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OTHELLO, A JEALOUS BARBARIAN OR A NOBLE FOOL

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OTHELLO, A JEALOUS BARBARIAN OR A NOBLE FOOL

AMBREEN SHAHRIAR
Assistant Professor
INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY OF SINDH, PAKISTAN.
[email protected]

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Abstract:

Othello is believed to be one of the noblest characters in English Literature. It is thought that his

life and character were ruined by the art and skill of the incredible villain, Iago. And that Othello

was actually a simple man who lacks the knowledge of the practical world. He did not know that

in this world there could be dishonest people. He even had no idea of evil. He was neither

introspective nor reflective. He trusted everybody very easily except his own wife whom he

loves dearly. From Coleridge to Bradley, a number of critics are trying hardly to persuade

readers to believe in the essential goodness of this character yet they lack at one or the other

point. Coleridge and his fellow critics blamed Iago for everything that happens in the play

regardless of the fact that it is Othello who is supposed to be the leading character of the play and

it should be him and not Iago or anybody else that is the controlling factor of the play. It was

only after Eliot, that the critics started seeing the character from a different angle. Then on, for

the first time, critics brought a new view to reader that Othello the hard-hearted and hot-headed

hero of the play is responsible for the tragic events in the play. This article also tries to explore

different aspects of the personality of the character and provides a critical analysis on the same.

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1. Introduction

Othello1, besides The Tempest, is 'subject to more 17th century allusions than any other

Shakespeare play' (Dobson and Wells, 2001:333). The play has been of especial interest to the

critics, including feminists, Marxists, psychoanalysts, due to issues related to rascist attitude

towards Othello, the adoption of a jealous untrusting husband to a moor and the assumption that

adulturous wives should be killed. In this paper, however, textual analysis of the personality of

the hero himself and the reason behind his tragic end are done and in the light of both the works

of the critics and the actual text some interesting angles are brought to consideration of the

readers.

The next section will be discussing Shakespearean tragic trends with especial reference to

Othello. Following that, the character of the hero and his personality as portrayed by the poet and

seen by other characters in play is described. The section that follows is trying to find out the

person responsible for the tragedy. This section is divided under several sub-heading discussing

the elements of love and trust in the play, the art of Iago and the otherness of Othello. Before

coming to the conclusion, there are two other sections on tragic flaw and tragic end of the play.

2. Othello and Shakespearean Tragic trends

Although unlike the rest of his great tragedies, in Othello, Shakespeare focuses private life

instead of public life and 'the play has (often) been described as a domestic comedy gone wrong'

(Boyce, 1990:474). Yet like all other tragedies of his, this is also a passion play. And,

superficially speaking each of them has just one dominant idea, excess of anything is bad. Here,

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characters are aggrieved, they are made afraid, wrathful, ambitious, materialistic and even

devilish and all, excessively. Othello, the play, too is, as Murry (1936) puts it, a story of an

excessively good man, an excessively innocent woman and their excessive love for each other.

Therefore, Murry (1936:43) concludes, “the perfection of human love destroys itself”. In reality

it is not so simple, Tragedy as conceived by Shakespeare is concerned with the ruin or the

restoration of soul, and of the life of men. Hence, Shakespearean tragedy is not supposed to be

reduced to a medieval morality play by believing it to be just a struggle between good and evil

forces; by making the black Othello and the white Iago, good and evil respectively, and by

making the good unfortunate in the extreme, the evil unprincipled. This play, like all other

Shakespearean tragedies, has its psychological as well as social aspect.

Boyce (1990) is of the view that Shakespeare's Othello is influenced from medieval Morality

plays, in which human soul as the main character is placed between an angel (Desdemona here)

and a devil (Iago here) and each of them calling him. And Othello replies to the call of bad angel.

Of all the Shakespearean plays, the moral lesson conveyed by Othello has closer concerns with

human life. It is directly related to life and business of common men, that is why it is more

profound and stirring. The pathos in King Lear, though more overwhelming and horrifying, yet

less related with ordinary occurrence. Also, the degree of sympathy with the passions, in

Macbeth and the interest, in Hamlet, are different and remote. Hazlitt (1916) finds that the

greatest interest in Othello lies with the completely unpredictable change from the fondest love

and the most absolute confidence in that love, to the torturing jealousy and the insane hatred.

