Othello Research Articles

Foul Pranks: Recognizing Vice Principals as a Comic Othello

Foul Pranks:Recognizing Vice Principals as a Comic Othello James Newlin "I'm not proposing that you spend years studying Shakespeare …" – Donald Trump, Think Like a Champion1 Jody Hill and Danny McBride's Vice Principals, which premiered on the premium cable network HBO in the summer of 2016, is one of those shows that is "not for everyone."2 The pitch-black comedy tells the story of two white, male high school administrators who are passed over for the position of principal and, in turn, dedicate themselves to sabotaging the black woman who unexpectedly becomes their boss. The main characters' antics range from the juvenile (spitting in their boss's coffee) to the criminal (burning her house to the ground), with director Hill staging many scenes less to elicit laughs than a sense of dread. Vice Principals is a particularly caustic example of "cringe comedy."3 It can be startlingly profane. Vice Principals is also, I will argue in this essay, an uncannily faithful adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello.4 Both texts depict two resentful, white underlings undermining not only the career but also the life and reputation of the person of color to whom they are subordinate. And, in fact, Vice Principals includes a number of references that suggest its parallels with Othello are intentional, including a scene set in a classroom where the play is being taught.5 I suspect the series would be of interest to scholars of Shakespearean adaptation merely due to its novel (and perhaps misguided) translation of genre. Yet I contend that it is precisely in presenting Shakespeare's tragedy as a dark comedy that the series demonstrates its striking fidelity to its source text. At least since Thomas Rymer denounced Othello as a "Bloody Farce, without salt or savour" in 1693 (146), critical readers have identified the [End Page 197] play's structure as at least partly comic in its design.6 Indeed, before Iago has even begun to perform his "double knavery" upon Othello (1.3.393),7 the play-text presents a portrait of a joke taken too far, when, for the delight and discomfort of Emilia and Desdemona, Iago "miserab[ly] prais[es]" women's "foul pranks" (2.1.139, 142). Of course, by the end of the play, Iago has performed far worse "tricks" himself (2.1.171). By translating Iago's own foul pranks into a cringe comedy, Vice Principals may provide a vision of the play as close to what Michael Bristol calls its "comedy of abjection" as we are likely to see. If the pranks performed in Vice Principals are somehow faithful to those of Othello, it is not surprising that the series' reception was initially mixed. HBO's original series are frequently celebrated as the paragons of "prestige television," but upon Vice Principals' premiere, reviewers initially decried the show's "staggering toxicity" (Loofbourow).8 Yet critical appreciation for Vice Principals grew during the 2016 fall election season, with several online publications noting that the show's portrayal of white, male resentment "explains" the candidacy of Donald Trump.9 Considering the series' relationship with Othello, this increasingly positive reception recalls a recent body of writing relevant to Shakespeare studies, which Jeffrey R. Wilson calls "Public Shakespeareanisms."10 These think-pieces—such as Stephen Greenblatt's much-discussed New York Times editorial, "Shakespeare Explains the 2016 Election"—similarly laud Shakespeare's power to explain our current political milieu. If, as its celebrators have it, Vice Principals can "explain" our current realities, we might ask whether it is in fact the show's appropriation of Othello that enables these insights. By transplanting Othello's narrative into the current political moment, Vice Principals makes a kind of claim about the former's prescience. In particular, Vice Principals explores the parallels between the portrayal of white resentment in Othello and in the rhetoric of the American far right—namely, the central role played by misogyny, especially in the form of cuckold jokes, for both. Yet what I interpret as the show's "uncanny" fidelity to Othello concerns form, as well as politics. As a matter of genre, the series is eerily faithful to an uncanny vision of Othello—the...

"Banish Her, But Kill Her Not." A Lesson to Shakespeare's General Othello from the Bodhisattva King Chulla Paduma

"Banish Her, But Kill Her Not." A Lesson to Shakespeare's General Othello from the Bodhisattva King Chulla Paduma

Kill Shakespeare – This Bard contains graphic language!

