Othello Critics Ideologies + Key Quotes

In the 1970s, they said 'Othello is an alien in a white society'

RuthCowhig

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'Men's misunderstanding of women. Throughout the play we hear men telling us what women are, and what strikes us most about their terms and definitions is their inadequacy'

GayleGreene

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Considered Shakespeare to be a genius, and noted the 'fiery openness of Othello', the 'Cool malignity of Iago' and the 'Soft simplicity of Desdemona'

SamuelJohnson

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In 2013, he played the role of Othello and does not think the play is about ethnicity. He says 'nothing in that play happens because he is black'

AdrianLester

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In Elizabethan psychology, passion equals madness. It was seen as a divine punishment

MaynardMack

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This Romantic critic thought that Iago is only evil because he can use his intellect more than others. He also says Iago 'is himself the dupe and victim of ruling passion' and similarly thinks Othello has a great 'depth of passion'

Hazlitt

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Iago is a 'liar, betrayer, mental torturer of Othello and Desdemona, murderer'. He also looks into links between this tragedy and comedy, saying that Iago's 'humour also makes him seem cleverer than his victims'. He also considers how the 'dramatic perspe

EAJHonigmann

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In 2005, she linked the story of Venus with Desdemona. This is because Venus is given an ugly husband and takes a lover, where Venus is represented by Desdemona, Mars with Othello and the ugly husband by Cassio.

MarjorieGarber

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They examine the significance of the stereotype of the Moor and his skin colour. Othello cannot truly integrate into society, nor can he easily express himself to others, and 'Othello is black, and his blackness connotes ugliness, treachery, lust, bestial

EdwardBerry

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This critic is the best for queer theory. They look into how 'the scene ends with the marriage/vow of homage between Iago and Othello'

RobertMatz

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As the first black actor to play as Othello in England in 1825, he encouraged the rumour that he killed actresses who played as Desdemona. He also allegedly dragged Madge Robertson by her hair across the stage before smothering her

IraAldridge

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This late 20th century critic wrote that Desdemona is 'Love's Martyr' and how the murder of Desdemona 'must be done'

HelenGardner

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This post-colonial critic considered Othello to be 'both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolderance, and a nightmare of racial hatred and male violence'. Also, Othello 'becomes simultaneously the Christian and the infidel, the Venetian and the Tu

AniaLoomba

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This 19th century critic could only read instead of watch the play because he found it 'extremely revolting in the courtship and wedded caresses of Othello and Desdemona'

CharlesLamb

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The play is a masculine play because female sexuality and freedom is rejected. Also, Desdemona 'accepts her culture's dictum that she must be obedient to males'

MarilynFrench

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In 1994, they looked into how women are killed by their husbands. There are parallels between Emilia saying 'It is their husbands' faults / If wives do fall' and Gratiano saying 'the woman falls'. In the final scene, audiences can 'see on stage at this po

RuthVanita

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This was the second black actor to play as Othello in England in the 1930s. He mentioned how he was 'backing away from her [Desdemona] all the time' and considered who early critics 'could not show as a persecuted race the people they were enslaving'

PaulRobeson

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They looked into responses to suffering and its causes, like human weakness, divine retribution or fate. They mainly examine the meaning of tragedy

DSKastan

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This early critic was very opposed to the play because it did not teach a lesson and the tragic hero was black. He called the ending 'barbarous' and 'plainly none other than a Bloody Farce'

ThomasRymer

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They considered in 1996 the links between tragedy and pleasure, saying 'tragedy give pleasure' and looked into 'tragic joy'

ADNuttall

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This Marxist critic examined the relationship between servants and masters, as well as how the handkerchief is 'a miniature of the nuptial linens'

DympnaCallaghan

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All female characters are accused of sexual misdemeanour and 'Desdemona's death is a lesson in what happens if the male hierarchy is disobeyed'

LisaJardine

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Early critics considered how 'a dark, racially marked black Othello was less sympathetic and therefore less tragic than an Arabic one' and considered how Olivier's production 'marked Othello's decline as a visible turning from adopted Christianity'

EmmaSmith

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In 1978, this critic considered Iago to be 'an accurate portrait of a psychopath' because he is impulsive, boastful, vain and manipulative.

FredWest

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Desdemona's independence lead to her being punished by the patriarchy

HowardJacobson

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This 19th century critic said passion 'gives the upper hand to the savage over the moral man' and that 'Othello may have acquired a veneer of civilisation, but he was born with savagery in his blood'

AugustSchlegel

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A white actor of Othello in the late 18th century who only painted himself in light brown makeup to not shock audiences

EdmundKean

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Iago is 'a being next to devil' and Othello 'must not be considered as a *****, but as a high and chivalrous Moorish chief'

Coleridge

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In 1998, he said how 'Othello is the one which should most definitely not be played by a black actor' but in 2015 played as Othello in a production where Iago was also black

HughQuarshie

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This critic saw how 'Othello thinks of women in abstract terms' and how 'a handkerchief can become for him a proof of fidelity, of truth, or a proof of damnation'

LisaHopkins

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Othello is self centred and too dramatic. He grieves himself more than Desdemona and 'is anything but noble and endeavours to escape reality'

TSEliot

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They examined Greek and Shakespearean tragedies, where they overlap and disconnect. He saw how Desdemona is as 'simple and innocent as a child, ardent with the courage and idealism of a saint'

ACBradley

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Othello's jealousy is 'unassociated with any real interest in Desdemona as a person' and considered Othello to be self-centred

FRLeavis

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They examined the 'wifely virtues of silence, obedience and prudence' and saw Emilia as Desdemona's foil

CTNeely

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They thought that Othello's 'language betrays a masculine fear of a cultural femininity which is envisioned as a greedy mouth, never satisfied, always seeking increase' and noticed how 'not until the third scene is the Moor named'

KarenNewman

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Racism 'has entered [Othello's] mind and soul' and saw that 'so close are Iago and Othello, indeed, that they start to melt into each other' because their manners of speech seem to swap

OToole

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In 1986, this critic saw how 'Jacobean tragedies offer up their scenes of excessive punishment as if mutilating the female could somehow correct political corruption'

LeonardTennenhouse

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Othello Critics Ideologies + Key Quotes

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