“‘Say Die and I Will Die’: Betraying the Other, Controlling Female Desire, and Legally Destroying Women in 'Wide Sargasso Sea' and Othello'”

Gruesser, John. “‘Say Die and I Will Die’: Betraying the Other, Controlling Female Desire, and Legally Destroying Women in Wide Sargasso Sea and Othello.” Journal of Caribbean Literatures, vol. 3, no. 3, 2003, pp. 99–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40986147. Accessed 21 July 2021.

In this essay, Gruesser asserts that Wide Sargasso Sea is not only Othello’s feminist counterpart, but also a postcolonial revision of Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy. The structure of the piece compares and contrasts both male protagonists, Othello and Rhys’s Rochester, and female protagonists, Desdemona and Antoinette. Although Gruesser suggests additional connections between other characters, the analysis fixates strongly on the primary couples of which each story details. First, Gruesser claims that Othello and Antoinette are framed as the colonial Other, but are further divided by other factors, such as nationality, gender, and status. They are united in character by the perspective of the Other, and subsequent treatment of both Antoinette and Othello, lead them to unravel spiritually, emotionally, and physically. The author explains that jealousy, insanity, shame, and obsessive desire are the result of the continuous pressure that Antoinette and Othello experience as foreign people under the metaphorical thumb of colonizers. 

The remaining half of the analysis then explores the similarities between Antoinette’s character and Desdemona. Both women are limited in their power, mostly due to their sex, but also in personality and the handling of their partner’s false accusations and later abuse. Given the historical and cultural context of the role of the female in English society, both Othello and Rochester are able and encouraged to pursue any thoughts of doubt with their wives, and are considered justified in their punishments of Desdemona and Antoinette. Within this lens, the men are unified in their villainy, while the women experience a similar destruction due to a gaslighting husband. 

--Emily Tushar

JEALOUSY AND DESTRUCTION IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S OTHELLO

Rai, Ram Prasad. "Jealousy and Destruction in William Shakespeare's Othello." Crossing the Border:

International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 4.1 (2015): 53-58.

In his article analyzing Shakespeare’s play Othello, author Ram Prasad Rai argues that the true cause of Othello’s destruction is the presence and permeation of jealousy: “Because of jealousy, the relation between the people is disturbed and the world of Othello is fully destroyed” (Rai 53). The mastermind behind the feelings of jealousy come from Iago, and can be seen at the very start of the play where the audience views Iago being jealous of Cassio’s new position as Othello’s lieutenant rather than himself; this is the first spark that starts a fire. The author describes how Iago turns to Roderigo, using his jealousy of Othello’s marriage to Desdemona, the woman he claims to love, as “a weapon” (54) against Othello. Iago twists the truth and Roderigo’s emotions throughout the play in order to use him against others. Also near the beginning of the play, the author discusses how Iago feeds the anger and jealousy of Brabantio, informing him of his daughter’s secret marriage: a secret that will come to haunt the couple later through Iago’s manipulations. Further, the author describes how Iago’s manipulation of Cassio is the stronger root of jealousy, as by getting him drunk and deposed of his position, Iago “advises him to seek help from Desdemona to request Othello for the lost position back” (55). After dropping hints and spreading rumors to Othello of Cassio’s lack of character and lies about him vying for Desdemona, Othello no longer sees Cassio as he once did, allowing him to believe the lies. In the same way, Iago twists the truth of Desdemona keeping their marriage secret from her father, thus “proving” that she can be a good liar. Like with Cassio, Othello is convinced he no longer really knows his wife, and becomes so angry with jealousy that he is led to kill her. These things, and forced evidence such as the handkerchief and misheard conversations, eventually drive Othello to a madness of jealousy, and the destruction of his happiness and life.

- Mathew Stephens

"Rethinking Iago's Jests in Othello II.i: Honestas, Imports and Laughable Deformity"

 

Derrin, Daniel. “Rethinking Iago’s Jests in Othello II.i: Honestas, Imports and Laughable

Deformity.” Renaissance Studies. Vol. 31, Issue 3, June 2017, pp. 365-382. 

Though it has often been discarded by directors who deem the scene as “filler provided for an anxious Desdemona” (365), Daniel Derrin asserts the importance of Othello’s Act II, Scene I as essential to understanding a complex exchange of power between the two witty characters through their negotiation of an ethos—honestas. Darrin argues the scene offers “a serious dramatic exploration of Iago’s persuasiveness and Desdemona’s cleverness” (365). He defines honestas as a reflection of the “moral goodness” expected of civil conversation and explains how Iago uses a false sense of it to bring down virtually all major characters in the play, though he claims this fictionalization of honesty does not necessarily imply Iago is ethically “vacuous.” Derrin asserts that jokes are funny because of certain shared value-laden beliefs between the deliverer and recipient and expounds on Desdemona’s possible interpretations of Iago’s misogynistic dialogue based on her responses to it. He also touches on the delicacy required of the interaction between the two characters of differing social standing.

--Leslie Leffers

"'O Blood, Blood, Blood': Violence and Identity in Shakespeare's Othello"

Feather, Jennifer. “‘O Blood, Blood, Blood’: Violence and Identity in Shakespeare's Othello.” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 26, 2013, pp. 240–263. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24322748. Accessed 15 July 2021.

