Q. Explore Shakespeare’s presentation of justice in Othello
● INTRO:
- Shakespeare presents justice not as an objective moral truth, but as a subjective tool
vulnerable to the male ego and patriarchal control
- While the Venetian state attempts a rational legalistic justice, this is ultimately subverted
by Othello’s transition from a “noble moor” to a tyrant where justice becomes a
synonymous mask for personal revenge and patriarchal control
- The play moves from the structures civic justice of Venice to the chaotic private justice of
Cyprus, ultimately suggesting that human attempts at justice are inherently flawed and
that true resolution is only possible through divine intervention
● The failure of civic justice and the tragic fall
- The transition from Venice to Cyprus strips away the protection of the law
- Kastan suggested that tragedy is the “uncompensated suffering” found in the “fall from
prosperity to wretchedness”
- In Venice, justice is a public process and a rational debate, In cyprus it is uncompensated
and chaotic
- Brabantio relies on state justice as he demands the Duke’s “bloody book of law” in A1S3
- There is a distinct contrast between the balanced blank verse of the Senate scene in Act 1
compared to the fragmented prose and night brawls of Cyprus.
- The setting shifts from a city of law to a town of war where justice is replaced by marital
law and personal whim
- Bradley however notes that Othello’s supposed nobility is no shield as he cries “my parts,
my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly”
● The perversion of justice:
- Othello reframes domestic murder as a judicial necessity
- Leavis argues that Othello’s sense of justice is a sham and a product of his ego. He isn’t
seeking truth but is rather “self-dramatising” he doesn’t come to some “tragic
self-discovery by the end of the play”
- Melville suggests that this a result of Iago's manipulation instead of innate personality
- Iago perverts Othelli’s sense of justice essentially hijacking the language of the law to
validate Othello’s murderous impulses
- In Act 5 scene 2 Othello states “it is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.” the repetition of
the legal term “cause” shows Othello attempting to distance himself from the crime by
adopting the persona of an impartial judge
- Othello is not a judge though, but a man whose ego has been bruised
● Justice as a patriarchal construct:
- Women are silenced within the male judicial system
- French says that men hold all the power in the play
- We can see how justice is a male construct that denies women freedom of choice
● INTRO:
- Shakespeare presents justice not as an objective moral truth, but as a subjective tool
vulnerable to the male ego and patriarchal control
- While the Venetian state attempts a rational legalistic justice, this is ultimately subverted
by Othello’s transition from a “noble moor” to a tyrant where justice becomes a
synonymous mask for personal revenge and patriarchal control
- The play moves from the structures civic justice of Venice to the chaotic private justice of
Cyprus, ultimately suggesting that human attempts at justice are inherently flawed and
that true resolution is only possible through divine intervention
● The failure of civic justice and the tragic fall
- The transition from Venice to Cyprus strips away the protection of the law
- Kastan suggested that tragedy is the “uncompensated suffering” found in the “fall from
prosperity to wretchedness”
- In Venice, justice is a public process and a rational debate, In cyprus it is uncompensated
and chaotic
- Brabantio relies on state justice as he demands the Duke’s “bloody book of law” in A1S3
- There is a distinct contrast between the balanced blank verse of the Senate scene in Act 1
compared to the fragmented prose and night brawls of Cyprus.
- The setting shifts from a city of law to a town of war where justice is replaced by marital
law and personal whim
- Bradley however notes that Othello’s supposed nobility is no shield as he cries “my parts,
my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly”
● The perversion of justice:
- Othello reframes domestic murder as a judicial necessity
- Leavis argues that Othello’s sense of justice is a sham and a product of his ego. He isn’t
seeking truth but is rather “self-dramatising” he doesn’t come to some “tragic
self-discovery by the end of the play”
- Melville suggests that this a result of Iago's manipulation instead of innate personality
- Iago perverts Othelli’s sense of justice essentially hijacking the language of the law to
validate Othello’s murderous impulses
- In Act 5 scene 2 Othello states “it is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.” the repetition of
the legal term “cause” shows Othello attempting to distance himself from the crime by
adopting the persona of an impartial judge
- Othello is not a judge though, but a man whose ego has been bruised
● Justice as a patriarchal construct:
- Women are silenced within the male judicial system
- French says that men hold all the power in the play
- We can see how justice is a male construct that denies women freedom of choice
