Othello Critics

• What did Loomba say about the character of Othello?


  'Victim of racial beliefs and agent of misogyny
• What did Wain say about the character of Othello?


  'Othello does not see Desdemona as a real girl but as something magical that has happened to him
• What did Heilman say about the character of Othello?


  'The least heroic of Shakespeare's heroes
• What did O'Toole say about the character of Othello and Iago?


  'There is no Othello without Iago
• What did Duthie say about the character of Othello?


  'Noble figure which has within a seed of evil
• What did Leavis say about the character of Othello?


  'No tragic self-discovery
• What did Johnson (1765) say about the character of Othello?


  'More moral than almost any play
• What did Leavis say about the character of Othello?


  The essential traitor is within the gates
• What did Ryner (1600's) say about the character of Desdemona?


  'A woman married without sense cause she married a black moor
• What does Abrahams say about the character of Desdemona and Emilia?


  'Each woman is so measured in her response to her husband's malignance that she fails to prevent her own destruction at her husband's hands
• What does Heraud say about the character of Desdemona?


  'She suffers from illusion and loves to be deluded
• What does French say about the character of Desdemona?


  'Accepts her culture's dictum that she must be obedient to males
• What does Honingman say about the character of Desdemona?


  'Strongest, the most heroic person in the play
• What does Bradley say about the character of Desdemona?


  'Her nature is infinitely sweet
• What does Smith say about the character of Iago?


  'Iago is a repressed homosexual
• What does O'Toole say about the character of Iago?


  'Machiavellian villain
• What does Honingman say about the character of Iago?


  'Liar, betrayer, mental torturer
• What does JW say about the character of Iago?


  'Iago does not foresee the holocaust at the end, because he does not understand his own tendencies
• What does Muir say about the character of Iago?


  'The secret of Iago is the pathological jealousy of his wife
• What does Empson say about the character of Iago?


  'Iago's uttering his true opinions for most of the play but people assume it is him having a bit of fun
• What does Empson say about the character of Iago?


  'his cynicism has deep roots in destructive emotions
• What does Romero say about the character of Emilia?


  'Only thought was to enchant her ornery husband
• What does Abrahams say about the character of Emilia?


  'by filching Desdemona's handkerchief, Emilia catalyzes her husband's actions against Othello
• What does Bradley say about the character of Cassio?


  'We trust him absolutely to never pervert the truth
• What does Hopkins say about the character of Cassio?


  'Cassio carried a name meaning hollow, of Italian origin
• What does Simpson say about the characters Cassio, Othello and Bianca?


  'Bianca is like Othello and cassio, an outsider
• What does Norris say about the character of Bianca?


  'Bianca is also an allusion to the problematic status of women both in this period and today
• What does Barker say about the play as a whole?


  'A tragedy without meaning
• What does Loomba say about the play as a whole?


  'Othello is both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance
• What does Wayne say about the theme of women?


  'Shakespeare's Venice is not a place that can tolerate difference: the only characters left alive on stage are white men