Identity in Othello
Othello fashions an external position of hierarchy to disguise his insecurities.
"Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor but for bragging and telling
fantastical lines" (2,1) - relationship born on fantasy
"My perfect soul should manifest me rightly" (O, 2.1), "By Janus, I think no" - I
o Othello is naively oblivious to his transparency, asserts dynamism between the
characters' perception of reality
Greenblatts renaissance self-fashioning: The Book of the Courtier ('how to' guide) --> make
trained feats appear easy
Leavis; "self-centred and self-regarding satisfactions" --> Othello's attempts to hide these are
his downfalls. --> Disagree
Girard; 'when you bury impulses they emerge more violently" --> his attempts to cover his
insecurities
Iago utilises the imitation of dialogue and social class to insert himself as an equal to Othello.
"I am not what I am" --> chiasmic, linguistic deception
Othello combines strong, stead monosyllables with iambic rhythm 'great words'; 'out-
tongue'
What Knight called the "Othello music" i.e. (3.3) "Like the Pontic Sea, /Whose icy
current and compulsive course"
Followed by Iago's empty imitation with pre-packaged, end-stopped lines "witness
you ever burning lights above, / you elements that clip us round about"
Neil: "Iago's genius is to articulate the loosely assorted prejudices and superstitions... And to
fashion them" --> however, DISAGREE; his ability to deceive Othello is more important than
his ability to fashion people's opinions of his reputation.
Sprezzatura - conflict between external and internal --> Venetian 16th century governed by
external appearance.
Shakespeare expresses identity as a fluid, fleeting and divisive force, easily adapted in 16th
century Venice, in which there were, as Karim-Cooper asserts, 'sumptuary laws governing dress
according to social hierarchy.'
"they say base men being in love have them a nobility in their natures more than is native
to them" (2,1)
"There's many a beast in a populous city, and many a civil monster" (4,1) - conflicting
identities, oxymoronic and reflective of Othello being a barbarian and a diplomat.
Bradley "itself is a conflict of spirit"
Iago's Machiavellian notion, identity is fluid, can be constructed and deconstructed = 'The
Prince' displayed the possibility to shape one's future through actions, diverges Godly fate
Loyalty in Othello
Desdemona's unwavering loyalty to Othello is masterfully orchestrated by Shakespeare to
exemplify the contrast between external, percieved loyalty and internal truth.
Handkerchief raises question of material objects and unseen qualities, "Who steals my
purse, steals trash" - Iago stealing the handkerchief equates to stealing her "good name"
"subtle whore... She'll kneel and pray" - façade of virtue, juxtaposing language shows his
mind unravelling - female inequality means they are not trusted
"A guiltless death I die" - her loyalty transcends boundaries of life and death
, Auden: "a few more years of marriage to Othello... She might as well... Have taken a lover" -
Disagree, sexist assumption - although maybe Othello killed her to stump the fears of an
inevitable future
Luther: "God created (a woman's) body that she should be with a man and raise children" -
Venetian ideals, show magnitude of Othello's jealousy
Iago self-fashions an appearance of loyalty towards Othello.
"O brave Iago, honest and just" (5.1) - ironic triplet, shows how morality is outdated
following the rise of Machiavelli
Hazlitt; Iago is 'the amateur of tragedy in real life', he directs a perfect tragedy by himself
o Iago deceives in the opening, practicing his art upon Roderigo's emptiness, or what
Coleridge called 'Roderigo's intemperance while Iago coolness'
o Engineers light, "enter Iago, with a light", also engineers what Othello thinks; "Did
Michael Cassio, /When you wooed my lady, know of your love" and gets Emilia "to
steal it"
Empiricism - Othello's loyalty doesn't waver because he is so set on ocular proof, while he is
oblivious to Iago engineering light/dark and the metaphysical.
Renaissance self-fashioning; Greenblatt; 'profound mobility'
Shakespeare presents loyalty as instrumental to femineity.
Desdemona runs away from her father, however this feminist expression of loyalty towards
Othello is what makes her husband fear she will rebel. "your daughter, if you have not given
her leave, I say again, hath made a gross revolt", "prove my love a whore"
Sisterhood of Emilia and D
o Emilia "They [anaphora] are all but stomachs and we all but food" - us and them
collective pronoun tension shows female loyalty
o Utilise motif of speech to sing in unification, 'her hand on her bosom, her head on
her knee, / sing willow, willow, willow;'
o "O, lay me by my mistress' side" - sorotorial bonds, she stands up for her mistress'
purity
LuckyJ: 'the play's central conflict [is] between men and women rather than Iago and
Othello'
Butler; 'masculine and feminine roles are not biologically built but socially constructed' - but
rejects further assertion that genders unite in face of adversity.
Reputation in Othello
Shakespeare fashions Othello with an unstable social status of a general or diplomat or a
conflicting, savage Moor. Through a reputation gathered by his actions but also an artificial
prejudice.
Diplomat; "put away your swords or they will rust"
Purposely demoted - Roderigo calls him a 'Moor' in the first scene, and then a 'Negro' -->
they are different thing, discards the Northern African bureaucracy and democracy to sub-
Saharan savagery.
o "the devil will make a grandsire of you"
Othello tries to challenge negative notions of blackness. As Othello renounces 'appetite' and
the 'heat' of desire to embody a 'white souled Ethiope".
Othello approaches bed, drawing attention to his blackness and her 'whiter skin...than
snow'
Smith; race merely 'exposes him to the terrible psychic vulnerability of an outsider', as the
play is sympathetic to the 'destructive internalisation of stereotype'
