Kelly Todd Brewer, Humanities 201, October 8, 2022

Shakespeare’s Fascination with

Renaissance Italy
Why?
 Othello and the
Historical
Backdrop
• Venice and Cyprus, 1570s
• Venice is at war with the Ottoman
Empire in the Mediterranean
• Venice was a mercantilist
multicultural hub linking Europe
to the Islamic world—a strange
city with many different outlooks
• The setting of Othello is the
Renaissance, the transition from
the middle ages.
• The Battle of Lepanto
 It promoted humanism (a It witnessed a belief in self, human
Transition from the middle-ages to rationalistic world view) and religion, worth and individual dignity in
modernity but put man first. It stressed the religion, politics and even domestic
human will and spirit to choose. affairs

The
Renaissance: A rediscovery of ANTIQUITY
through the study of the great
An archeology of extant philosophy
gave a rebirth to ideas Epicurus,
Aristotle and Plato in rhetoric,
history, poetry and moral
Renaissance was an altruistic

th
14th-17 - works (studia humanitas) or the
humanities that we study today.
philosophy: human passions,
kindess, compassion beauty,
ideological platform: to make the
world a better place.
happiness, dignity, good governance
in politics.

Century
Europe It witness the spread of literacy with
the Guttenberg printing press.
The Renaissance valued trade,
banking, money making and
expansionism: Big business and the
rise of capitalism. Hence colonialism
in the discovery of the new World.
 Alfonso X, the Wise.

King of Castille, Leon and Galicia

1254-1284

Known as the intellectual King, his court was characterized by the group of Christian, Jews and Arabs that translated
ancient text from Greek into Latin and vernacular languages of the Iberian Peninsula. The Renaissance, as the
discovery of antiquity and its place in the Christian world, in part starts in part in Spain.
From Prof. Ferenc Csirkes on Dante
 OthelloThemes
as Tragic Hero

Race Tragic love Machiavellianism Personal ambition

Erotic
Metadrama: Iago is
Egocentric “Manufacturing” competition: sexual
the director of the
manipulation Jealousy competition
play
among males.

Polar worlds:
Divide and rule
Christian West and
politics
the Muslim East.
 Shakespeare’s investigation of the Renaissance

Who was Othello supposed to be?

What is a Moor in the European imagination?

Why Venice?

Why is Othello in Venice?

What are the complexities of an Muslim epic hero in a

Christian world?

“The Moorish Chief ”

Eduard Charlemont, 1878
 Othello as Epic/Tragic Hero--Protagonist
1. Noble birth?
2. Superhuman capabilities
3. Has traveled widely to exotic places?
4. The ultimate warrior: self-control, discipline,
forbearance, timing and will.
4. Is renowned and almost legendary
5. He beats the odds
6. Has a tragic flaw or hamartia

There is a problem with Othello in every

category. What is it?
 Homeric Imagery

From year to year — the battles, sieges, fortunes

That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spoke of most diastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;
Of hairbreadth scapes i’ the’ imminent deadly
breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels’ history;
 Homeric Imagery

Wherein of anters vast and deserts idle,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads
touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak — such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline;
But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever she could with haste dispatch,
She’ld come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse.
 “Honest” Iago—Antogonist
and Puppet Master
1. A deeply troubled man. Rotten apple! He makes others feel as he
feels.
2. Suspicious without evidence: Othello and Emilia, Cassio and
Emilia
3. Plants pornographic images in the minds of the innocent (“The
old black ram is tupping your white ewe! Making the beast with two
backs”) Animal imagery.
4. The illusion of guilt and the spectacular reality: he makes it seem
like…
5. Planting the seeds of distrust and disharmony: fights galore!
6. Pychologically projects his feelings of revenge, lust and hatred
onto the others
7. He triangulates one character against the other.
Iago the Puppet
Master--
Antagonist
• He is proactively destructive of
social morality while playing the
victim.

• 2. The characters call him “honest

Iago” but he is a schemer and a
covert (maligner).

• 3. He plays the politics of covertly

dividing and ruling?

• 4. He epitomizes resentment: It is
HE who feels has been wronged.

• 5. He is the villain archetype

 Iago in a soliloquy
I’ll pour this pestilence That she repeals into his ear him
for her body’s lust. And by how much she strives to do him
She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So will I turn her
virtue into pitch; And out of her own goodness make the
net that shall enmesh them all.

Shakespeare, William. Othello, edited by Burton Raffel,

Yale University Press, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sabanciuniv/detail.act
ion?docID=3420243.
Created from sabanciuniv on 2022-11-08 06:37:26.
SantIAGO Matamoros
The patron saint of Spain
Iago is also a Moor slayer
Iago the Moor Slayer
Jealousy? Who is the jealous one?

