Othello critics

• ‘Shakespearean tragic heroes suffer madness’ - Mack
• ‘Othello himself is no mere private person; he is the General of the Republic' - Bradley
• ‘The noble Othello is now seen as tragically pathetic’ - Leavis
• ‘Othello is overcome with the pathos of it' - Leavis
• 'He has discovered his mistake, but there is no tragic self-discovery’ - Leavis
• ‘Iago’s machinations are effective because Othello is predisposed to believing his pronouncements about the inherent duplicity of women’ - Loomba
• ‘Inescapable trajectory of the tragic action’ - kastan
• ‘Are there reasons for the intolerable suffering?’ - Kastan
• ‘The uncertainty is the point’ - Kastan
• ‘The guise of the madman’ - Mack
• ‘Close to sympathising with the villain’ - Honigmann
• ‘Dramatic perspectives can even make us the villain's accomplices’ - Honigmann
• ‘Iago excels in short-term tactics, not in long-term strategy’ - Honigmann
• ‘He enjoys a godlike sense of power’ - Honigmann
• ‘Emilia’s love (of Desdemona) is Iago’s undoing’ - Honigmann
• ‘Othello is both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance’ - Loomba
• ‘Black skinned people were usually typed as godless, bestial, and hideous, fit only to be saved’ - Loomba
• 'Both blacks and Muslims were regarded as given to unnatural sexual and domestic practices' - Loomba
• ‘England was increasingly hostile to foreigners’ - Loomba
• ‘She is doomed to never be believed, because those to whom she speaks can only hear the opposing voice’ - Mack
• ‘Female ‘openness’ was dangerous and immoral’ - Loomba
• 'Iago enjoys another important advantage, that he is the play's chief humourist' - Honigmann
• 'His [Iago's] humour either intends to give pain or allows him to bask in his sense of his own superiority' - Honigmann
• 'He [Iago] hates the social games he took part in' - Honigmann
• 'Dramatic perspectives compel us to see with his [Iago's] eyes' - Honigmann
• 'His [Iago's] humour also makes him seem cleverer than his victims' - Honigmann
• 'He [Iago] has neither felt nor understood ... loyalty, friendship, respect, compassion' - Honigmann
• 'He [Othello] speaks his last words as the stern fighting man who has done the state some service' - Leavis
• 'Othello is a victim of racial beliefs precisely because he becomes an agent of misogynist ones' - Loomba
• ‘Both blacks and Muslims were regarded as... highly emotional and even irrational' - Loomba
• ‘Both blacks and Muslims were regarded as... prone to anger and jealousy' - Loomba
• 'Venice became an ideal that was invoked by English writers subtly to critique domestic affairs' - Loomba