archetypal criticism in othello
No products in the cart. 2. 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. Seeing her dying, Emilia asks who would do this. Where a malignant and a turband Turk Iago replies: Demand me nothing; what you know, you know: / From this time forth I never will speak word. By Iagos exiting the stage, closing access to his motives, the focus remains firmly on Othello, not as Iagos victim, but as his own. Posted on . 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. 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. . The term archetype can be traced to Plato (arche, original; typos, form), but the concept gained currency in twentieth-century literary theory and criticism through the work of the Swiss founder of analytical psychology, C. G. Jung (1875-1961). Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away That Cassios not alive. This explains his fascination with a text like Rider Haggards novel She: The History of an Adventure (1886-87), with its unmediated representation of the anima. As Jung himself noted: Literary products of highly dubious merit are often of the greatest interest to the psychologist (Collected 15:87-88). The play is set in Venice and Cyprus where a Moor, Othello, General of the Venetian army gets secretly married to a Venetian noblemans daughter, Desdemona. archetypal criticism in othello america undercover life of crime Juni 12, 2022. used kawai upright piano . As Othello came to his breaking point, desdemona foreshadows her own death and he lets jealousy take over. 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. Aristotles second requirement for a tragedy is that the tragic hero must have a reversal of fortune. Patterns originate from the writer's . Thus archetype is recognized as the tendency to form and reform images in relation to certain kinds of repeated experience, which may vary in individual cultures, authors, and readers (Lauter and Rupprecht 13-14). The traits of the tragic hero lead the audience to feel compassion for the helpless victim. Twere now to be most happy, for I fear In a mess of questions of good and evil, right and wrong, critical supporters of Iago (T.S. To furnish me with some swift means of death Source: Groden, Michael, and Martin Kreiswirth. While the beautiful. For Jung, archetype is an explanatory paraphrase of the Platonic eidos (9, pt. "He is, in a sense, a 'self made man', the . James Hillman, Archetypal Psychology: A Brief Account (1983), Re-Visioning Psychology (1975); C. G. Jung, Collected Works (ed. Othello assumes that Emilia is helping Desdemona in her infidelity. As hells from heaven. Succeeds in unknown fate. What is striking about Shakespeares alteration of Cinthios grisly tale of murder and villainy is the shift of emphasis to the provocation for the murder, the ennobling of Othello as a figure of great stature and dignity to underscore his self-destruction, and the complication of motive for the ensigns actions. The fulfillment of the wedding night that should come at the climax of the comedy is relocated to act 2, with the aftermath of the courtship and the wedding now taking center stage. Toril Moi, trans. In Othello, the plot meets the definition of both Aristotle and Shakespeare on a tragedy. 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. And smote himthus. Consistent with his role as guardian of order in the state, Othello carries out his own execution, by analogy judging his act as a violation reflected by Venices savage enemy: And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Jung most frequently used myth (or mythologem) for the narrative expression, on the ethnological level (Collected 9, pt. Literary Critics on Othello. Othello demonstrates all of these characteristics in the play, proving him to be a tragic hero. The young Venetian noblewoman, Desdemona, has eloped with the middle-aged Othello, the military commander of the armed forces of Venice. To you I am bound for life and education; Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. The critical annotations are astute and, given their brevity, surprisingly thorough and suggestive. Examples of Archetype in Shakespearean Works. In spite of his elevated status, he is nevertheless easy prey to insecurities because of his age, his life as a soldier, and his race. In The Tragedy of Othello, Shakespeare details the story of a celebrated military hero who falls victim to the machinations of a conniving villain who goes by the name of Iago. (3.3.54) Ex. That not another comfort like to this As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black. He had even gone as far as hitting her (4.1 134). Comparing the amount written about the two plays, people find Hamlet more interesting to discuss. This preview is partially blurred. / Man but a rush against Othello's breast / And he retires." His demise was of his own doing. Abstract. An archetype is universal; it is generated by man's psyche regardless of time of place. Frye's thesis in "The Archetypes of Literature" remains largely unchanged in Anatomy of Criticism. The play imitates life through basic human emotions such as jealousy and rage. By speaking of soul as a primary metaphor, rather than defining soul substantively and attempting to derive its ontological status from empirical demonstration or theological (metaphysical) argument, archetypal psychology recognizes that psychic reality is inextricably involved with rhetoric (Hillman, Archetypal 19). Desdemona is shown as the most pure and proper of the women in Othello and is put into the center of all the drama. While acknowledging the grave weaknesses of much Jungian writing on literature as unsubtle and rigid application of preconceived psychological notions and schemes resulting in particularly ill-judged or distorted readings, van Meurs still finds that sensitively, flexibly and cautiously used, Jungian psychological theory may stimulate illuminating literary interpretations (14-15). Nothing extenuate, Eliot, Samuel Taylor) characterize themselves as realists, pragmatic, practical, eschewing the supporters of the so-called weaker Othello, who conversely tend to describe themselves as somehow morally elevated, more empathetic. An archetypal critic would also say that the recurring patterns in literature prove that there are universal In addition, many powerfully heuristic Jungian concepts, such as synchronicity, have yet to be tested in literary contexts. 