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
Iago plays on what COULD be Desdemona’s haste in love
Ay, there’s the point. As, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposèd matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends—oh!
One may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural.
But—pardon me— I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her, though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgment
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And happily repent.
Desdemona
1. A female rebel archetype
2. Shakes up the system and
promotes change
3. Does not succumb to traditional
authority
4. Is a trailblazer and sets and
example.
5. Goes her own way and charts her
own path.
 Themes

Egocentric
Race Tragic love Machiavellianism Personal ambition
manipulation

Erotic
Metadrama: Iago is Polar worlds:
“Manufacturing” competition: Divide and rule
the director of the Christian West and
Jealousy sexual competition politics
play the Muslim East.
among males.
 Shakespeare’s Venice and the Second-class
Citizen
• Multicultural but…
• Muslims and Jews were around but…
• Foreign mercenaries to fight their wars (against “the Turks”).
• Jews for money lending
• Shylock from The Merchant of Venice and Othello, “the valiant Moor.”
Venice needed a “barbarian” to fight “the barbarian.” He is always
regarded as a barbarian and an outsider. You can fight for out cities, but
you cannot marry our daughters. Othello was admired by most but when it
comes to blood mixing it would was unacceptable. We see this is the very
first act when our villain tells Brabantio he is sleeping with his daughter.
The Tragedy of Othello:
The Moor of Venice
(1603)
• Intense Drama
• A social tragedy: it questions social inticacies
• Venice was a city a cosmopolitan hub
• Social reconciliation of difference
• 17th century interpretation of “difference”
• Insiders/outsiders: Florentine/Moor in
Venice.
• Tragic tensions: classical antiquity and
modern Christian view of the world
• The transformation of politics:
HUMANISM—human centered rather than
divine intervention. Human agency.
Othello the
Epic/Tragic Hero
• Noble birth?
• Superhuman capabilities
• Has traveled widely to exotic places?
• The ultimate warrior: self-control, discipline, forbearance,
timing and will.
• Is culturally renowned and almost legend
• He beats the odds
• Has a tragic flaw or hamartia

There is a problem with Othello in every category. What is it?

 The Villain Archetype

• Deeply wounded soul: full of resentment or displays the slave morality.

• Immoral and evil: commits sins of the flesh
• Exceptionally intelligent: always two steps ahead of the hero—a puppet
master
• Powerful and persuasive
• Ruthless, determined and lacks empathy
• Demonic and overcome by wickedness
 The Rebel Archetype

Shakes up the system and promotes change

Does not succumb to traditional authority
Is a trailblazer and sets and example.
Goes his or her own way

Who are we talkin about here?

 Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see;
She has betrayed her father and, and may thee.

Duke of Venice

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black
 Themes

Race Tragic love Machiavellianism Personal ambition

Erotic
Metadrama: Iago is
Egocentric “Manufacturing” competition: sexual
the director of the
manipulation Jealousy competition
play
among males. SMV

Polar worlds:
Divide and rule
Christian West and
politics
the Muslim East.
 Iago: The Corrupt Puppet
Master
• A deeply troubled man. Rotten apple! He makes others feel as he feels.
• Suspicious without evidence: Othello and Emilia, Cassio and Emilia
• Plants pornographic images in the minds of the innocent (“The old black ram is
tupping your white ewe! Making the beast with two backs”) Animal imagery.
• The illusion of guilt and the spectacular reality: he makes it seem like… Irony here
• Planting the seeds of distrust and disharmony: fights galore!
• Pychologically projects his feelings of revenge, lust and hatred onto the others
• He triangulates one character against the other.
• He is proactively destructive of social morality while playing the victim
• The characters call him “honest Iago” but he is a schemer and a covert
(maligner). Herkesi kirletiyor gizlice.
• He plays the politics of covertly dividing and ruling?
• He epitomizes resentment: It is HE who feels has been wronged.
• Iago—the epic villain.
Dante’s nine circles of hell and torment for
those who have abandoned morality
The Handkerchief

"That handkerchief
Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
She was a charmer, and could almost read
The thoughts of people; she told her, while she kept it,
’Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love, but if she lost it
Or made a gift of it, my father’s eye
Should hold her loathed, and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies. She dying gave it me;
And bid me, when my fate would have me wive,
To give it her. I did so: and take heed on ’t;
Make it a darling like your precious eye;
To lose’t or give’t away, were such perdition
As nothing else could match"