3. Othello, the man in Othello, the play

'Othello is a grandly positive character (Boyce, 1990:470) and this is the story of a man of

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dignity, honour and courage. Although Othello speaks of himself as wanting in civility of

manners and the elegance of society and, also, Bradley (1905) says, that Othello is not observant;

yet the play reflects little of that. Rather his nature tends outward and the play gives the evidence

of it along with his being a brilliant conversationalist and a fine judge of man and events. With

his first appearance he proves himself to be a man of noble birth who is held in high estimation

by the Duke and the Senators for his great services to the State of Venice. He is, moreover, a

plain and honest man, of perfect open nature, devoid of worldly sagacity, or diplomacy. In the

very first act, he is presented as a genuine and ardent lover, modest about his own

accomplishments, rigidly truthful and open to conviction. Othello was never a weak man to be

easily persuaded, forced or suppressed by anybody. In Act II, scene iii, after Cassio's fight with

Roderigo, Othello's strong character is shown as a commanding and dominating figure. He, only,

outbursts when all refuse to answer. But soon he becomes calm and firm again. He speaks of his

affection for Cassio, but does not talk with earlier intimacy. He deliberately avoids calling him,

Micheal, as he otherwise used to. His calmness shows that he really means affection for Cassio

but he has to punish him as he has already announced.

But the grandeur of Othello’s character is balanced by the excessive passion in his personality,

his jealousy. Onions (1919) describes jealousy in terms of Shakespearean context, as suspicion,

apprehension of evil, mistrust. The next section will be discussing the causes and reasons of this

jealousy and whatever follows that.

4. With whom does the fault lie?

Critics including Coleridge (cited by Raysor, 1930) and Bradley (1905) believe that Othello is a

strong and virtuous hero, a man nearly faultless and the story of his marriage with the gentle and

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innocent Desdemona is in fact a true love story which would have a happy ending only if the

demi-devil Iago would not have come. Coleridge even writes that it was not the jealousy of

Othello but the superhuman art of Iago that killed Desdemona. He wants the reader to

differentiate the ‘solemn agony of the noble Moor’ from the ‘wretched fishing jealousies’ (15) of

other characters present in the dramatic art. Some critics went to the extent of saying that the

qualities that make Othello vulnerable are within his very goodness and simplicity. He himself is

unaware that passions lay hold of him, not the primitive passions of any simple savage but those

passions, which are commonly present within any human. It was not his fault that he was unable

to pause and reflect. The fault lies with the circumstances that they did not give the couple ample

time to know each other before the events of the tragedy. Coleridge mentions that in Giraldi

Cinthio's tale Gli Hecatommithi, from which Shakespeare’s plot is largely taken, the couple was

given enough time but this change with Shakespeare is, no doubt, not without reason. The fault

lies with the fate, which made Othello gullible, hasty and credulous. Would that he was Hamlet

and there was no tragedy.

But these ideas are not enough to lend credence to Othello’s nobility and to justify his innocence.

A good, strong man is one who can mould the circumstances according to his purpose. The

critics above, and even Othello himself, rather blame fate. Othello did everything himself but

refuses to take the responsibility and groans like a weak man, “But, oh vain boast! / Who can

control his fate?” (“Othello” 5.2. 263-4).

Therefore the idea that if it would have been Hamlet, means he lacks something that Hamlet has

and the truth is that there can never be Hamlet in this situation because it is Othello who had to

face these circumstances, and he, who is never defeated in the field, was defeated in his home, in

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his personal life. If he would have come out of his misery successfully he would be flawless but

since he could not it is his fault. And in an attempt to save Othello, the critics forget that they are

giving supreme importance to the chameleon-like Iago instead of Othello, who is, in fact, the

moving and controlling factor of the play, our tragic hero. So, a Shakespearean tragedy is all

about the passion, without reason, which leads men on to their doom. It is this passion, which

creates the Shakespearean tragic hero. Campbell (1959:111) is absolutely right when he talks of

‘Othello’s self-idealization, his brutal egotism and his promptness to jealousy’ as causes behind

his blindness.

4.1 Love without Trust

Coleridge’s another remark, which is echoed by most of the later critics, is that jealousy is not

the complete passion that causes the fall of Othello; it was in fact the agony of being compelled

to hate somebody he supremely loved. Desdemona was the inspiration of his life; her purity and

innocence were the very sources of his living. ‘Othello had no life but in Desdemona: the belief

that she, his angel, had fallen from the heaven of her native innocence, wrought a civil war in his

heart’ (Halliday, 1958:248). And he died the moment he was persuaded about her infidelity.

