"Music and the Crisis of Meaning in Othello"
Minear centralizes her claim around the many "different and even contradictory" criticisms of Othello and its musical presentation (both textual and performative)(355). In her analysis, she addresses actual, stylistic, and symbolic music in the play, and notes that Othello's language, both literal and figurative, creates an "interpretative crisis" for audiences.
Minear begins her exploration by defining "earthly music" and "true music" (356). These terms serve as the entrance point for Minear's analysis on the dualities of "sound and sign" identified throughout the play (361). The term discordant is used often in describing the sounds of the play's poetry. This examination later evolves into the philosophical pondering of what "noise" can be defined as, and if the characters in Othello are simply (and noisily) babbling or if Shakespeare intended for their noises to evolve from "obscene and violent...into melody and lyricism" (363). In her conclusion, Minear states that Othello's musical presence contains both lyrical qualities and tones of mockery, both of which exist to overpower and undermine one another simultaneously.
-- Emily Tushar