Jennifer Feather claims that, based on early modern understandings of “blood” being both a fixed indicator of biological lineage and “the fluid nature of humoral physiology” (241), Othello’s cry of “O blood, blood, blood” when he believes Desdemona’s “infidelity” would not be understood as a reaction of barbarism/savagery but rather it would be understood as the early modern notions of chivalry connected with violence that would restore honor to both him and Desdemona. Blood, Feather establishes, would form one’s concept of identity in body, soul, and environment, in which Othello establishes a heroic and chivalric understanding of the self. When his identity of self is threatened and destabilized by Desdemona’s alleged infidelity, he makes “essence and performance one in the same” (244) in order to address this unbalance. Brabantio evokes Desdemona’s betrayal as “a treason of the blood” (1.1.166), Desdemona’s will and “nature” betraying itself and in doing so, him, an understanding Iago capitalizes on when decimating the understanding of love to “merely a lust of the blood and permission of the will” (1.3.332). To “set right” the instability of Desdemona’s “lust of blood” and lack of will, Othello keeps her corporeally intact, “Yet I’ll not shed her blood” (5.2.3), while ensuring she cannot wreak havoc upon others. He stabilizes himself again when the truth is discovered through recognizing Desdemona’s sacrifice and committing his own, using chivalric violence as a way to connect and navigate the corporeal, divine and social understandings of identity.

--Hannah Nagy

One and One is Two, Three Is Potency

Karremann, Isabel.  “One and One is Two, Three Is Potency: The Dynamics of the Erotic Triangle in Othello.”  Journal of the Spanish Society for English Renaissance Studies, vol. 13, 2003, pp.111-121.

        In her essay, Karremann takes notions of the erotic triangle from Sedgwick in order to show it can be used for manipulation (as opposed to social-emotional exploration), and how norm transgression ruins its stability.  However, the main focus of her literary interpretation is to show how the erotic triangle Iago forms, fails because he (and Othello) fail to see each other’s desires. The academic conversation that this falls into is broadly gender at first, and then more specifically erotic or love triangles in literature as well as society. Karremann is E.K. Sedgwick work as her foundation; Sedgwick focused on recovering male homosocial bonds in literature and history.  Women were used as property to legitimize male homosocial relationships and prevent homosexuality. Sedgwick believed that most homosocial bonds were a mask for homosexual desires; however, homosexuality threatened the patriarchy by subverting power structures.  Using Sedgwick’s ideas, Karremann looks at how the erotic triangle becomes unstable, by transgressing social norms, and how it is used by Iago as tool for manipulation. Instead of using his triangle to develop a web of patriarchal bonds, Iago “exclusively” desires Othello, and their opposing desires destroy the stability of this triangle.

-Ben Mathews

“Authentic Protest, Authentic Shakespeare, Authentic Africans: Performing Othello in South Africa”

Distiller, Natasha. “Authentic Protest, Authentic Shakespeare, Authentic Africans: Performing Othello in South Africa.” Comparative Drama, vol. 46, no. 3, 2012, pp. 339-354. Project Muse, doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/cdr.2012.0023.

In this essay, Natasha Distiller considers whether Othello is a racist play, considering it was written by a white man and intended for a white actor in blackface to play the part of the black character. She develops this consideration through a look at Janet Suzman’s 1987 production of Othello in apartheid South Africa, which served as a “protest play” for South African policies surrounding race. Ultimately, Distiller argues that Shakespeare’s work isn’t racist, but rather a powerful tool that can provide meaning to a given cultural context. She says that Othello will mean different things to different people depending on the cultural context of the play’s presentation, including the time and place it is staged in. She begins by discussing the comments of Shakespeare critic James Earl Jones, who said that Othello shouldn’t be looked at from a perspective of race, but should instead be explored as a “classic” piece of literature with universal themes that do not include race. However, Distiller argues that black actors cannot ignore their black identity while playing the part of Othello, making it impossible to not make Othello about race, for how can one expect a black actor to play this role as a black man in a white world without being aware of his own blackness? Distiller then discusses how Suzman, in her 1987 production of Othello as a protest play in apartheid South Africa, has deliberately placed Othello into a singular time and place. Instead of centering on the universal themes of the “classics,” she encourages the audience to consider both race and gender issues present in the play, creating a direct link between what is happening in the play and what is happening in South Africa. 

Jenny Jadin

The Humiliation of Iago

 Zender, Karl. F. "The Humiliation of Iago." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 34, no. 2, 1994, pp. 323-39, www.jstor.org/stable/450904. 

The author's argument focuses on the power of language, specifically affection and affectionate fluency. In Othello, characters such as Othello and Desdemona would constantly elicit lines of affection despite being mired in despair. For Iago, lines of endearment were antithetical to him and his plans; lines of affection come from the heart and are authentic. Iago communicates(ed) to control and manipulate, almost nothing about him was warm, affectionate, or authentic. 

The humiliation of Iago arises from Desdemona inadvertently speaking affectionately to him about women. 

Desdemona: What wouldst write of me, if thou shouldst / praise me?

Iago: O, gentle lady, do not put me to't, / For I am nothing if not critical. (2.1.117-119)

Again, Desdemona coyly challenges Iago with being affectionate. 

Desdemona: Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

Iago: I am about it, but indeed my invention / Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze: It plucks out brains and all. (2.1.124-7)

The one thing Iago struggled with was intimacy and affection and Desdemona stymied him. The author asserts that Iago's humiliation derived from his inability to counter affection, with his own "affectionate dialogue" (it wasn't in Iago), specifically from Desdemona, and to "silence" others through his own tongue and manipulation. "Desdemona's request that Iago praise women thus exposes a limit on his capacity to simulate love…" (Zender 331).  Zender further argues that that was why Iago took a more aggressive and upfront position with Othello when discussing the manner of Desdemona's murder. 

Othello: Get me some poison, Iago, this night. I'll not / expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide / my mind again. This night, Iago. 

Iago: Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed, / even the bed she hath contaminated. (4.1.198-202)

Zender intimates that part of the reason Iago suggests Desdemona should be "strangled" is to shut her up entirely in a symbolic act of silencing Desdemona's voice--and her ability to effect affectionate fluency,--in order for the effect of his (Iago's) voice to remain the dominant, controlling one

--David Kase