Having found his wife and his friend betraying him he realized that honour was the only thing he

had and therefore he had to save it. Critics portray circumstances in a way as to show that

Othello had no choice but to do what he did. Coleridge says that another man in his place would

have acted ferociously but he does not lose his majesty and composure except once, that is, when

he hits Desdemona in Act IV, scene i. His attempt to kill her was an attempt to avenge his own

spiritual death. And he calls Othello’s to be ‘strange reasons’ for murdering Desdemona. Bradley

(1905) believes it to be rather a sacrifice, done in honour and in love, in order to save

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Desdemona from disgrace. But the question is, if he loved her so much why did he never ask her

himself? In fact, Othello never trusted his wife; he never trusted his own love; though he asked

her once about the handkerchief but not with the intention of believing her, not even with that of

listening to her. He asked for the handkerchief only because he knew she had none. He only

wanted to please his jealous self.

The love between Othello and Desdemona is given a beautiful comparison by Dowden

(1985:232) with the love between Brutus and Portia in Julius Caesar. He writes, ‘While Brutus

and Portia were indissolubly bound together by their likeness, Desdemona and Othello were

mutually attracted by the wonder and grace of unlikeness’. Dowden even points that no

misunderstanding was possible between Brutus and Portia because they know each other’s nature

and trust each other as they trust themselves and this is where they can easily understand the

sufferings of the other and can ask and share their greatest secrets with each other. But this was

not so with the other couple.

Othello had never achieved a height of love and trust for his wife. On one hand Desdemona sees

her god in Othello, Othello never understands what true love is. 'Othello comes to see love

through Iago's eyes rather than Desdemona's' (Boyce, 1990: 474). 'Unable to trust Desdemona-

he lacks this basic element of love- Othello disintegrates morally' (Boyce, 1990:470). Thus

Boyce agrees that Iago became successful in affecting Othello to an extraordinary way only

because Othello lacked trust.

4.2 The Couple versus Iago

The relation between Othello and Desdemona seems to be based on hope more than on

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achievement. The rationale is unable to accept that both of the following sets of dialogue are

delivered by same man with only an interval of little time in his life,

I. It gives me wonder great as my consent

To see you here before me. O, my soul’s joy!

If after every tempest come such calms,

May the winds blow till they have wakened death.

(2.1. 177-80)

II. O, ay! As summer flies are in the shambles,

That quicken even with blowing, O, thou weed,

Who art so lovely fair, and smell’st so sweet

That the sense aches at thee, would that thou hadst ne’er

been born!

(4.2. 65-8)

The senses are not ready to believe that the same man can change so much. Othello, simply

lacked common understanding of everyday life issues. As do Othello’s supporters argue that as

he is presented as a newly married, middle-aged man who does not have any knowledge of

practical love; his is an ideal love where he considers his beloved a goddess, who can only be

worshipped and not a woman with whom he can talk and share. Due to his newly roused passion

he finds Iago's suggestions against Desdemona's betrayal convincing. Iago himself approves that

Othello is not revengeful; therefore the feeling lying within him in a dormant state is excited by

the grave provocation received by him. Love of Desdemona was his life, his very existence and

he loses his existence, his being when he finds Desdemona infidel; in fact he becomes infidel to

his noble self. If vindictiveness had been a part of Othello’s nature, he would never have been so

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gentle and respectful in answering to the heaps of severest abuses by Brabantio at the beginning

of the play. McLauchlan (1971: 36) seems extremely convinced that “Othello is no mere naive,

self-esteeming dupe: he has no reason for distrusting Iago, nor has anyone else in the play”.

Iago’s behaviour and style, his pretensions and pauses and his unwillingness to open up, forces

Othello to exclaim:

I think thou dost,

And for I know thou are full of love and honesty

And weighest thy words, before thou give 'em breath,

Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more:

(3.3. 121-4)

No doubt, Iago’s plan was to hit Othello with a blow one after the other so that he may never

recover but it even is undeniable that Othello was ready to be hit. When Iago shows his doubt for

the first time Othello becomes more than curious to get a confirmation. And even when he

decides to ask Emilia about the matter it was not with the intention of listening to anything else

but what he wanted to listen, that is, a surety that Desdemona is disloyal. It seems as if his veins

were filled with poison of jealousy and the noble blood was squeezed out of them. So the

moment destiny tried him, he failed. All that had been glorious about him all of a sudden became

remote and impossible.

