Othello As Tragedy: Some Problems of Judgement and FeelingCritical views of Othello have polarized during the last forty years. The dispute is between those who follow Coleridge and Bradley and see Othello as noble but diabolically misled, and those who follow Eliot and Leavis and see him as a criminal egotist. Jane Adamson argues that both views are too simple and that both deprive the play of tragic point. She is concerned to reinstate the play as a great tragedy, and Othello as a complex tragic figure. She considers in detail how the drama unfolds; how Othello's predicament provides a focus for moral questions raised in all the other characters; how the reader or spectator becomes painfully involved with similar questions in trying to understand the action; and how in these ways the play continually undercuts easy moral simplifications. During this study a great deal else in Shakespeare is illuminated - especially his insight into the need for love, and the dangers that are inseparable from that need. |
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Contents
Preface page | 1 |
the first two acts | 28 |
Iagos place in the play | 64 |
Othello | 107 |
Othellos crisis in Acts | 136 |
Othellos | 181 |
the plays | 214 |
The power to hurt and be hurt past | 264 |
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Common terms and phrases
actually alacrity assertions bear behaviour betrays Bianca bond Brabantio Bradley capacity cashiering Cassio cause characters Cinthio's claims clearly comfort course critics crucial Cyprus death deny Desdemona Desdemona's love desperate doubt Dr Johnson dramatic dread Emilia emotional example fact false fear feelings final scene force foul guilt Hamlet handkerchief heart heaven hero honour human hurt Iago Iago's imagination inevitably injury instance judgment Julius Caesar kill kind King Lear Leavis less Lodovico lord marriage merely Michael Cassio mind mona's Montano moral murder nature notice once Othello pain patience phrase play play's Pontic sea precisely prompt question reality realize recognize remark remedy response reveals rhetoric Roderigo seems self-charity sense Shake Shakespeare Shakespearean Tragedy significant simply soliloquy soul speak speech Stoicism suggest thee things thou tragedy Troilus and Cressida truth Turks turn victim Wilson Knight words