Othello – Critical Theory – Womanhood + Sexuality
Karen Newman - The play exposes the ‘fear of racial and sexual difference’ of Renaissance
culture
Vaughan - “In choosing a foreigner she has violated the Venetian norm… and rejected her
father’s authority”
Syed Huq - “Othello’s perception of the Handkerchief as a symbol of fidelity in marriage led him
to miscalculate Desdemona’s true nature”
Traub - “Male anxiety towards female erotic power is channelled into a strategy of containment”
Phillips - “Othello’s love of Desdemona is the love of possession. She is a prize, a spoil of war.”
Cox - “Dialogues between all the male characters reveal a deep seated fear of women deceiving
them and thereby gaining supremacy.”
Jardine - “Desdemona becomes a stereotype of female passivity”
French - “Desdemona accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males”
Karen Newman - The play exposes the ‘fear of racial and sexual difference’ of Renaissance
culture
Vaughan - “In choosing a foreigner she has violated the Venetian norm… and rejected her
father’s authority”
Syed Huq - “Othello’s perception of the Handkerchief as a symbol of fidelity in marriage led him
to miscalculate Desdemona’s true nature”
Traub - “Male anxiety towards female erotic power is channelled into a strategy of containment”
Phillips - “Othello’s love of Desdemona is the love of possession. She is a prize, a spoil of war.”
Cox - “Dialogues between all the male characters reveal a deep seated fear of women deceiving
them and thereby gaining supremacy.”
Jardine - “Desdemona becomes a stereotype of female passivity”
French - “Desdemona accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males”