4.3 Foreignness of Othello

Desdemona worships the man she is married to and in the most troubled circumstances she does

not doubt his godliness; “My noble Moor / Is true of mind, and made of no such baseness / As

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jealous creatures are” (“Othello” 3.4. 25-7). Whereas Othello is a man with a rough and tough

life on one hand and a gentle and noble wife on another and he is at his best in keeping harmony

between them. But somewhere he has a sense of his own inefficiency in dealing with the

complex and subtle conditions of life in his adopted country. Therefore the concept of

differentness offered in this play is complex; "Othello is different.” He is a victor among

warriors; an advisor among councilmen; yet a Moor among Venetians. And this last difference

that Othello is a Moor is noteworthy although almost irrelevant in the beginning of the play.

Even then some characters had the realization of this fact since the very beginning.

Iago. Even now, now, very now, an old black ram

Is tupping your white ewe.

(1.1. 89-90)

Brabantio. To fall in love with what she feared to look on!

(1.3. 98)

Desdemona has the power to see Othello as even he himself cannot. She is powerful female

character who has a woman’s inner eye to see through the lens of love. Othello’s blackness,

which is visible to everyone else, is of little importance to her. She speaks of her love, while

asking to accompany him to Cyprus, as;

That I did love the Moor to live with him,

My downright violence and storm of fortunes

May trumpet to the world. My heart’s subdued

Even to the very quality of my lord.

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I saw Othello’s visage in his mind

And to his honours and to his valiant parts

Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate?

(1.3. 245-51)

But slowly and gradually the otherness of Othello gains importance, not with Desdemona, rather

never with Desdemona, but with Othello himself. It was, for sure, Iago’s villainous skills that

made Othello accept the fact that he is a foreigner, an outsider, and especially a Black among the

White. Bradley (1905:56) hits it right when he points that ‘Iago’s most artful and maddening

device is to realize Othello that he is not a Venetian, nor even a European and that he is ignorant

of the nature and thought of a Venetian woman who does not regard adultery a sin, therefore he

should also accept the situation like a Venetian husband’ (56). Bradley is even right when he

says that anybody in place of Othello would have trusted the reluctant warnings offered by an

honest friend. But when Bradley (1905:155) declares ‘his trust, where he trusts, is absolute’, does

he mean that Othello never trusted Desdemona? Did Othello only trust Iago in his life? Iago,

who never was very close to Othello all of a sudden, became everything for him and

Desdemona… nothing.

5. The Tragic Flaw

In effect, Othello appears never as a lover but at once as a husband. His love is calm, serene and

happy as long as happy circumstances prevail, but the moment his love is disturbed by Iago’s

malignity, it changes into a fearful passion. Othello slips into the hands of his fate by giving up

reason. He begins to be ruled by that single flaw of his personality and as he sinks into it, chaos

prevails in his life. Then, he is unable to stop his fate from taking him over.

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No doubt Iago deliberately keeps on stirring up the passions within his victim and pushes him on

the path of his downfall. As when he charges to Iago that Cassio will not be alive for more than

three days, Iago skillfully cries that he should let Desdemona live and there Othello determines

to kill her, to “damn her” (3.3. 475). And when the thought of killing Desdemona grieves him,

Iago very cunningly suggests that he should forgive her since if her offence does not injure him,

he should not be worried about anybody; and Othello cries, “I will chop her into messes”

(“Othello” IV, I, 199).

Othello, undeniably, lived in a wicked world. Dowden (1875:238) writes, ‘Shakespeare would

have us believe that as there is a passion for goodness with no motive but goodness itself, so

there is also a dreadful capacity in the soul for devotion to evil independently of motive’.

Halliday (1958:251) discusses Othello lack of self-knowledge as making him an easy prey for

Iago, in these words, ‘Self-pride becomes stupidity, ferocious stupidity, an insane and self-

deceiving passion…Othello’s noble lack of self-knowledge is shown as humiliating and

disastrous…’. Jealousy is, without doubt, the darker aspects of Othello's personality. Thus, once

activated by Iago’s cunning craft, nothing could stop it. The third act of Othello is the finest

display of the suffering, of the bursting agony, of the raging torture and of the incontrollable

pain. Othello is blindly challenged, attacked, assaulted and finally broken by Iago. Iago

influences and controls the fallen Othello. He plays and enjoys, by putting more and more ideas

into his head, like those of the handkerchief (4.1. 195), or Cassio's dream about Desdemona, “In

his sleep I heard him say, Sweet Desdemona, let us hide our loves” (3.3. 475).

