia, Cassio and Roderigo all initially subscribe to feminine values, while Iago represents the male world. This male world comes to dominate and destroy the feminine values.Marilyn French, Shakespeare's Division of Experience
- 20Shakespeare inherits his view of madness from the classical Greek tradition. It is often textually a punishment, but it may be a way for Shakespeare to provide insight and truth. Art is similar to madness: both acknowledge the opposing voice and expand the consciousness outside of normal space and time, and both can be dismissed or understood fully.Maynard Mack, 'What Happens in Shakespearean Tragedy'
- 21Shakespeare would see the play as more comedy than tragedy, through the common comedic structures of the daughter who thwarts her father’s wishes, the January-May relationship and the improvisational clown-trickster who acts as scourge to the marriage. The play also revolves around the utter abjection and humiliation of its central figures, a practice that was commonly applied to marriages that were disapproved of by society (“chariavi”). This, too, is comedic.Michael Briston, 'Chariavi and the Comedy of Abjection in Othello'
- 22There are two different Desdemonas: an active agent and a passive Desdemona. This reflects the way the patriarchy asks women to be two different things at once.Peter Stallybrass, 'Patriarchal Territories: The Body Enclosed'
- 23Iago also has no motive – rather, he is a “motiveless malignity” who hunts for sympathetic motives, as demonstrated by the many disparate motives he offers through the play and his final silence.Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lecture and Notes on Shakespeare and Other English Poets
- 24The play should be staged with an all-white male cast to be as comedic and as homoerotic as possible. Such a performance would not only serve to disturb and alienate the audience but also draw attention to the true racial politics of Othello, a racial politics that also characterise the minstrel show.Sheila Rose Bland, 'How I Would Direct Othello'
- 25The tragedy of Othello is developed and heightened in relation to its comedic tropes. Othello moves beyond a comedic version of love to a tragic version -- it is “post-comic”, as the love has already occurred and the “If it were now to die…” speech acts as the final point of a comedy. The play questions the romantic comedy’s assumptions about love, nature and reason.Susan Snyder, 'Othello and the Conventions of Romantic Comedy'
- 26Othello is an exposure of universal human weakness. Othello is an essentially human character, suffering the everyday flaws of self-dramatisation and self-deception rather than grand, tragic flaws. For example, his death speech is a speech in which he seems to be “cheering himself up”.T.S. Eliot, 'Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca'
- 27The play is improbable, mostly as the characters act outside their race and class expectations. It is set up as a comedy as the plot details are trivial, blown up into matters of great importance, and due to these improbabilities. More importantly, it ends as a comedy, as it does not communicate any moral meaning.Thomas Rymer, A Short View on Tragedy
- 28Othello takes place on the boundary of the East and the West. It is a play concerned with women’s stories, as it ignores the moralising stance of Cinthio’s source material, but rather concerns itself with exploring the lovers. Furthermore, Iago seems almost a gossip, out to destroy Othello’s reputation.Jonathan Bate, The Soul of the Age
- 29Othello is a political tragedy, steeped in prejudice and difference. Difference is initially idealised, as Othello and Desdemona’s relationship is founded on their romanticisation of each other’s differences, and by the end prejudice is precisely not transcended but remorselessly exposed.Jonathan Dollimore, 'A Tragedy of Racism, Xenophobia and Misogyny'
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- AS level English Flashcards on Othello AO5, created by Oliver Freeman on 15/02/2018.
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