archetypal criticism in othello archetypal criticism in othello

Uncover new sources by reviewing other students' references and bibliographies, Inspire new perspectives and arguments (or counterarguments) to address in your own essay. The tragedy of Othello, written by William Shakespeare, presents the main character Othello, as a respectable, honorable, and dignified man, but because of his insecurities and good nature, he is easily taken advantage of and manipulated by his peers and alleged friends. "), "An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare." Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. Unlike the other Shakespeare tragedies, which follow the common ideas for Shakespearean tragedy, Othello includes some of the ideas from classical tragedies. The romantic climax comes in the trial scene of act 1, in which Othello success-fully defends himself before the Venetian senate against Brabantios charge that Othello has beguiled his daughter, stoln from me, and corrupted / By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks. Calmly and courteously Othello recounts how, despite the differences of age, race, and background, he won Desdemonas heart by recounting the stories of his exotic life and adventures: She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them. Wonder at Othellos heroic adventures and compassion for her sympathy have brought the two opposites togetherthe young, inexperienced Venetian woman and the brave, experienced outsider. Despite his deliberately selective focus on critical works written in English on literary texts that are, for the most part, also written in English, van Meurs, with the early assistance of John Kidd, has collected 902 entries, of which he identifies slightly over 80 as valid and valuable literary criticism. Beat a Venetian and tradud the state, Cultural criticism is exploring or examining the relationship of dominant role based on ethnicity, and sexual identity of person, also a great understanding of yourself. Frye, however, notably in Anatomy of Criticism, essentially redefined and relocated archetype on grounds that would remove him unequivocally from the ranks of Jungian critics by severing the connection between archetype and depth psychology: This emphasis on impersonal content has been developed by Jung and his school, where the communicability of archetypes is accounted for by a theory of a collective unconsciousan unnecessary hypothesis in literary criticism, so far as I can judge (m-12). They're not intended to be submitted as your own work, so we don't waste time removing every error. One excellent example of such an approach, G. M. Matthews's 'Othello and the Dignity of Man', has been referred to at the end of the section devoted to historical and social criticism. Even French feminist Julia Kristeva has been brought to praise a Jungian contribution to feminist discourse on the maternal: recognition that the Catholic churchs change of signification in the assumption of the Virgin Mary to include her human body represented a major shift in attitude toward female corporaiity (113). Misled by the handkerchief, his love token to Desdemona, that Iago has planted in Cassios room and by a partially overheard conversation between Iago and Cassio, Othello, by the end of act 3, forsakes his wife and engages himself in a perverse version of the marriage ceremony of act 2 to Iago. As Iago asserts to Roderigo, Virtue? Shakespeare shifts the action from Venice to Cyprus. The tragic hero archetype is used in many different pieces of writing and with every character comes a different way of using it. The formerly self-sufficient Othello has now staked his life to his faith in Desdemona and their union, and she has done the same. R. F. C. Hull, 2 vois., 1973-75). O, damn her, damn her! Kibin. Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. Essays may be lightly modified for readability or to protect the anonymity of contributors, but we do not edit essay examples prior to publication. As mine own face. archetypal criticism in othelloboone county wv obituaries. What bloody business ever. He ends up killing her out of jealousy; when she does not deserve it. As the story unfolds Othellos character evolves in an extremely tragic way as Iago manipulates him and leaves him to rot in his misery. After Othello returns from war at sea with the Turks, his fortune begins a downward spiral. But Jung's theory of the archetypes of the collective unconscious differs . I will withdraw However, in William Shakespeare's Othello, Emilia's character portrays three completely different archetypes and they all come through in strategical places. The direction of Othello criticism will also be affected as literary criticism's longstanding commitment to cultural historicism comes under pressure from those who argue that explorations of context often come at the expense of literature's formal properties and affective registers, and as developments in the digital humanities enable fresh Iagos motivation is anything but explainable in conventional terms. The execution of his wit, hands, heart At the center of the plays intrigue is Shakespeares most sinister and formidable conceptions of evil in Iago, whose motives and the wellspring of his villainy continue to haunt audiences and critics alike. Iago reviews Othellos performance as a lover by stating, O, you are well tuned now, / But Ill set down the pegs that make this music. Iago will now orchestrate discord and disharmony based on a life philosophy totally opposed to the ennobling and selfless concept of love demonstrated by the newlyweds. Even when Desdemona was found after Othello strangles her, she still believed that her death was not the fault of Othello. These patterns and themes, often referred to as archetypes, are believed