Othello (play)

is a play at whose end love and goodness defeat evil.

Love and goodness defeat evil' at the end of Othello.

is a play exposing the fear of racial and sexual difference of Renaissance culture. The white, male characters feel threatened by the power and potency of a different and monstrous sexuality which Othello represents.

Newman says the play exposes the 'fear of racial and sexual difference' of Renaissance culture. Newman argues the white male characters in Othello, especially Iago, feel threatened by the 'power and potency of a different and monstrous sexuality' which Othello represents. Newman looks at the play in relation to Jacobean stereotypes of the black male, in particular, worries about mixed marriages. Shakespeare's contemporaries feared 'the black man had the power to subjugate his partner's whiteness.' this makes the black male monstrous. However, Newman suggests 'by making the black Othello a hero, and by making Desdemona's love for Othello... sympathetic', Shakespeare's play challenges the racist, sexist and colonialist views of his society.

is a play in which the handkerchief serves as a miniature representation of the nuptial linens and is thus crucially important to the stability of the marriage of Othello and Desdemona.

She considers the cultural significance of Desdemona's wedding sheets and the handkerchief, commenting on how these objects had economic and symbolic value in Renaissance. Callaghan sees the handkerchief as a 'miniature of the nuptial linens' and suggests it is crucially important to the stability of the marriage of Othello and Desdemona.

is a play in which the murder of Desdemona is heroic because Othello acts from inner necessity; it is an act heroic in its absoluteness, disinterestedness, and finalty. It must be done.

The murder of Desdemona 'is heroic because Othello acts from inner necessity... the act is also heroic in its absoluteness, disinterestedness, and finalty... it must be done.'

is a play providing a very useful moral: not to take an unequal match.

Dr Johnson's (1765) response to Othello was positive. In Johnson's view Othello was 'magnanimous, artless and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his revenge.' Johnson also suggested that the play provided a 'very useful moral, not to take an unequal match.'

is a play where the central conflict is between the racism of a white patriarchy and the threat posed to it by two others: a black man and a white woman.

Loomba suggests the central conflict in Othello is 'between the racism of a white patriarchy and the threat posed to it by both a black man and a white woman.' For Loomba, woman and black exist as 'the other' in this play. Loomba argue that Othello has a split consciousness and is 'a near schizophrenic hero'; his final speech 'graphically portrays the split - he becomes simultaneously the Christian and the Infidel, the Venetian and the Turk, the keeper of the state and its opponent.' Loomba suggests Othello is an honorary white at the beginning of the play but become a 'total outsider' because of his relationship with Desdemona, which ruptures his 'precarious entry into the white world.' Loomba insists, however, that Othello 'should not be read as a patriarchal, authoritative and racist spectacle.' Instead the play should be sued to 'examine and dismantle' ideas about racism and sexism.

Othello becomes 'a tragedy of the loss of faith.'

is a work that sets one to wonding whether men are capable of unselfish love.

One wonders... whether the men are capable of unselfish love' in Othello.

othello (play), n.Definitions

othello (play)