Today, adapting Shakespearean plays into comic books or graphic novels appears to be a well-established literary practice in contemporary storytelling. One of the most interesting examples is OKill ShakespeareO, a graphic novel written by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery and illustrated by Andy Belanger. In OKill ShakespeareO, the authors abandon the idea of adapting a single play to create a Shakespearian mashup in which Hamlet and Juliet fight such villains as Richard III and Lady Macbeth who try to kill a wizard named William Shakespeare.This is the premise for a compelling narration that intertwines various elements of the Shakespearean tradition and attempts to convey an idea of Elizabethan language to contemporary readers. While the characters are familiar, the quest is wholly new and triggers a series of transformations in the narrative, turning upside down the well-established images of Hamlet, Juliet and Othello. Beside the intriguing depictions of the female characters, especially Lady Macbeth,whose image poses questions about the representation of women in comic books, one of the most fertile narrative elements in Kill Shakespeare is the actual presence of William Shakespeare as a character. In conclusion, Del Col and McCreery prove they know their Shakespeare, surprising readers with a fresh approach which, hopefully, will enlarge the Shakespearean audience.

Oliver Parker's Filmed Othello: Desdemona and Design

This essay examines the 1995 filmed version of Shakespeare's Othello, directed by Oliver Parker and starring Laurence Fishburne. For the first time in a big-budget movie, Othello was played by a black man – an astonishing fact when one considers that this development did not occur until almost the very end of the twentieth century. This essay briefly surveys the often highly divergent responses the film received. It concludes by defending various aspects of the film, including its tightly knit structure and also the performance by Irène Jacob as Desdemona. Because Jacob's presence in the film was often severely criticized, it seems worthwhile, in attempting to defend the film in general, to examine several scenes prominently featuring her contributions to the production.

Shakespeare’s Othello: The Esteemed, Reviled, Shunned, and Integrated?

In Shakespearean literature, one can find themes that challenge the Elizabethan conventional way of thinking and life, and the tragedy of Othello is no exception. In a dramatic presentation, Shakespeare challenges the way in which Black people are seen in Elizabethan society by placing a Moor in the context of Venice, Italy who is both hated and respected in his place in a racist society. There is no doubt that there is racism in Elizabethan society. According to Eldred Jones, during the era in which Othello is composed, Queen Elizabeth enacts legislation that calls for all Black people to leave the country (Jones, 1994). Racism is not the core theme of the dramatic piece; however, the existence of racism is illustrated and expressed via Shakespeare’s artistic medium. Just as feminism, greed, jealousy, hubris, and varying other matters dealing with the human spirit do not seepage Shakespeare’s consideration, nor do race matters. Furthermore, just as he dramatizes human issues, he dramatizes race matters. There are fictional elements in Othello that are intertwined with nonfictional matters of human behavior and racial unrest. In the middle of racial unrest, Shakespeare composes a theatrical production with a Black character who is esteemed, reviled, shunned, and integrated into such a society, capturing the complicated nature of communal racism itself. Keywords: Shakespeare, Othello, Integration, Racism Section 1.0

Verbal Combat Strategies in William Shakespeare's Othello: Othello versus Iago

Writers argue that Cultural Materialism is an umbrella term that allows itself the opulence to use a wide range of instruments and theories from many different disciplines and interdisciplinaries in the superstructure. This also allows us to justify the nature of both commonly acknowledged and abstruse socio-cultural episteme and discourse, one of the most prominent of which is the subject matter of power and power relations. Methodology: This study, which was originally part of a larger body of work on Cultural Materialism, attempts to draw upon a few different theories to scrutinize the confrontational relationship that exists between the two prominent characters of Shakespeare's Othello (namely Othello and Iago), as represented by the duel-like direct and indirect orations and actions of the two characters. The main purpose of the article is to show how Iago is able to control the words of Othello against him and thus succeed in manipulating other characters. Results: The critical and theoretical debates are drawn upon in this paper will include Austin's attitudes on language as action, Bourdieu's argument of dialogue as contest and Hutchby's findings on turn-taking strategies. Conclusion: This study will also utilize some theories of Michel Foucault such as discourse, language, power and power relations in order to have some influence in relation to individuals' ideas.