All this brought Othello's inner evil out and made it irrepressible and he turned wild. All he

could think of was revenge. He is no more the same loving, trusting Othello who was full of

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integrity. Now he was full of hatred, anguish and dejection. Iago has succeeded and Othello’s

moral essence was completely destroyed. Thus, when Iago suggested strangling her in the bed

that she has contaminated, instead of giving her poison, Othello replies: “Good, good; the justice

of it pleases; very good” (4.1. 209).

As Othello proved it even earlier in case of Cassio that justice and love are separate values and

out of these love is subordinate. Likewise as revenge always cries for justice and therefore here

too Othello talks of that cunning justice that fits the offence regardless of the offender. In all

three situations he is convinced he is administering justice, and so despite personal feelings: first

on Cassio, who is not only his trusted subordinate but his friend; then on Desdemona whom he

loves deeply; and finally on himself.

Othello was simply a passion’s slave and never the executioner of God’s justice. Actually he has

no faculty for the curious inquiry of the complex facts; if his ears are poisoned, the poison

hurriedly runs through his veins, which ultimately results in rage and agony. Swinburne

(2003:93) remarks, ‘Noble are the most blessed conditions of gentle Desdemona. Othello is yet

nobler of the two; and has suffered more in one single pang than she could suffer in life or in

death’.

But why did he let his temperament and ideals remain completely misfit? Why did he get his

intellect confused and dulled? His pride, his self-centredness, his impulsiveness and his hot-

headedness were the defects of his personality, which plunged him into the tremendous follies of

his later action. Othello falls because he was deficient in prudence and discernment, because he

was too open and credulous, and thus he fell prey to evil machinations. Likewise Desdemona

falls because she was simple-minded and childish and too trustful, generous, considerate and

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indiscreet. Desdemona’ flaw was her lack of intellect and tendency to reflect. She was so simple

and innocent that on finding Othello behaving strangely in Act III, sc. iv, she considered some

distressing business of the state to be the cause of his apparent anger. But the experienced Emilia

wished that it might be so yet she comments from her wisdom that jealousy is such a monster

that gets birth on itself and it needs no reason. Even then Desdemona did not understand

anything, not even when she sees Othello’s agitation about the handkerchief; since she had a

blind faith and can never even dream of Othello to be jealous or suspicious about her.

Emilia. I would you had never seen him.

Desdemona. So would not I: my love doth so approve him

That even his stubbornness, his cheeks, his frowns-

………-have grace and favour in them.

(5.3. 18-20)

Even then Bradley (1905:151) remarks:

His tragedy lies in this- that his whole nature was indisposed to jealousy, and
was such that he was unusually open to deception, and, if once wrought to
passion, likely to act with little reflection, with no delay and in most decisive
manner conceivable.

But his virtues should not be allowed to obscure his limited feelings for others, his habit of self-

deception, his egotism and his self-love, his constant need of reassurance (especially of being

loved). Would that he had realized and regretted even after listening to the last words of

Desdemona,

Emil. O, who hath done this deed?

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Des. Nobody; I myself. Farewell! [Dies.

Oth. Why, how should she be murder’d?

Emil. Alas, who knows?

Oth. You heard her say herself, it was not I.

Emil. She said so: I must needs report the truth.

Oth. She’s, like a liar, gone to burning hell:

’Twas I that kill’d her.

Emil. O, the more angel she,

And you the blacker devil!

Oth. She turn’d to folly, and she was a whore.

(5.2. 124-34)

It is astonishing that Othello is not thunder struck, not even startled to hear the dying words of a

faithless wife. Othello’s hard-heartedness surprises everyone who has read the play even once.

Here for the only time, Othello’s greatest supporter in the world of criticism, Bradley (1905:374)

accepts that he does not feel sympathy for Othello. Othello regretted only when he got ample

proof of everything. Here Othello was finally acting by his mind. But the problem is that here he

should have acted by heart. When the troubled times started, he was always wrong in utilizing

his faculties of heart and mind in the affairs related to his married life.

