Othello Criticism
Othello Criticism
Critic:
Critic: Carol Thomas Neely Carol Thomas Neely
They see Ot
They see Othello and Iago hello and Iago as closely as closely identifed with eaidentifed with each other; thch other; they are ey are "two"two parts o a single motive--related not as the halves o a sphere, but each implicit parts o a single motive--related not as the halves o a sphere, but each implicit in the other."
in the other."
!tructure, too, imitates that o the pastoral comedies in its movement rom an !tructure, too, imitates that o the pastoral comedies in its movement rom an urban center to an isolated retreat, with resultant intensity, reedom, breadown, urban center to an isolated retreat, with resultant intensity, reedom, breadown, and interaction among disparate characters. Though Othello
and interaction among disparate characters. Though Othello reers to #yprus asreers to #yprus as a "town o war," once the threats o Turs and the storm have lited, it is instead a "town o war," once the threats o Turs and the storm have lited, it is instead $enuss isle, a place or celebration--rela%ation, drining, eating &dinner
$enuss isle, a place or celebration--rela%ation, drining, eating &dinner
arrangements are a re'uent topic o conversation here as in (rden), *irting, arrangements are a re'uent topic o conversation here as in (rden), *irting,
sleeping, lovemaing. In the comedies, the potential corruption o these activities sleeping, lovemaing. In the comedies, the potential corruption o these activities is suggested in witty banter, songs, comic simile and metaphor; in
is suggested in witty banter, songs, comic simile and metaphor; in Othello,Othello, this this corruptio
corruption n becomes literal.becomes literal.
Critic:
Critic: Pierre Machery Pierre Machery
"The boo revolves around this myth +i.e., that the boo is uncannily alive; but "The boo revolves around this myth +i.e., that the boo is uncannily alive; but in the process o its ormation the boo taes a stand regarding this myth,
in the process o its ormation the boo taes a stand regarding this myth, e%posing it. This does not mean that the boo is able to
e%posing it. This does not mean that the boo is able to become its ownbecome its own criticism it gives an implicit
criticism it gives an implicit criti'ue o its ideological content, i only because itcriti'ue o its ideological content, i only because it resists being incorporated into the *ow o ideology in order to give a
resists being incorporated into the *ow o ideology in order to give a determinatedeterminate representation
representation o it." o it."
Critic:
Critic: Paul Yachnin Paul Yachnin
"In
"In Othello,Othello, !haespeare maneuvers to mae !haespeare maneuvers to mae wonderwonder out o the material he has out o the material he has to wor with, which, among other things such as language and costume, includes to wor with, which, among other things such as language and costume, includes the abric o the handerchie and the body o the boy actor who plays
the abric o the handerchie and the body o the boy actor who plays
esdemona. These two ob/ects are constructed so as to enhance the cultural esdemona. These two ob/ects are constructed so as to enhance the cultural status o the play
status o the play by raising it by raising it above the commercialism and materiality o actualabove the commercialism and materiality o actual play production. 0ut i we
play production. 0ut i we can deploy a strategic resistance to the can deploy a strategic resistance to the playsplays sublimity &a resistance that came more easily to the
sublimity &a resistance that came more easily to the original audiences), then theoriginal audiences), then the ordinariness o these "wonders" and the particular ways in which they are
ordinariness o these "wonders" and the particular ways in which they are present
presented will ed will allow us critical iallow us critical insight into the nsight into the mystifcations o !hamystifcations o !haespearespeare ande and !haespeare criticism."
!haespeare criticism." "( te%t lie
"( te%t lie OthelloOthello will be to the engrossed reader as esdemona is to her will be to the engrossed reader as esdemona is to her husband--an ob/ect whose capacity to arouse wonder in the beholder is seen to husband--an ob/ect whose capacity to arouse wonder in the beholder is seen to underwrite the beholders
underwrite the beholders selhood."selhood."
"1or most o the characters, the handerchie is reproducible, e%changeable, and "1or most o the characters, the handerchie is reproducible, e%changeable, and has a certain cash value. 1urthermore, although it circulates widely, everyone has a certain cash value. 1urthermore, although it circulates widely, everyone recogni2es it as private property. 0ecause it is private property, 3milia, #assio, recogni2es it as private property. 0ecause it is private property, 3milia, #assio, and 0ianca all spea about maing copies o it. In this regard, is it even clear that and 0ianca all spea about maing copies o it. In this regard, is it even clear that 3milia plans to eep it ater having ound it4 1or esdemona, the handerchie 3milia plans to eep it ater having ound it4 1or esdemona, the handerchie balances between the everyday and the sacred, becoming a hugely valued love balances between the everyday and the sacred, becoming a hugely valued love toen that is nonetheless commensurable with monetary value. "5here should I toen that is nonetheless commensurable with monetary value. "5here should I
lose the handerchie4" she ass, "0elieve me, I had rather have lost my purse 6 1ull o crusadoes" &7.8.97,9:-9)."