Intertextuality as Mimesis and Metaphor: The Deviant Phraseology of Caryl Phillips’s Othello

Abstract:This article considers the intertextuality of the “Othello” fragments in Caryl Phillips’s The Nature of Blood in the light of theoretical characterisations of intertextuality as “deviant phraseology”, “ungrammaticality” and “impropriety”. Far from being merely an exercise in postmodern cut and paste or a conventional subaltern challenge to a hegemonic cultural text, the deviant phrasing of Phillips’s “Othello” fragments proposes that the cognitive challenge posed by intertextuality may, by analogy with metaphor, become an exercise in intercultural empathy which, if carried out with any degree of success, may equip readers better for life in a multicultural or cosmopolitan society.Keywords: Intertextuality, alterity, Caryl Phillips, metaphor, The Nature of Blood.Resumen:A la luz de las caracterizaciones teóricas de la intertextualidad como “fraseología desviada”, “no gramaticalidad” e “impropiedad”, el presente artículo ofrece una consideración de los fragmentos “otelianos” de la novela The Nature of Blood de Caryl Phillips. Lejos de constituir un mero ejercicio posmoderno de “cortar y pegar” o una subversión “subaltern” de un hegemónico texto cultural, la fraseología desviada de dichos fragmentos plantea la posibilidad de que el reto cognitivo que supone la intertextualidad pueda convertirse en un ejercicio de empatía intercultural, la cual puede contribuir a formar a los lectores para la vida en una sociedad multicultural o cosmopolita.Palabras clave: Intertextualidad, alteridad, Caryl Phillips, metáfora, The Nature of Blood.

“The First English Lady Seen in These Parts”: Autoexoticizing Race and Gender in Colonial Women's Writing on Cyprus

I have before remarked upon the … excitement which our presence caused in many villages, where we were assured that, with the exception, of course, of a Turk, we were the first Europeans seen…. The extraordinary sight of the first English lady ever seen (indeed, few Europeans had got so far) brought a crowd….—Scott-Stevenson, Our Home in CyprusFrom its earliest literary representations in english, Cyprus has been associated with intersecting anxieties toward race, religion, and sexuality. Inaugurating this theme, Shakespeare's Othello appropriates the culturally hybrid setting among Africa, Asia, and Europe as a space of uneasy female autonomy and as a locus of dangerous political and sexual activity orchestrated by men: Venus's island is, for European Venice, a “business of some heat” (211; 1.2.47), a commercial hub degrading into a deathbed of intercultural, interfaith, interracial sex. On the cultural frontiers among Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam, staged temporally between Western Europe's waning crusading past and the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the island is an exoticized and effeminized space treated axiomatically as requiring the protection of Western paternalism. These themes pervade subsequent textual depictions of the space, a de facto British colony from 1878 to 1960, in works that venerate a reclaiming of the Ottoman possession by neo-Crusaders in the Orient. While academic scrutiny has addressed narratives such as Lawrence Durrell's Bitter Lemons (1957), there has been little focus on the patriarchal structuring of empire in this oeuvre of colonial travel writing or on the “persistent gendering of the imperial unknown” during this period (McClintock 24).

The Emblematic Handkerchief in Othello, and Its Untold Backstory

ABSTRACT: Early modern emblems intentionally performed aspects of one’s character that elicited curiosity while conveying secret messages, often amorous and at times shared by lovers. Emblems could be engraved in medallions, affixed to jewelry, printed in books, and sewn into textiles, such the strawberry motif embroidered in the handkerchief Othello gives Desdemona in Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice . Most critics interpret the emblematic handkerchief for what it comes to mean in the play, whereas I explore how it could have meant when Othello initially gives it to Desdemona. Why would a chivalric warrior give his lady such a handkerchief? And what could this gesture tell us about Othello and Desdemona before the play opens? In my untold backstory, Othello‘s giving Desdemona his emblem is his entrusting her with his worst fear –a military ambush. Their love transforms this fear, however, into an unguarded strength that tragically leaves him vulnerable to an ambush of his soul. KEYWORDS: emblematics; theatre; Shakespeare; Othello. RESUMEN: Los primeros emblemas modernos promovian intencionalmente aspectos que suscitaban curiosidad mientras transmitian mensajes secretos, a menudo amorosos y a veces compartidos por los amantes. Los emblemas podian ser grabados en medallones, colocados en joyas, impresos en libros y cosidos en textiles, como el motivo de la fresa bordada en el panuelo que Otelo entrega a Desdemona en la obra de Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice . La mayoria de los criticos interpretan el emblematico panuelo como un presagio de lo que va a ocurrir en la obra, mientras en este articulo se explora cual podria ser el significado e intencion de Otelo al hacerle entrega del mismo a Desdemona. ?Por que un guerrero caballeresco regalaria a su senora un panuelo? ?Y que podria decirnos este gesto sobre Otelo y Desdemona antes de que se incie la obra? Segun la interpretacion que se defiende en este trabajo, el trasfondo de este asunto es que Otelo entrego a Desdemona su emblema confiandole su peor temor: una emboscada militar. Su amor transforma este miedo, sin embargo, en una fuerza desprotegida que tragicamente lo deja vulnerable a una emboscada de su alma. PALABRAS CLAVES: emblematica; teatro; Shakespeare; Otelo.