6. The tragic end

His first speech can be compared to his farewell speech, in the former, he described the whole

story of his love and courtship of his wife, and in the latter, he gives his reason for murdering of

her. And here too, instead of admitting his dark trait, Othello tries to defend himself and says,

I pray you in your letters

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When you shall these unlucky deeds relate

Speak of me as I am: nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice.

(5.2. 336-9)

These last words reveal an unpleasant streak of showmanship in his make-up. Therefore,

defending Othello is not like defending Hamlet because where Hamlet does not want to be

misunderstood; Othello does not want to be understood.

Hence, in his attempt to secure the approval of others for his own dubious behaviour, Othello

provides his own pithy definition of himself as “one that lov’d not wisely, but too well”; and this

as well can be argued, as it is essentially a dishonest apology, since he allowed his vices to

override his virtues and became one who loved neither wisely nor enough.

Even if his suicidal act was a way of punishing himself in the way he punished Desdemona, he

would have never said to Iago;

I’d have thee live;

For, in my sense, ‘t is happiness to die.

(5.2. 289-90)

If he really wanted to punish himself he should have lived with public disgrace and personal guilt

regretting all his life that he killed somebody who loved, rather worshipped him. He quickly

killed himself before even the moment of shame came over him. Therefore, Boyce (1990:471)

concludes that by killing himself, 'Othello acknowledges his fault ... recovers something of his

former nobility'. Boyce (1990:477) finds his final compensation to Desdemona in the form of

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suicide completely useless for her but as at least offering the readers and audience 'a cathartic

sense of reconciliation with tragedy'.

However, Rymer (2003) complains, ‘If this be our end, what boots it to be virtuous?’ Johnson

(1959) found the last scene unendurable; Bradley (1905) thought the play evoked feelings of

depression; and Granville-Barker (1969) declared that it was a tragedy without meaning. It is not

merely that an innocent woman is murdered –for Lady Macduff and Cordelia are as innocent and

Ophelia’s fate is equally undeserved- but that the hero himself is degraded and destroyed by the

villainy of his sub-ordinate.

7. Conclusion

Othello is a worthy commander, a brave soldier, a faithful statesman, a trustworthy friend, a

loving husband and a physically strong man; yet he was human. All the characters in the play,

who speak of him and whenever they speak of him talk of his nobility. Brabantio, Lodovico,

Montano, the duke, even Cassio, who has a good cause to hate him, praise him. Iago, the man

who hates him and brings his downfall, confesses that the state could not withdraw Othello

because he is the only of his calibre. But his general goodness and outward nobility should not be

mistaken as the flawlessness of his character. In fact he was a man, an ordinary man who failed

in life due to his own flaws and faults of which extravagant passion tops the list.

Othello, therefore, is the story of two people, who followed their hearts and in doing so, defied

society yet the decision proved wrong.

Notes
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 Al'adab wa Llughat (Arts and Languages), Vol. 6, 189-98 2013
1. The word ‘Othello’ is used in italics for the name of the play and otherwise for the name of the hero.

2. All the text quoted in the paper is taken from Muir, K. (ed). (1968). Othello William Shakespeare (Text).

Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.

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Boyce, C. (1990). Encyclopedia of Shakespeare: A-Z of his Life and Works. New York: Facts on

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Campbell, L. B. (1959). Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes Slaves of Passion. New York: Barnes &

Noble Inc.

Dobson, M. and Wells, S. (eds) (2001). The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: OUP.

Dowden, E. (1875). Shakespeare A Critical Study of His Mind and Art. London: Routledge &

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Granville-Barker, H. (1969). Prefaces to Shakespeare. Vol. 4, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and

Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello. London: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P)

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Halliday, F. E. (1958). Shakespeare and His Critics. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.

Hazlitt, W. (1916). 205 Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays. London: Oxford University Press.

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Johnson, S. (1959). Preface to Shakespeare. London: Oxford University Press.

Lawlor, J. (1960). The Tragic Sense in Shakespeare. London: Chatto & Windus Ltd.

McLauchlan, J. (1971). Shakespeare: Othello. London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.

Murry, J.M. (1936). Shakespeare. London: Oxford University Press.

Onions, C.T. (1919). A Shakespeare Glossary (2nd edition). London: OUP.

Raysor, T.M. (ed) (1930). Coleridge's Shakespearean Criticism. Cambridge: Harvard University

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Shakespeare’s Othello. London: Routledge.

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