to be present in the collective unconscious of all human beings . Jung was also more preoccupied with dreams and fantasies, because he saw them as exclusively (purely) products of the unconscious, in contrast to literature, which he oddly believed, citing Joyces Ulysses as an example, was created in the full light of consciousness (15:123). Of one that loved not wisely but too well, Aristotle believed that the plot is the most important element in a play and that plot also clearly points out the problem of any characters to be solved. And so much duty as my mother showd If it were now to die Innocent characters also suffer, like Desdemona. However, Othello's words give a deeper insight into how he still misunderstands the situation. First Cassio lands to deliver the news of Othellos marriage and, like the best man, supplies glowing praise for the groom and his bride; next Desdemona, accompanied by Iago and his wife, Emilia, enters but must await news of the fate of Othellos ship. When citing an essay from our library, you can use "Kibin" as the author. That not another comfort like to this (2.1.191-93) Setting the scene. Despite this, Desdemona continued to stay true to Othello. Essays and criticism on William Shakespeare's Othello - Criticism . This type of criticism was first experimented by Maud Bodkin, in his book Archetypal Patterns in Poetry (1934). Alfiero, like Iago, similarly arouses the Moors suspicions by stealing Disdemonas handkerchief and planting it in Cassios bed-room. This juxtaposition between Othello's transparency and Iago's duality identifies him as a sympathetic character despite his actions. But Wheelwright, for example, barely mentions Jung (The Burning Fountain, 1954), and he, Fergusson, and others often owe more to Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, Oedipus Rex, and the Oedipus complex than to anything taken from Jung. So much I challenge that I may profess For more information on choosing credible sources for your paper, check out this blog post. The scapegoat is the character that gets blamed for everything regardless if he or she was actually the one who did or not (Archetypes). Feminist Critique of the Character Desdemona in Othello Introduction Women during Elizabethan age are assumed to have spent their lives in the service of men - prearranged marriages, child rearing, and their role as sexual objects. Because of that, it has generated a lot of literary criticism in the 400 years since it was written and first . In her final moments, Desdemona chooses not to blame Othello for her death because she saw that the honor of their love was more important than honesty. And concomitantly, on which of these levels was the reader affected? It has been mentioned earlier that pattern in literature refers to recurrent images, forms and words. Myth criticism grew in part as a reaction to the formalism of New Criticism, while archetypal criticism based on Jung was never linked with any academic tradition and remained organically bound to its roots in depth psychology: the individual and collective psyche, dreams, and the analytic process. As scholar Edward Pechter has argued, During the past twenty-five years or so, Othello has become the Shakespearean tragedy of choice, replacing King Lear in the way Lear had earlier replaced Hamlet as the play that speaks most directly and powerfully to current interests.. Dramatically, Shakespeare turns the focus of the play from the shocking crime to its causes and psychic significance, trans-forming Cinthios intrigue story of vile murder into one of the greatest dramatic meditations on the nature of love and its destruction. This heuristic distinction was formed, however, solely on psychobiographical grounds: Did the text originate in, and remain principally shaped by, the authors experience of consciousness and the personal unconscious or his or her experience at the level of the archetypal collective unconscious? My soul hath content so absolute Othello was crafted at the dawn of the 17th century, shaped by complex social and geopolitical issues that new historicist critics, who seek to place literary works within a historical framework, have recently sought to unravel. Comparing the amount written about the two plays, people find Hamlet more interesting to discuss. By trying to hide the fact that Othello had murdered her, Desdemona has chosen to put the honor of their love above honesty. His expression of his jealousy quickly devolves from the conventional"Farewell the tranquil mind"to the absurd: Farewell the plum'd troops and the big wars. This does not stop her, though, from continuing to care for Othello. Iago's intelligence and wit allows him to make good sport of the protagonists of the play, sending Othello to his doom and that of his family. The tragic protagonist must make a fall from a high state of being to a low state or death. Othello, a play that was written in 1604 by William Shakespeare, is an example of a type of story called a tragedy. Throughout the course of the work, Othello proves himself to be very easily misled, despite his heroic status. Now art thou my lieutenant. Archetypal Criticism Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works, . The archetypal characteris a simple character template recognizable to all readers. Desdemona senses a change in Othello and she has a feeling that she will die soon due to the hands of Othello. He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. An archetype is recurrent. However, the protagonist of the tragedy play only partially meets the definition of Aristotles tragic hero. Archetypes Archetypal criticism focuses on patterns in a literary work that commonly occur in other literary works. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. To protect the anonymity of contributors, we've removed their names and personal information from the essays. In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago is one of the most compelling villains in English literature. Thus, all contrastive categorization would benefit from archetypal analysis. He offers throughout the play multiple justifi cations for his intrigue: He has been passed over in favor of Cassio; he suspects the Moor and Cassio with his wife, Emilia; he is envious of Cassios open nature; and he is desirous of Desdemona himself. Further, the text offered confirmation (and poetic representation) of the only direct contribution Jung made to literary theory: a distinction between psychological and visionary texts (Collected 15:89-90). Othello must now face the realization of what he has done. while we are reading any of [Shakespeare's] great criminal characters - we think not so much of the crimes which they commit, as of the ambition, the aspiring spirit, the intellectual activity which prompts them to . His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. An archetypal critic would also say that the recurring patterns in literature prove that there are universal He interprets literature in the light of various rituals and myths. Othello: I greet thy love, Othello is now reduced to questioning his wife's maid, Emilia, looking for evidence of Desdemona's infidelity. An archetype is the original pattern or . The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single person, but is rather the consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments, misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification revealed by the characters. My life and education both do learn me As hells from heaven. Joseph P. Strelka, 1976); Karin Barnaby and Pellegrino DAcerino, eds., C. G. Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture (1990); Martin Bickman, The Unsounded Centre: Jungian Studies in American Romanticism (1980); Maud Bodkin, Archetypal Patterns in Poetry: Psychological Studies in Imagination (1934); Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957); Albert Gelpi, The Tenth Muse: The Psyche of the American Poet (1975); Naomi Goldenberg, Archetypal Theory after Jung, Spring (1975); Julia Kristeva, Stabat Mater (1977, The Kristeva Reader, ed. Othello is characterized by his plainspoken read analysis of Othello Iago Othello's disloyal standard-bearer and the villain of the play. The men of the play manipulate her image of a naive lover to being a strumpet! (V.ii.94). However, for Othello this is not the case. As he attempts to carry out his execution of Desdemona, she for the first time realizes his charges against her and his utter delusion. While adding to the tone of the story it also adds to the characters overall personality from the reader's perspective. Sign up An archetypal critic would suggest that all human experience is linked through literature and that this experience is expressed again and again using the same patterns throughout time and space. Where a malignant and a turband Turk Act 3, one of the wonders of the stage, anatomizes Othellos psychic descent from perfect contentment in his new wife to complete loathing, from a worldview in which everything is as it appears to one in which nothing is as it seems. BASIC PREMISES OF ARCHETYPAL THEORY: 1. The story opens on Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old growing up in the upper-middle class in England in 1953 with . Nothing extenuate, Van Meurs also does a service by resurrecting successful but neglected early studies, such as Elizabeth Drews of T. S. Eliot (1949), and discovering value even in reductionist and impressionistic studies, such as June Singers of Blake. That such a man should unravel so completely, ushered by jealousy and hatred into a bestial worldview that cancels any claims of human virtue and self-less devotion, shocks and horrifies. Such characters can be found in works of fiction, long or short, and in more poetic works. Archetypal criticism ensures the efforts of all these concerned faculties to analyse of a text hence archetypal criticism is of immense significance. Twere now to be most happy, for I fear He turns to Iago, who has been brought before him to know the reason for his actions. Aristotles theory is not the final word on tragedy, however it can support in pinpointing the pivotal traits in. I am hitherto your daughter. Kibin, 2023, www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX. Othello is first shown as a hero of war and a man of, The extent of which Othello is a tragic hero has been open to much debate; the basis on which he is judged falls to Aristotles established view of the crucial elements that distinguish whether a person is truly tragic. In his "The . Van Meurss bibliography conveys the great variety of Jungian writings on literature even within one language, the increasingly recognized potential for further development and use of Jungs ideas, and the growth in numbers of literary scholars falling under the influence of Jung. Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation. William Shakespeare utilized archetype frequently as a literary device in his plays. The scene crowns love triumphant. As the pair kneels together, they exchange vows: Iago: Witness you ever-burning lights above, http://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX, ("An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare. OTHELLO: Iago critics. Othello's Integrity One of Othello's admirable qualities is that he believes that men should be transparent and honest as he is; "Certain, men should be what they seem" (Act 3 Scene 3 Line 134). Evil is displayed before him, not indeed with the profusion found in King Lear, but forming, as it were, the soul of a single character, and united with an intellectual superiority so great that he watches its advance fascinated and appalled. May the wind blow till they have wakened death, Unfortunately, this got the ball rolling for Othello's inevitable downfall. Archetypal criticism proceeds from the initial assumption that every work of literature can be categorized and fitted into a large framework that encompasses all literature. Unfortunately, this got the ball rolling for Othellos inevitable downfall. "An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare." Further, myth critics, aligned with writers in comparative anthropology and philosophy, are said to include Frazer, Jessie Weston, Leslie Fiedler, Ernst Cassirer, Claude Lvi-Strauss, Richard Chase, Joseph Campbell, Philip Wheelwright, and Francis Fergusson. 2. Iago tries to prove Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio which increases Othello's torments of jealousy. Aristotles second requirement for a tragedy is that the tragic hero must have a reversal of fortune. To see you here before me. Othellos motivation in the play appears to be his love and concern for his wife Desdemona, which ironically, ends up being his downfall in the end. The tragic heros downfall, said Aristotle, was brought upon by some error of judgement. According to Aristotle, a tragic protagonist is a nobleman or person from high status, who contributes to his own demise and illustrates a flaw or weakness in judgment. Othello makes an error in judgement, which leads to his change in fortune, and later realizes that his actions are what caused said change in fortune. Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeares greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. ukraine russia border live camera /; June 24, 2022 The three women are Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. Othello Zootopia Act 1 The wall Othello is referring to are the Walls of Nicosia which surround the capital city Nicosia in Cyprus. Commend me to my kind lord. Archetypal analysis is an appropriate model for customer heterogeneity whenever the underlying structure is best defined by the extremes. Examples of Archetype in Shakespearean Works. Child and Youth Care and Disability CYC 3000 Assignment: Getting to Know Disability Justice A deep dive into activists introduced by L. Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Due Week 2, Friday at 11:59p It is important that you begin to learn about the various people and organizations that are leading the conversation on disability justice. For the fair devil. Witness that here Iago doth give up The Women of Othello There are only three female characters in Othello, and each plays a critical role in Shakespeare's artfully crafted plot of jealousy and retribution. Earnest Cassirer, a social anthropologist was an important influence on myth criticism. In archetypal criticism, under the reductive method of analysis, a critic, while elucidating a text, moves from the particular truth to the general truth. Using an archetypal literary criticism, Harry Potter can be analyzed by focusing on different archetypes, such as, symbols, images, and character types in the text. The play moves relentlessly from here to catastrophe as Othello delivers justice to those he is convinced have wronged him. The key to extremely detrimental jealousy lies within one's ability to recognize it or deny it. O, farewell! (5. Given this background, it is not surprising to find in a 1976 essay entitled Jungian Psychology in Criticism: Theoretical Problems the statement that no purely Jungian criticism of literature has yet appeared (Baird 22). the characters in Shakespeare's play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. Othello is a complex play that deals with issues such as jealousy, gender, and race. Is Othello or Hamlet better? "Othello", by William Shakespeare, is a story of jealousy's potential to manipulate thoughts and eventually lead to ultimate demise. The moment he showed violence towards Desdemona, the audience lost interest in comforting Othello. A tragic hero has many characteristics, 3 of them being that they must have an error in judgement, they must have a reversal of fortune, and they must recognize that the reversal of fortune was brought about by their own actions. After the. Archetypal criticism, then, construed as that derived from Jungs theory and practice of archetypal (analytical) psychology, is a fledgling and much misconstrued field of inquiry with significant but still unrealized potential for the study of literature and of aesthetics in general. edmonton oilers jokes archetypal criticism in othello archetypal criticism in othello. Both Desdemona and Othello defy by their words and gestures the calumnies heaped upon them by Roderigo and Brabantio and vindicate the imperatives of the heart over parental authority and custom. What hooks you? Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought, A Christian Moor and general of the armies of Venice, Othello is an eloquent and physically powerful figure, respected by all those around him. While the beautiful. Kibin does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of the essays in the library; essay content should not be construed as advice. An archetype is universal; it is generated by man's psyche regardless of time of place. This preview is partially blurred. Bibliography What is a tragic hero and why is Othello considered one? 3. he asks, which gives pause to a theory of pure nobility. Northrop Frye, however, further developed this theory in his book Anatomy of Criticism and later in his essay 'The Archetypes in Literature . Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand, Learn what works (and what doesn't) from the reader's perspective. Othello assumes that Emilia is helping Desdemona in her infidelity.