Othello presented at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Othello presented at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

“Mislike Me Not for My Complexion…”: Ira Aldridge in Whiteface

Ira Aldridge, the first important black American Shakespearean actor, had an odd but remarkable theatrical career. Born in New York City in 1807, educated for a few years in the second Free School in lower Manhattan, employed in his youth at various menial jobs in the city, including a brief stint as a costume carrier for a visiting British actor, and then involved in several small dramatic productions put on by ragtag black acting companies at a short-lived establishment called the Theatre, Aldridge fell in love with the stage and aspired to become a professional actor. Since he could fulfil this ambition in the United States, which had proven not yet ready to accept black actors in the legitimate drama (Hill 17), he emigrated to the British Isles, where he was fortunate enough to secure his first engagement with top billing at London's Royal Coburg Theatre (now the Old Vic) in October 1825, when he was only eighteen years old. In those days it was customary to hail a talented young performer as a a name alluding to the great Roman actor Quintus Roscius Gallus. Garrick had been the first English Next came Mr. Betty, the phenomenally successful juvenile thespian who was heralded as the Young and thereafter the name was linked to theatrical precocity. Master Grossmith, a seven-year-old, was introduced on the stage as the Celebrated Infant and Miss Lee Sugg, another child prodigy, as the Young Roscia. Inevitably, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and several American Roscii and Rosciae, including a Kentucky Roscius, soon appeared. Since Aldridge was both young and black, he was quickly dubbed the an honorific title given extra resonance when theater managers began to spread the word that he was the son of a Christian Fulani prince from Senegal. Aldridge, whose staple role was Shakespeare's Othello, could be said to have made a career out of playing a Moor playing a Moor. This may have been an adroit theatrical strategy, given the obstacles a black neophyte would have had to overcome to be accepted as a legitimate player on a foreign stage. But at the outset this was an easy way to make a living. Though he could depend on his novelty value to draw people to the theater, there were only a limited number of roles a black performer could take on, and in the first half of the nineteenth century the normal practice in British theaters was to perform at least two plays each night and to change the bill every day. Long runs of a single play were common until later in the century, and then only in London. For Aldridge to be employable, he had to be able to offer a reasonable number of well-known roles and to keep moving from place to place. He could find a permanent position in one of the London theaters, nor could he secure engagements outside London for more than a week or two at a time. So he turned into a perpetually touring player, an exotic star who made his rounds principally in the provinces week after week, month after month, year after year after year. But first he had to establish a reputation as a performer. Being an African was enough; he also had to prove his credentials as a Roscius. One way he did this was to draw upon anti-slavery sentiments by playing long-suffering slaves in abolitionist melodramas set in the New World. Gambia in Thomas Morton's The Slave, Oroonoko in stage adaptations of Aphra Behn's eponymous novel, and Christophe in J. H. Amherst's The Death of Christophe, King of Hayti were the principal tragic roles he assumed early in his career to supplement his performances of Othello. He also played dark strangers, some of whom were villains: Zanga the Moor in Edward Young's The Revenge, Rolla the heroic Peruvian army commander in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Pizarro, and Hassan the vengeful Moor in Monk Lewis's gothic thriller The Castle Spectre. These heavy roles helped to establish his competence as a tragedian. …

