Othello

Othello

1. JEALOUSY

   • Key plot points:
     • Iago believes he should have Othello's role
     • Iago believes that Othello slept with Emilia
     • Othello believes that Desdemona is unfaithful
   • Key quotes:
     • Oh beware my lord of jealousy, it is the green eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on
     • And it is thought abroad that twixt my sheets He has done my office
     • Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of Holy writ
     • Were I the Moor I would not be Iago. In following him, I follow but myself.
   • Critical views:
     • Honigmann: Ambition prompts them to overleap moral fences
     • Phillips: [Othello] feels constantly threatened and profoundly insecure
     • Jardine: Othello murdered Desdemona 'for adultery, not out of jealousy' and that 'Othello acts with complete certainty of her guilt'
     • Coleridge: Othello is not driven by jealousy, but by 'Moral indignation and regret' that Desdemona's virtue has been destroyed
   • Literary links:
     • Tess of the D'Urbervilles
     • Persuasion
     • Wuthering Heights

2. APPEARANCE VS REALITY

   • Key plot points:
     • Iago as a trusted colleague or as a manipulator
     • Othello's level-headed nature compared to his actions from A3S3 onwards
     • Cassio-Desdemona and Othello-Emilia 'affairs'
   • Literary links:
     • Atonement
     • DOAS
     • The Bell Jar
   • Critical views
     • Phillips: Othello's 'fatal mistake' is to 'question his own judgement'
     • Phillips: Othello is 'A man of action, not a thinker'
   • Key quotes:
     • Men should be what they seem; Or those that be not, would they might seem none!
     • Look to her, moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee.
     • We cannot all be masters, nor all masters can be truly followed
     • Nobody, I myself. Farewell.
     • I will wear my heart upon my sleeve... I am not what I am
     • My ancient: A man he is of honest and trust

3. SOCIETY

   • Key plot points:
     • Brabantio's reaction to Othello and Desdemona's relationship
     • Iago's reaction to Othello being of higher status than himself
     • Prominence of men throughout the play
   • Key quotes:
     • My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty.
     • I fetch my life and being from men of royal siege
     • Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.
     • She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted By spell... witchcraft
     • It is a judgement maim'd and most imperfect... Against all rules of nature, and must be driven To find out practices of cunning hell
   • Literary links:
     • Atonement
     • TKAMB
     • Of Mice and Men
     • DOAS
     • King Lear
     • Wuthering Heights
   • Critical views:
     • Loomba: Othello moves from an honorary white to a total outsider
     • Phillips: The pressures placed upon him rendered his [Othello's] life a tragedy
     • Phillips: Life for [Othello] is a game in which he does not know the rules.
     • Brennan: In [Othello's] final speech and his suicide he is able... to express his nobility and to manifest himself rightly.
     • A. C. Bradley: Anxious not to be misjudged by the great world

4. RACE

   • Key plot points:
     • Othello's promotion
     • Desdemona and Othello's relationship
     • Othello killing Desdemona
   • Key quotes:
     • I hate the Moor
     • Your son-in-law is far more fair than black
     • You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse
     • An old black ram is tupping your white ewe
     • Her name, that was as fresh As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black, As mine own face
     • Yet I'll not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster
   • Literary links:
     • Atonement
     • Titus Andronicus
     • TKAMB
     • Of Mice and Men
   • Critical views:
     • Loomba: Othello is both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance and a nightmare of racial hatred and male violence.
     • Hadfield: Shakespeare challenges the stereotypes of cruel moors
     • Hadfield: Othello tries to Europeanise himself

5. RELATIONSHIPS

   • Key plot points:
     • Desdemona choosing Othello over her father
     • Othello losing trust in Desdemona/ Iago losing trust in Emilia
     • Cassio and Biance
   • Key quotes:
     • For she had eyes and chose me
     • I kissed thee 'ere I killed thee, no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
     • Speak of me as I am... Of one who loved not wisely but too well
     • O curse of marriage
     • O, thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?
     • I will chop her into messes! Cuckold me?
   • Critical views:
     • Loomba: Active female sexuality is disruptive of patriarchal control
     • Phillips: Othello's love of Desdemona 'is the love of a possession, she is a prize a spoil of war'
     • Vanita: The murder of a wife is different from many other kinds of murder... insofar as the victim is more definitely placed in the murderer's power.
     • A. C. Bradley: The deed [Othello] is bound to do is not murder, but a sacrifice. He is to save Desdemona from herself, not in hate but in honour; in honour, and also in love.

6. GENDER

   • Key plot points:
     • Othello's treatment of Desdemona
     • Iago's treatment of Emilia
     • Emilia's defence of Desdemona at the end of the play
     • Desdemona ignoring her father's wishes
   • Literary links:
     • King Lear
     • Hamlet
     • Tess of the d'Urbervilles
     • Titus Andronicus
     • DOAS
   • Key quotes:
     • Let her rot and perish.
     • O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!
     • But I do think it is their husbands' fault if wives do fall
     • O, devil, devil! If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, each drop she falls would prove crocodile
     • Now will I question Cassio of Bianca A huswife that by selling her desires Buys herself bread and clothes
   • Critical views:
     • Honigmann: Desdemona's final words were 'an act of foregiveness'
     • Honigmann: Desdemona is 'the strongest, the most heroic person in the play.'
     • Gardener: Desdemona's murder is 'heroic because Othello acts from inner necessity... the act is also heroic in its absoluteness, disinterestedness and finality... it must be done
     • Cook: Women in Shakespeare's plays played a decisive part in determining their own fate
     • Howard: Iago adopts the voice of worldly common sense speaking about women
     • Loomba: Women are seen as natural inferiors