Critical approaches to Othello - The British Library.
Critical Essays Major Themes Explore the different themes within William Shakespeare's tragic play, Othello. Themes are central to understanding Othello as a play and identifying Shakespeare's social and political commentary. In Othello, the major themes reflect the values and the motivations of characters.One major theme in Othello is revenge - Iago's revenge on Othello and Othello's revenge on Desdemona. They both believe death will bring justice. Iago's revenge is cooler, plotted out over time where Othello's is an act of heartbroken passion.Othello incurs resentment for many reasons. He is from a land that Venetians consider exotic and mysterious, he has had unique adventures, and his military accomplishments far exceed those of the men around him. The most visible indicator of his outsider status is also the one that provokes the most poisonous responses: Othello is a black man.
The themes of jealousy, pride, and revenge have consistently interested scholars throughout Othello’s critical history. With the development of psychoanalysis and its application to literary characters, twentieth-century critics have expanded on earlier interpretations of the play’s three primary characters and suggested new explanations and motivations for their actions.Understand every line of Othello. Read our modern English translation. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Othello, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. The most prominent form of prejudice on display in Othello is racial prejudice. In the very first scene, Roderigo and Iago disparage Othello in.
Othello centers around the timeless themes of racial prejudice, love, sexual jealousy, revenge, betrayal and eventual repentance and has been frequently adapted for film, theatre and opera, Scroll down for a comprehensive list of literary essays that discuss Shakespeare’s Othello from various perspectives.