How They Do It Where We From: On Queer Form

How They Do It Where We From:On Queer Form Phillip Brian Harper (bio) Everyone knows that Judith Butler did not conceive Gender Trouble as the founding contribution to queer theory that it almost instantly turned out to be.1 Nevertheless, one of the book's very first scholarly citations implicates it in a formal structure that we can now see as queer in a most fundamental sense. Butler's reference is to Denise Riley's "Am I That Name?"—an investigation into "feminism and the category of 'women' in history" that predated Butler's own book by almost exactly a year, and whose title itself is lifted from Shakespeare's Othello.2 It is a question posed by Desdemona to the scheming Iago, who has just heard from Emilia, Iago's wife and Desdemona's attendant, that Desdemona's husband Othello has deemed Desdemona a whore. Iago—who has of course duped Othello into his mistaken judgment—innocently asks, "What name, fair lady?" to which Desdemona replies, "Such as she says my lord did say I was"—phraseology that in its obliquity, indirection, and recursivity recapitulates at the level of form the very queerness that the play also registers at the level of theme, insofar as it depicts women's classic mediating function in relations between men.3 Inquiring as to whether she "is" a particular designation rather than a particular type of being, Desdemona has already oddly skirted the question of status that is really at issue in Othello's declaration. Here she furthers this project of evasion by disavowing direct knowledge of that declaration itself, casting as uncorroborated report ("she says my lord did say. …") what is in fact her personal experience, inasmuch as Othello has made his accusation right to her face. Such a thwartwise way of proceeding is quint-essentially queer, though it need not be so defensive as it appears in Desdemona's curious speech. On the contrary, it can be an engine of subtle self-assertion, as in the oblique [End Page 259] second-person address characteristic of songs by the English band The xx, whose two lead vocalists superficially seem to be singing to each other but, because they are at once differently-gendered and gay-identified, avow that they are "really singing past each other"; the result is what at least one commentator has characterized as "the tamped-down eroticism" of their duets on such singles as "Crystalised" and "Islands."4 Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. The xx vocalists Oliver Sim (left) and Romy Madley Croft (right) sing away from each other in the video for "Islands" (dir. Saam Farahmand, 2010). Copyright ©2017 Saam Farahmand. Reprinted by permission. Or even better: on the 2010 release "Something Else," by Diamond Rings, the singer assures the object of his unrequited desire, "I know you know just what you like / And I am really not your thing," before going on to issue the caveat: "But just in case you change your mind / I wrote this song for you to sing."5 Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Diamond Rings stares down an elusive object of desire in a publicity still for the single "Something Else" (Secret City Records, 2010). Photo by Jared Raab. Copyright ©2017 by Jared Raab. Reprinted by permission. Why better? Because in mobilizing a circular syntax in order to posit a similarly cyclical reversal of romantic fortune ("I wrote this [very] song for you to sing [back to me]"), these lines not only manifest a queer form but also cunningly refuse the abjection to which their singer might [End Page 260] otherwise be consigned. Which is to say that they deploy form in a classically queer fashion, powerfully reminding us of that crucial practice, and powerfully demonstrating just how it is done. Phillip Brian Harper Ashton Cooper, Brooklyn Phillip Brian Harper PHILLIP BRIAN HARPER is Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature at New York University, where he teaches in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis and the Department of English. A scholar of modern and contemporary U.S. literature and culture, of African American expressive culture, and of gender and sexuality, Harper is...

Paralysing Jealousy: Othello syndrome as the presenting manifestation of an atypical parkinsonism

Paralysing Jealousy: Othello syndrome as the presenting manifestation of an atypical parkinsonism

Shakespeare's Othello and the Challenges of Multiculturalism

Though Shakespeare is an Elizabethan playwright, his plays still resonate with our contemporary world. The parallels between Othello and the failure of intercultural communication and integration of Muslim Diaspora in western countries are strikingly identical. This paper explores how and why in Shakespeare’s time and ours a multicultural mindset and culture have not succeeded to eradicate ethnocentrism, stereotype and fanaticism. Thus conflict, violence and misunderstanding between individuals belonging to different cultural and religious communities are still ravaging multicultural societies. It also aims to promote a humanistic perception of the other that celebrates difference and diversity rather than sameness and uniformity.