Critic: Stephen Gosson
0ehavious in the theatre "In our assemblies at plays in <ondon, you shall see such heaving and shoving, such itching and shouldering to sit by women. !uch care or their garments that they should not be trod on, such eyes to their laps that no chips light in them, such pillows to their bacs that they tae no hurt ... such ticling, such toying, such smiling, such wining, and such manning them home when the sports are ended that it is a right comedy to mar their
behavior."
Critic: Kenneth Burke
Othello and esdemona 0ure e%plains Othellos stae in esdemona as "ownership in the prooundest sense o ownership, the property o human a=ections, as etishistically locali2ed in the ob/ect o possession, while the possessor is himsel possessed by his very engrossment."
Critic: Arthur M. Eastman:
>othing that is in Iago is absent rom Othello, though there is much in Othello o which Iago never dreamed. It would be misleading to say that Iago is an
e%tension o Othello, or Iago is complete in himsel. 0ut it may be illuminating to point out that the response o one to the other is immediate, or i not immediate, sure.
Iago, we might say, is able to fnd his way to Othellos heart by looing within his own.
0oth Othello and Iago are ironists. 5ithin certain important limitations, they tend to thin and eel in the same ways. The elements that Iago fnds within Othello, by looing within or pro/ecting himsel, are these frst, a sense o authority rom the ironists superior power or nowledge in a con*ict situation; second, an
almost overpowering rustration when one is denied this superior nowledge--either by conscious ignorance o the salient elements in the situation or by
fnding that one is the victim o anothers irony; third, a general tendency, which under the stimulus o rustration may mount to compulsion, to conront or
manipulate situations so that one achieves ironic mastery--by reserving nowledge, by fnding nowledge hidden rom others, by posing as ignorant where one has nowledge or as wea where one is strong; and ourth, a
tendency to pro/ect ones own nature, to assume that others also conront lie ironically.
1or Iago irony is compensatory. It bridges the gap between his sel-esteem and the place accorded him by the world. Irony becomes or him both a means and an end, a means o getting what he wants, whether ?oderigos money or the downall o his enemies, but an end as the very act o irony indulges his sel-importance.
Iago awaens 0rabantio with the cry that "an old blac ram 6 Is tupping your white ewe" &@[email protected])--an image o Othello and esdemona intended to horriy her ather. Iago ne%t represents their se%ual union as "your daughter coverd with a 0arbary horse" &@.@.@@9). esdemonas imagined mating with an (rican
animal is the ind o act which DarE describes among the causes o monsters, a "copulation with beasts" that leads to "the conusion o seed o diverse inds" &9:.BA9). ?eminding her ather that Othello and esdemona may be generating monsters.
!ocial anthropologists would say that this idea, that blacs and monsters are related, i not e'uated, on some level o the popular imagination, constituted part o early modern <ondons "habitus," what Dierre 0ourdieu defnes as "a
system o lasting, transposable dispositions which, integrating past e%periences, unctions at every moment as a matrix of perceptions, appreciations, and
actions," or more simply, "a socially constituted system o cognitive and motivating structures."F I there was a social disposition in @C8-: to regard blacs and monsters as similar maniestations o the Other, as Strange News
implies that there was, such a disposition would have a=ected both the
generation and the reception o Othello at that historical moment. Indeed, as parts o the same habitus, each te%t simultaneously re*ected and reinorced that very mental linage.
Critic: Richard Mallette
G5here the play intersects with religious discourses, especially at those pressure points identifed by poststructural analysis, we fnd words at their most potent, piercing and bruising hearts.H
G5e are accustomed to thining o !haespearean plays as seculari2ing religious themes and diction, oten ironically. ore une%pected is how the play
oregrounds those concerns in mapping the charactersJ moral and emotional lives, and how the playJs economies K racial, se%ual, epistemological K are buttressed by those discourses.H
GIagoJs polemics is modelled on and distorts methods prescribed by si%teenth-century sermon theory. Lis warping o contemporary preaching maes him even more diabolical than hitherto recognised. Le sei2es on discourses that the
!haespearean audience was accustomed to as salvifc, and he deorms them toward an evil end.H
GIago reashions his listeners and inscribes them anew in a di=erent narrative, modelled on the narratives o salvation and damnation, o aith and doubt that preoccupy early modern 3nglish culture. Le entangles that narrative with other heightened discourses, such as marriage, adultery, and race. &Dechter @BBB, 9:)H G0ut Iago is the chie representative o the playJs oral6aural economy, and his goal will be to draw others into that realm. Le e%ploits the culturally privileged discourse o preaching, fgured through the metonym o the ear, and implicates that discourse with the se%ual economies o the play.H
GThe early modern aMliation between ?eormed pastor and sinner clearly
reproduced in IagoJs treatment o Othello. 0ut the therapy Iago practices will bring his listener neither comort nor the assurance o salvation, but instead the assurance o torment, indeed torment itsel.H
Critic: #in$a %oo$"ri$&e
misogynists libel womanind; slanderers blacen one womans reputation.
