CRITICISM

Bonnard, G. “Are Othello and Desdemona Innocent or Guilty?” English Studies 30, no. 5 (October 1949): 175-84.

Attempts to determine how Shakespeare's original audiences would have viewed the actions of Desdemona and Othello, suggesting Shakespeare hinted that Desdemona, at least in part, deserved her fate and that Othello's love for Desdemona was unwise.

Cohen, Derek. “Othello's Suicide.” University of Toronto Quarterly 62, no. 3 (spring 1993): 323-33.

Explores the implications of Othello's suicide, suggesting that it is a result of the culmination of political and psychological stresses that assault Othello throughout the play.

Cook, Ann Jennalie. “The Design of Desdemona: Doubt Raised and Resolved.” Shakespeare Studies 13 (1980): 187-96.

Traces the linear development of Desdemona's character throughout the play, demonstrating the symmetry of the framework through which the audience receives information about her.

Gardner, Helen. “The Noble Moor.” In Shakespeare Criticism 1935-1960, edited by Anne Ridler, pp. 348-70. London: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Defends Othello against charges that it lacks meaning, arguing that the play is characterized by poetic, intellectual, and moral beauty.

Jorgensen, Paul A. “‘Perplex'd in the Extreme’: The Role of Thought in Othello.” In Shakespeare 400: Essays by American Scholars on the Anniversary of the Poet's Birth, edited by James G. McManaway, pp. 265-75. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.

Traces the progression of Othello's intellectual development, and explores the concepts of thinking and knowing as primary preoccupations in the play.

Newman, Karen. “‘And Wash the Ethiop White’: Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello.” In Critical Essays on Shakespeare's Othello, edited by Anthony Gerard Barthelemy, pp. 124-43. New York: G.K. Hall & Co., 1994.

Investigates the role of miscegenation in Othello, particularly as it functions in terms of plot and language.

Snow, Edward A. “Sexual Anxiety and the Male Order of Things in Othello.” English Literary Renaissance 10, no. 3 (autumn 1980): 384-412.

Maintains that Othello's jealousy is not an eruption of something primitive or barbaric, but is an attempt to reassert patriarchal authority threatened by Desdemona's sexuality.

Vanita, Ruth. “Men Beware Men: Shakespeare's Warnings to Unfair Husbands.” Comparative Drama 28, no. 2 (summer 1994): 201-20.

Contends that Othello weighs in on the Elizabethan and Jacobean debate concerning a husband's treatment of an unfaithful wife, arguing that the play challenges the commonly held notion that a chaste wife could always survive a suspicious husband's test.

Vitkus, Daniel J. “Turning Turk in Othello: The Conversion and Damnation of the Moor.” Shakespeare Quarterly 48, no. 2 (summer 1987): 145-76.

Demonstrates the parallels between the forms of religious conversion examined in the play and the fears of English Protestants regarding conversion to Islam and Catholicism.

Zender, Karl F. “The Humiliation of Iago.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 34, no. 2 (spring 1994): 323-9.

Argues that the primary cause for Iago's murderous malice may be traced to Desdemona's unintentional humiliation of him.