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 soul hath content so absolute Innocent characters also suffer, like Desdemona. Vindicated by the duke of Venice and the senate, Othello, accompanied by Desdemona, takes up his military duties in the face of a threatened Turkish invasion, and the lovers are given a triumphal wedding-like procession and marriage ceremony when they disembark on Cyprus. Kibin does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of the essays in the library; essay content should not be construed as advice. After the. Kibin, 2023, www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX. In. Home Drama Criticism Analysis of William Shakespeares Othello, By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 ( 0 ). 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. norwegian cruise line dining menus archetypal criticism in othello. Due to the Moor, my lord. 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. 1. I know not ift be true; But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for surety (2.1. But Jung's theory of the archetypes of the collective unconscious differs . With some of its advocates supported through early publication of their work in the journal Spring, feminist archetypal theory and criticism of literature and the arts emerged fullblown in three texts: Annis Pratts Archetypal Patterns in Womens Fiction (1981), which self-consciously evoked and critiqued Maud Bodkins 1934 text; Estella Lauters Women as Mythmakers: Poetry and Visual Art by Twentieth Century Women (1984); and Estella Lauter and Carol Schreier Rupprechts Feminist Archetypal Theory: Interdisciplinary Re-Visions of Jungian Thought (1985). 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. 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. After Othello learns of a possible affair between Cassio and Desdemona, at this instance is the turning point in Othellos fortune because it changes his views, attitudes and ultimately his fate. On a general level, Jungs and Fryes theorizings about archetypes, however labeled, overlap, and boundaries are elusive, but in the disciplines of literature the two schools have largely ignored each others work. The first two acts of the play enact the standard pattern of Shakespeares romantic comedies. 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.. Further, Jung termed his own theory analytical psychology, as it is still known especially in Europe, but Jungian thought is more commonly referred to today in all disciplines as archetypal psychology.. Othello A Christian Moor who has earned a high reputation as a general in the Venetian army and has recently married Desdemona, daughter of the Venetian senator Brabantio. Archetypal criticism, then, construed as that derived from Jung's 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. For the fair devil. Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, Spring: An Annual of Archetypal Psychology and Jungian Thought, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Analysis of Stuart Halls Encoding/Decoding, Jacques Derrida's Structure, Sign and Play. 1: 4), but he distinguishes his concept and use of the term from that of philosophical idealism as being more empirical and less metaphysical, though most of his empirical data were dreams. Nor set down aught in malice. he asks, which gives pause to a theory of pure nobility. Archetypal Criticism Volume I. The concept of the archetype is a venerable philosophical principle that came into new prominence and usage in the twentieth century with the development of archetypal literary criticism . Unfortunately, this got the ball rolling for Othellos inevitable downfall. The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains a number of themes; their relative importance and priority is debated by literary critics. May the wind blow till they have wakened death, Essays and criticism on William Shakespeare's Othello - Criticism . The storm that divides the Venetian fleet also disperses the Turkish threat and clears the way for the lovers happy reunion and peaceful enjoyment of their married state. An archetype is recurrent. Farewell! Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture. Carl Jungs Contribution to Psychoanalytic Theory. "Othello is essentially an noble character, flawed by insecurity and a nature that is naive and unsophisticated". Iago: My friend is dead. Between William Shakespeares most expansive and philosophical tragediesHamlet and King Learis Othello, his most constricted and heart-breaking play. Alfiero, like Iago, similarly arouses the Moors suspicions by stealing Disdemonas handkerchief and planting it in Cassios bed-room. "An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare." This assignment is intended to encourage you, and require you . Tis done at your request; but let her live. The dynamic of Othellos character significantly changes throughout the play. Thus, with the archetypal theorists multiplying across disciplines on the one hand and the clinically practicing followers serving as (generally inadequate) critics on the other, archetypal literary theory and criticism flourished in two independent streams in the 1960s and 1970s. Kibin. Her Jungian Approach to Literature attempts to cover the Finnish epic The Kalevala, the Persian Atars The Conference of the Birds, and texts by Euripides, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Michel de Montaigne, Pierre Corneille, Goethe, Novalis, Rabbi ben Simhah Nachman, and W. B. Yeats. 