Critic:'alerie %ayne
The very presence o misogynist discourse in the ?enaissance suggests the instability o that view o women. It was not that no one any longer associated women with evil, but that the ideology was at issue and not an un'uestioned presupposition or a given o the culture
Critic: Ma$eleine (oran
In !haespeare slander is one o the worst o evils; it is a vice that I do not recall ever being e%cused. 5hen Iago declares at the end o the play that 1rom this time orth I never will spea word &$, ii, 7C@), the very means by which he avoids sel-incrimination becomes an assurance that he will not repeat his o=ence.
Critic: 'alerie %ayne
!haespeares $enice loos lie some accounts o his plays, since it is not a place that can tolerate di=erence the only characters let alive on stage are white
men. 0ut all o the white men let on stage are not the same, and it is important that Iagos misogynist discourse is specifc to his character and then spreads, through a ind o oral6aural abuse, to Othello.
Critic: Norman San$ers
The biblical chapter advises against whoredom and compares the wie o a mans youth to thine owne well or a ountaine blessed. ( womans womb sustains her husband with lie-giving water, and to be discarded rom it is to die o thirst. Net the waters o=ered there are not or everyone 0ut let them be thine, even thine onely, and not the strangers with thee.8A It is this verse that prompts Othellos alternative image o the womb as a site or engendering oul creatures when it is not e%clusive property. The womb is either a place o privileged ownership or a common pond breeding bestiality.
Critic: 'alerie %ayne
0ecause the handerchie serves as proo o married chastity, it cannot be
copied by 3milia and 0ianca. It is an emblem o esdemonas body that does not circulate because her body is not supposed to circulate the regulated passage o the handerchie is along amily lines, not elsewhere. This restriction usually
amily and produced primarily or their consumption. The value o married chastity, which is fgured in the handerchie, asserts a worth and purpose or women that contradict the assertions o misogyny by re'uiring the se%ual control o women in marriage. #hastity was a charm. The 3gyptian charmer new that i she lost it 6 Or made a git o it, Othellos ather and any husband would lapse into misogyny--he should hold her loathed, and his spirits should hunt 6 (ter new ancies &III, iv, :-B). 5hen esdemona loses the handerchie, she loses the means o presenting hersel as amiable, the proo that she is doing her private, domestic, bed-wor. !he loses her own te%t, as the ?enaissance constructed it or her.
Critic: Thorell Porter Tsomon$o
1or my purposes, then, a helpul starting point is ?obert !choless contrastive defnition o the two genres "drama is presence in time and space; narrative is past, always past" &9C; emphasis mine). 0ecause narrating can tae place only in the "once upon a time" o the story that it relates, in the dramatic here and now o the play, the staged present o the tale that Othello tells about himsel is not the events he recounts or the "sel" he re-creates but the act o narration. This act or role directs attention to past events and to a protagonist &the hero o
his narrative) whose e%periences are ramed in an earlier time than stage time, the time o the narrating, and in unamiliar, distant locations.
Through the narrative6dramatic strategies that !haespeare employs, Othello
reveals, among divided impulses and motives, some instructive e%clusions, emphases, and suppressions. Othellos initial introduction to the audience taes place in his absence and in the orm o gossip between Iago and ?oderigo. This gossip may be liened to the third person narrative point o view which
voyeuristically creates the character it describes. !haespeares use o this
means o introducing Othello is elicitous. The amiliarity that is apparent in Iago and ?oderigos conversation, in the coarse language they use and in their
interrelationship, is soon seconded by the concordant sentiments that their "concern" about esdemonas elopement awaens in the socially and politically privileged senator and parent, 0rabantio, who endorses ?oderigo "O would you had had her" &@.@.@F:). This breadown o reserve between social classes and individuals signifes the e%istence o common cause with the 3li2abethan audience; it articulates the societys deepest ears se%ual deviation and miscegenation.
Critic: Kenneth Tyan
>ot easily /ealous its the most appalling bit o sel-deception. Les the most easily /ealous man that anybodys ever written about. The minute he suspects, or thins he has the smallest grounds or suspecting, esdemona, he wishes to