Othello syndrome as a presenting manifestation of progressive supranuclear palsy

Othello syndrome as a presenting manifestation of progressive supranuclear palsy

Rethinking Iago's jests in Othello II.i: Honestas, imports and laughable deformity

AbstractAn early scene in Act Two of Shakespeare's Othello is often cut or shortened. It is the one in which Iago jests with Desdemona while she waits and hopes for Othello to arrive safely in Cyprus (II.i.100–166). Critics and directors have found the scene jarring. Many productions have cut it and many editors dismissed it. This makes sense if one sees Iago's and Desdemona's exchange literally as farce, that is, as stuffing or filler. However, that perception flattens out what can instead be seen as a complex communal exchange of power and moral ideals and a delicate negotiation of a particular ethos – honestas – in a public setting, which cannot be characterized merely as an attack and a defence. This article develops a means of exploring the scene more fully by treating it as a serious dramatic exploration of Iago's persuasiveness and Desdemona's cleverness. I shall argue that the scene embodies a more complex exchange of social values than has been acknowledged. In doing so, I suggest that the rhetoric of jesting Shakespeare dramatizes here is a kind of efficacy that works by producing what is better described as a morally meaningful community than simply as a power structure facilitating self‐interest in moral disguise.

The temptation scene in Orson Welles' and Folias d'Arte's adaptations of "Othello"

O objetivo deste artigo é oferecer uma analogia quanto à representação da chamada cena da tentação no filme de Orson Welles intitulado Othello (1952) e na produção teatral de Otelo pelo grupo Folias d'Arte, que estreou em São Paulo no ano de 2003, ambas adaptações da peça de William Shakespeare. A cena da tentação é considerada pelos críticos como um momento crucial da peça, já que refere-se ao momento em que Iago astutamente reuni todas as suas forças como estrategista para influenciar os pensamentos de Otelo com a idéia de que Desdemona está traindo o Mouro com Cássio−e Iago atinge seu objetivo com sucesso.

Othello by William Shakespeare

Othello by William Shakespeare

Anxiety in Learning and Performing a Shakespeare Play

This paper explores anxiety among 33 undergraduate students of the English Language and Literature Studies programme in Universiti Sains Malaysia, specifically anxiety related to studying and performing a Shakespearean play. It also aims to investigate the positive effect of performance in aiding comprehension. The students’ task was to stage a public performance of Shakespeare's Othello in groups of 5 to 7. Each group was responsible for performing a 15 to 20minute segment of one whole Act of the play. The language of Shakespeare's text was largely retained in the performance. Questionnaire with items designed to gauge anxiety levels were distributed to the students prior to their devising their own adaptation of the Act assigned to them. Based on their responses in the questionnaire, the anxiety scores were tabulated, analysed and interpreted. After the performance and final examination, selected students were interviewed in focus groups to discuss their anxiety levels pre- and post- performance in relation to the text, the performance, as well as the effects of performance on comprehension of the text. The focus group members’ written answers on Othello in the final examination were also cross checked against information from the focus groups in an attempt to draw conclusions on whether performance did in fact enhance their comprehension of the play. The findings of this case study point to a positive trend in the co-relation between performance and overcoming anxiety when learning a Shakespeare play, resulting in more insightful answers in the final examination; thus arguing for the incorporation of performance to enhance the teaching and learning of literature.

Castration Anxiety and the Mirror Stage: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Shakespeare's Othello

This article mainly applies two psychoanalytic notions to Shakespeare's tragedy Othello (1622), namely castration anxiety and the mirror stage. It argues that Othello is strengthened by Desdemona and his high military rank as the general of the Venetian army. Against common postcolonial readings of the play, we argue that Othello experiences castration anxiety metaphorically, i.e. he gets anxious about losing such things that make him strong in Venice. In addition, Othello goes through the mirror stage metaphorically as well. He makes the assumptions that he is backed up by his military rank and his wife, that Iago is honest with him, and that the absence of the handkerchief—which signifies loyalty to him—indicates that his wife is unfaithful to him. After he believes Iago's lie that his wife has an affair with Cassio, Othello gets so anxious that he kills his wife, and after realizing that his assumptions have been all false and that he is castrated and no longer attached to his wife and his post, he self-destructively commits suicide. Othello’s anxiety about losing his authority and his shattered self-image as a betrayed husband are ultimately intertwined. Hence, this article offers fresh insights into Shakespearean plays by reading one representative piece, Othello , against some trends in literary theory not known during Shakespeare’s times but universal in their application to literary texts.