1. To The Reader Baudelaire Analysis; Used Dudek Universal For Sale; Is Ignatius J Reilly Autistic; Spring League Football Tryouts; marxist criticism in othello act 1 . 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. The scene crowns love triumphant. The moment he showed violence towards Desdemona, the audience lost interest in comforting Othello. The intensity and focus of Othello is unalleviated by subplots, comic relief, or any mitigation or consolation for the deterioration of the noble Moor and his collapse into murder and suicide. Some of these include the downfall from high position Othello goes from being the general, to being convicted of being a murderer. 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. She stayed loyal to her lover throughout the entire play and in the end it did her no good. Desdemona is oblivious to what is going on around her and stays loyal to her morals but Iagos rumours lure Othello to thinking otherwise. Othello accused her of being unfaithful, when she never was. They're not intended to be submitted as your own work, so we don't waste time removing every error. When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Their union is opposed by Desdemonas father, Brabantio, and by a rival for Desdemona, Roderigo, who in the plays opening scenes are both provoked against Othello by Iago. However, the Moor and Alfiero join forces to kill Disdemona, beating her to death with a stocking filled with sand before pulling down the ceiling on her dead body to conceal the crime as an accident. According to Hillman, that discourse was anticipated by Evangelos Christous Logos of the Soul (1963) and extended in religion (David L. Millers New Polytheism, 1974), philosophy (Edward Caseys Imagining: A Phenomenological Study, 1976), mythology (Rafael Lopez-Pedrazas Hermes and His Children, 1977), psycholinguistics (Paul Kuglers Alchemy of Discourse: An Archetypal Approach to Language, 1982), and the theory of analysis (Patricia Berrys Echos Subtle Body, 1982). He seems to breathe an atmosphere as fateful as that of King Lear, but more confined and oppressive, the darkness not of night but of a close-shut murderous room. Commend me to my kind lord. This is not a satisfactory frame of mind for an investigator, and it is certainly not an . In Shakespeare's, An outburst that othello has in a crowd of his peers causes people to start to question their noble leader. Considered according to this definition, the concept becomes a useful tool for literary analysis that explores the synthesis of the universal and the particular, seeks to define the parameters of social construction of gender, and attempts to construct theories of language, of the imaginal, and of meaning that take gender into account. Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation. What bloody business ever. When citing an essay from our library, you can use "Kibin" as the author. Not only does she try to protect Othellos reputation by blaming herself, Desdemona tells Emilia to remind Othello about her showing that she stills respects Othello. 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? Did you find something inaccurate, misleading, abusive, or otherwise problematic in this essay example? William Shakespeare utilized archetype frequently as a literary device in his plays. Archetypal criticism is a literary approach that analyzes works of literature based on the idea that there are universal, timeless patterns and themes that recur across all cultures and throughout history. Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. This passage reveals how much Othello has deteriorated as far as his ability to reason. This scene has suggested to some critics that Iagos true motivation for destroying the marriage of Desdemona and Othello is a repressed homosexual love for Othello. Rashness: The play is replete with rash decisions. As the play progresses, and Iagos plan culminates, Othellos good fortune begins to turn. This causes him to lose his ability to make good judgments and decisions. In the beginning of the play, Othello is seen as content with his new bride: For know, Iago, But that I love the gentle Desdemona (1.2.24-25). For more information on choosing credible sources for your paper, check out this blog post. archetypal criticism in othello. Othello must now face the realization of what he has done. After Othello was convinced that Desdemona was cheating on him, Othello had started to show his disappointment with her. Richer than all his tribe. He has promoted Cassio to lieutenant while leaving Iago as ensign. If Hamlet is a tragedy about youth, and Lear concerns old age, Othello is a family or domestic tragedy of a middle-aged man in which the fate of kingdoms and the cosmos that hangs in the balance in Hamlet and Lear contracts to the private world of a marriages destruction. Key quotation (Aside) O, you are well tuned now!But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, As honest as I am. An analysis of women being victims in Othello: Othello is a play written by William Shakespeare in the 1600s, this essay is from a feminist perspective. What makes Othello so unique structurally (and painful to witness) is that it is a tragedy built on a comic foundation. If we carefully examine the third scene in the third act, we can see how Othello fits into Aristotle's definition of tragic hero. OTHELLO: My name, that was as fresh. In Othello, the themes such as love and