Modern & Contemporary

• Modern and Contemporary Criticism

  Two of the most important commentators on Shakespeare’s tragedies are A.C. Bradley and Gardner, though they disagree in their ideas about Othello.
• Bradley

  • One of the most important commentators on Shakespeare’s tragedies was A(ndrew) C(ecil) Bradley (1851-1935).
  • Bradley took a very character-driven response to tragedy.
• Shakespearean Tragedy

  • In his book Shakespearean Tragedy, first published in 1904, he said that ‘Of all the tragedies... Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible’.
  • He also commented that ‘there is no subject more exciting than sexual jealousy rising to the pitch of passion’.
• Gardner

  • Another important critic was Helen Gardner (1908-1986).
  • She disagreed with many of Bradley’s ideas about Othello.
  • Writing in 1963, Gardner said that ‘Othello is like a hero of the ancient world in that he is not a man like us, but a man recognized as extraordinary.’
• Solitariness

  • Gardner also said that ‘the thing that most sets him apart is his solitariness. He is a stranger, a man of alien race, without ties or nature or natural duties’.
• Modern and Contemporary Criticism

  Contemporary critics have read Othello in light of modern ways of life, including women's sexuality, post-colonialism and religion.
• Sex

  • A recent interpretation of the play has been offered by Karen Newman, who explores the connection between race and sexuality in critical responses to the play over time.
  • One idea that Newman puts forward is that Desdemona appears to enjoy sex—something that would have been considered unacceptable for women in Shakespeare’s day.
• Foreigner

  • Furthermore, Newman argues there is the issue that she ‘enjoys sex with an outsider’.
  • Therefore, many prejudices and stereotypes are turned upside-down by their marriage.
• Foreigner

  • Furthermore, Newman argues there is the issue that she ‘enjoys sex with an outsider’.
  • Therefore, many prejudices and stereotypes are turned upside-down by their marriage.
• Religion

  • In fact, Othello and the Turks have a religious commonality about them.
  • Othello is a foreign mercenary but he has been engaged to defeat his own ethnic and religious group.
  • This may also seal his tragic fate.
• Modern and Contemporary Performance

  Othello has been performed regularly since publication. Modern and contemporary productions have ranged from the traditional to the progressive.
• America, 1943

  • An American production took place in 1943 staging starring Paul Robeson as Othello and José Ferrer as Iago.
  • This production was the first ever in America to feature a black actor playing Othello with an otherwise all-white cast.
  • Considering the sensitivities over race relations in America at this time, this was a bold performance.
• London, 1964

  • In 1964, the famous actor Laurence Olivier played Othello at the Royal National Theatre in London.
  • In order to perform this role he was ‘blacked up’ to look Moorish.
  • These days, such practice is never completed in the theatre as it is considered politically inappropriate.
• Washington, 1997

  • In 1997, Patrick Stewart performed Othello with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in a ‘photo negative’ production.
  • He played a white Othello with an otherwise all-black cast.
  • The play therefore explored a white man operating in a black society.