Othello: Analysis

"Iago, an ensign serving under Othello, Moorish commander of the armed forces of Venice, is passed over in promotion when Othello chooses Cassio to be his chief of staff. In revenge, Iago and his follower, Roderigo, arouse from his sleep Brabantio, senator of Venice, to tell him that his daughter, Desdemona, has stolen away and married Othello. Brabantio, incensed that his daughter would marry a Moor, leads his servants to Othello’s quarters ..."

"Paul Cefalu argues that Shakespearean characters raise timely questions about the relationship between cognition and consciousness and often defy our assumptions about “normal” cognition. The book will appeal to scholars and students interested in both the virtuesand limitations of cognitive literary criticism ... "

"Evil has nowhere else been portrayed with such mastery as in the character of lago ... "

"Why does lago hate Othello? This has always been the crux of the play. The characters themselves are baffled by hatred of such intensity; the dying Roderigo calls lago an 'inhuman dog', and to Lodovico he seems 'More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea'—more implacable than the blind forces of nature ... "

"This essay argues for the inclusion of Othello within the set of revenge tragedies. Othello consistently deploys revenge tragedy tropes not by coincidence but as a result of the play’s often overlooked genre conventions. Literary criticism has undertaken continued redefinition of the genre of Othello over several generations ... "

"Eurocentric views that African men are barbaric, illiterate, promiscuous studs (good enough only to be used in servitude as the white man's property) have been perpetuated through time and space. In the play Othello, Shakespeare presents an African man who negates such stereotypical views. In shocking his audience with this deviation from the norm, Shakespeare presents a reality that African men are indeed civil, literate, faithful husbands. Othello's tragedy transcends race and is based on a natural human weakness. His lack of self-esteem makes him an easy prey for the white devil, lago ... "

Scroll down this page to find a list of articles addressing a wide range of topics to do with Shakespeare's play, Othello.

This PDF contains a range of articles addressing themes, characters, plot and more.

"Othello is one of Shakespeare’s five best-known and widely studied tragedies, along with Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. But as is so often with a well-known text, we don’t know this one nearly as well as we think we do: Othello has more in it than jealousy, the ‘green-eyed monster’, and (implied) racial hatred ... "

"Is Othello black? With the news that David Oyelowo will play Othello opposite Daniel Craig’s Iago and that the Metropolitan Opera is finally discontinuing the practice of blackface in productions of Otello, we may see a revival of this oft-asked question. What people mean when they ask if Othello is black is: What did Shakespeare mean when he called Othello black? Would we say Othello is black today?"

"These plays are all well represented in the nation's art collection, particularly Macbeth – its wild Scottish landscapes, mystical witches and dramatic bloodshed have all proved to be a powerful inspiration for artists ... "

"Othello is a tragedy that proceeds from misunderstandings and miscommunication. Many of these errors are bound up with Iago's deception, but Michael Donkor looks at other, additional causes in the play ... "

"There have been numerous interpretations of Othello over the last 400 years. Virginia Mason Vaughan discusses four recent critical approaches: feminist, new historicist, marxist and post-colonial ... "

"... Iago’s rhetorical performance is deeply informed by the doctrines of Niccolo Machiavelli ... "

"It can be difficult to read either Machiavelli or Shakespeare without being
reminded of the other. Machiavelli’s work is a commentary on the power politics that
frame Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories, and Shakespeare’s villains bring to life the
inherent dangerousness of Machiavelli’s philosophy ... "

"Deriving from Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, the term ‘Machiavellian’ refers to a ruler type, whose features aredescribed in his work The Prince (1513). In
the work, Machiavelli mentions the principles a ruler should follow to obtain and hold power by disregarding all main rules of morality such as faithfulness, honesty. In this context, Machiavelli provided a new type of villain for the Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedy. The study claims that Shakespeareantragedies including Othello,King Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth
regarded as his “four principle tragedies” (Hazlitt, 2009, p. 21) also contain Machiavellian characters ... "