jealousy reflects on the characters motivation and their values. Iago leads Othello to suspect that love and devotion are shams disguising the basest of animalistic instincts. http://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX Be sure to capitalize proper nouns (e.g. This does not stop her, though, from continuing to care for Othello. Othello also matches Aristotle's ideas of tragic hero because our Othello realizes the error of his ways, causing us to feel sympathy for him. The character of Iago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to the last hated and despised. The archetypal characteris a simple character template recognizable to all readers. The concept of the archetype is a venerable philosophical principle that came into new prominence and usage in the twentieth century with the development of archetypal literary criticism through the theories of psychologist C. G. Jung and literary theorist Northrop Frye. That's a matter of opinion. From the theorists, dissertations, articles, and books, often traditionally academic in orientation, appeared; the productions of the practitioners are chronicled and critiqued in van Meurss bibliography. After confronting Desdemona of her crimes he decides to carry out his overall plan to end his trues loves life. He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. To you, preferring you before her father, Emilia comes into the couples bedroom after Othello smothers Desdemona, but hears Desdemona cry out. Othello is now reduced to questioning his wife's maid, Emilia, looking for evidence of Desdemona's infidelity. 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 FREE Archetype Essay Essay - Example Essays This recurring idea of an evil witch is extremely common and archetypal. 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. Of one that loved not wisely but too well, Despite this, Desdemona continued to stay true to Othello. Jungs Psychology of the Unconscious (1916, B. M. Hinkles translation of the 1911-12 Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido) appeared in English one year after publication of the concluding volume with bibliography of the third edition of J. G. Frazers The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (2 vols., 1890,3d ed., 12 vols., 1911-15). You know how looking at a math problem similar to the one you're stuck on can help you get unstuck? Olympus-high, and duck again as low Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeares greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. 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. 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. the characters in Shakespeare's play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. The story opens on Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old growing up in the upper-middle class in England in 1953 with . 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. Here are some ways our essay examples library can help you with your assignment: Read our Academic Honor Code for more information on how to use (and how not to use) our library. I took by th throat the circumcisd dog, An equal case can be made that Iago here completes his role as Vice, borrowed from the medieval morality plays, sealing the Faustian bargain for Othellos soul in this mock or black marriage scene. They also attest to his self-confessed lack of interest in literature: I feel not naturally drawn to what one calls literature, but I am strangely attracted by genuine fiction, i.e., fantastical invention (Letters 1:509). Having triumphantly bested the social and natural forces aligned against them, having staked all to the devotion of the other, Desdemona and Othello will not be left to live happily ever after, and the tragedy will grow out of the conditions that made the comedy. However, the protagonist of the tragedy play only partially meets the definition of Aristotles tragic hero. Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. Desdemonas true morals is her absolute devotion to her husband. Desdemona and Othello, therefore, face the usual challenges of the lovers in a Shakespearean comedy who must contend with the forces of authority, custom, and circumstances allied against their union. 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). The patterns are the major intrinsic aspects of a work. The contrast is most pronounced from the beginning of the play to its conclusion, switching from being calm and peaceful to acts of uncontrolled venomous rage. And will upon the instant put thee tot. In Cinthios story, Alfiero, the scheming ensign, lusts after the Moors wife, named Disdemona, and after she spurns his advances, Alfiero seeks vengeance by accusing her of adultery with Cassio, the Moors lieutenant. 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. So much I challenge that I may profess Looking at William Shakespeare's Othello The Moor Of Venice, the central character, Othello is revered as the tragic hero. Archetypal Literary Criticism. 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). As Iago asserts to Roderigo, Virtue? The first systematic application of Jungs ideas to literature was made in 1934 by Maud Bodkin in Archetypal Patterns in Poetry: An attempt is here made to bring psychological analysis and reflection to bear upon the imaginative experience communicated by great poetry, and to examine those forms or patterns in which the universal forces of our nature there find objectification (vii). 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). Iago will direct the remainder of the play, constructing Othellos down-fall out of the flimsiest evidence and playing on the strengths and weaknesses of Othellos nature and the doubts that erode Othellos faith in Desdemona.
archetypal criticism in othello