English Critical Quotes

Front 1

A.C Bradley - Tragedy

Back 1

'A tragedy is mainly concerned with one person'

Front 2

Honingman - Iago

Back 2

'Iago excels in short term tactics not long term strategy'

'Dramatic perspective can even make us the villains accomplice'

'His humour makes him seem smarter than the other characters

Front 3

Honingman - Iago

Back 3

'He enjoys a Godlike sense of power'

'(He) neither felt nor understood the spiritual impulses that bind us together' (E.G love)

Front 4

Mack - Madness

Back 4

'The guise of a madman'

Front 5

Leavis - Othello characterisation

Back 5

'There is no tragic self discovery'

'Othello does tend to sentimentalise'

'Othello is overcome by the pathos of it all'

'(He) plays the self dramatising trick'

Front 6

Loomba - Racism and Xenophobia

Back 6

'Location, skin colour and class are seen to add up to nature itself'

'Othello is a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance'

'Black skinned people were usually typed as godless, bestial and hideous'

Front 7

Othello in its own time - Racism and Xenophobia

Back 7

'When Rodrigo and Iago express such Xenophobic and racist sounding sentiments, original audiences likely would have assented'

Front 8

G.K Hunter - Racism

Back 8

'Assuming that soul is reality and body is appearance, we may say that Iago is the white man with the black soul whilst Othello is the black man with the white soul'

Front 9

G.K Hunter - Iago and Othello

Back 9

' The dramatic function of Iago is to reduce the white 'reality' of Othello to the black 'appearance' of his face'

Front 10

Othello in its own time - Desdemona (negative)

Back 10

'Desdemona is evidently a secondary figure; rather than sustaining her own interest, she supports the play's focus on the protagonist '

Front 11

Othello in its own time- Desdemona (positive)

Back 11

'She guides not just characters' responses within the lay but our response to it'

'If Othello is centred on 'the heroics of marriage' then Desdemona, who most fully achieves and embodies these values, is the true protagonist'

Front 12

Othello in its own time - Sex

Back 12

'the dark essence of Iago's whole enterprise is to play upon Othello's buried perception of his own sexual relations with Desdemona as adulterous'