archetypal criticism in othello

Due to the Moor, my lord. Othello, likewise, has tradud the state and has changed from noble and valiant Othello to a beast, with the passion that ennobled him shown as corrosive and demeaning. 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. Ignoring her appeals for mercy and avowals of innocence, Othello smothers her moments before Emilia arrives with the proof of Desdemonas innocence and Iagos villainy. An archetype is recurrent. 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. The Moor is eventually captured, tortured, and slain by Disdemonas relatives, while the ensign dies during torture for another crime. After Othello returns from war at sea with the Turks, his fortune begins a downward spiral. I took by th throat the circumcisd dog, I am hitherto your daughter. Even when Desdemona was found after Othello strangles her, she still believed that her death was not the fault of Othello. 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. To learn more, read our. Othello is a tragedy plan written by William Shakespeare. New theoretical approaches appear to legitimize orthodox Jungian ways of reading, sanction Jungs range of literary preferences from She to Faust, and support his highly affective reaction to Ulysses, which he himself identified (positively) as a subjective confession (i5:io9n). Despite this, Desdemona continued to stay true to Othello. 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). Othello is a man of high rank in Venice. Historical is basically know the background story before you making assumptions off the text, and to better understand text lookup time period close to the time like 1600's . I will withdraw Cinthios version of Iago is conventionally driven by jealousy of a superior and lust for his wife. . She does not fight back nor call for help, Desdemona begs for her life asking to Kill me (Desdemona) tomorrow; let me live tonight! (V.ii.97). 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. Othello sends Emilia outside to guard the door. Othello, being a hero, enjoys a good reputation and has notable qualities. In. 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. A Modern View of Feminist Criticism William Shakespeare 's "Othello" can be analyzed from a feminist perspective.This criticism focuses on relationships between genders, like the patterns of thoughts, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within sexes. As the handkercheif is stolen from Desdemona, Othello believes that she has become unfaithful to him, which leads him down a jealous path and eventually kill her. In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago is one of the most compelling villains in English literature. Check out our Privacy and Content Sharing policies for more information.). In addition, Othello is far from being a perfect character - another quality that meets Aristotle's requirements. 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. Up until Act III Scene iii Othello, "noble Moor" is in an elated position and is very aware of his importance. 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. Alfiero, like Iago, similarly arouses the Moors suspicions by stealing Disdemonas handkerchief and planting it in Cassios bed-room. He had even gone as far as hitting her (4.1 134). It has been mentioned earlier that pattern in literature refers to recurrent images, forms and words. 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. 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). Speak of me as I am. Let us know! Archetypal Criticism Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works, . 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. 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. The scapegoat is the character that gets blamed for everything regardless if he or she was actually the one who did or not (Archetypes). The formerly self-sufficient Othello has now staked his life to his faith in Desdemona and their union, and she has done the same. In this essay let us examine the various themes and determine which are dominant and which subordinate. He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. archetypal criticism in othelloboone county wv obituaries. 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. 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. In his major work, The Anatomy of Criticism, he states: 'I mean by an archetype a symbol which connects one poem with another and thereby helps to unify and integrate our . You elements that clip us round about, 1. 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. The young Venetian noblewoman, Desdemona, has eloped with the middle-aged Othello, the military commander of the armed forces of Venice. The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains a number of themes; their relative importance and priority is debated by literary critics. 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. The play imitates life through basic human emotions such as jealousy and rage. He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. norwegian cruise line dining menus archetypal criticism in othello. The critic is at the center of interpretive activity, and the critic functions as teacher, interpreter, priest, seer. Consider the implications of this idea. 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 relies easily on Iago to believe without being thought deeply. That not another comfort like to this A storm has dispersed the Venetian fleet so that Cassio arrives first, anxious for Othello's safety. When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, The moment he showed violence towards Desdemona, the audience lost interest in comforting Othello. 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). What bloody business ever. Othello, though, decides to kill her. 364-367). As the play progresses, and Iagos plan culminates, Othellos good fortune begins to turn. Archetypal criticism is a product of both cultural anthropology and psychoanalysis which are academic fields that might seem to be far from the concept of archetypal criticism. 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. Learn what works (and what doesn't) from the reader's perspective. Frye's work helped displace New Criticism as the major mode of analyzing literary texts . (And nope, we don't source our examples from our editing service! Desdemona replies that it was her fault: Nobody I myself. This book established the priority of interest in the archetypal over the mythological. My life and education both do learn me You know how looking at a math problem similar to the one you're stuck on can help you get unstuck? What makes Othello so unique structurally (and painful to witness) is that it is a tragedy built on a comic foundation. 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. When citing an essay from our library, you can use "Kibin" as the author. Archetypal Literary Criticism. Kibin, 2023. http://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX. By the end of the play, he has brought down his world around him with the relentless force that made him a great general turned inward, destroying both what he loved best in another and in himself. No single motive is relied on for long, and the gap between cause and effect, between the pettiness of Iagos grudges and the monstrousness of his behavior, prompted Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a memorable phrase to characterize Iagos motiveless malignity. There is in Iago a zest for villainy and a delight in destruction, driven more by his hatred and contempt for any who oppose his conception of jungle law than by a conventional naturalistic explanation based on jealousy or envy. In a mess of questions of good and evil, right and wrong, critical supporters of Iago (T.S. Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. The Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology is a critical work published in 1963. 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. Finally, Othello arrives giving him the opportunity to renew his marriage vows to Desdemona: It gives me wonder great as my content He carries out his own execution for a violation that threatens social and psychic order. Ironically, as in the feminist revisioning of explicitly male-biased Jungian theory, the rise in the 1980s of Reader-response theory and criticism and the impetus for canon revision have begun to contribute to a revaluation of Jung as a source of literary study. Hillman invokes Henri Corbin (1903-78), French scholar, philosopher, and mystic known for his work on Islam, as the second father of archetypal psychology. Comparing the amount written about the two plays, people find Hamlet more interesting to discuss. In addition, many powerfully heuristic Jungian concepts, such as synchronicity, have yet to be tested in literary contexts.

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