His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. This juxtaposition between Othello's transparency and Iago's duality identifies him as a sympathetic character despite his actions. Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeares greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. The present essay, "Archetypes of Literature," is taken from the book. No more of that. Shakespeare's play, Othello, the Moor of Venice, is a powerful example of a tragedy and its main character, Othello, is an excellent illustration of what Aristotle constitutes as a tragic hero. 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. Othello Act 4, scene 2 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts Posted on . Shakespeare often focuses his plays on human nature as well as fate, which Othellos fate ended in the tragic ending due to his reversal of fortune once the claims against Desdemona begin. Confirmation of this theory was Jungs reading of Faust: part 1 was psychological; part 2, visionary.. 3. But Jung's theory of the archetypes of the collective unconscious differs . Further, myth critics, aligned with writers in comparative anthropology and philosophy, are said to include Frazer, Jessie Weston, Leslie Fiedler, Ernst Cassirer, Claude Lvi-Strauss, Richard Chase, Joseph Campbell, Philip Wheelwright, and Francis Fergusson. After Othello was convinced that Desdemona was cheating on him, Othello had started to show his disappointment with her. Othello: I greet thy love, To you I am bound for life and education; The Women of Othello There are only three female characters in Othello, and each plays a critical role in Shakespeare's artfully crafted plot of jealousy and retribution. This does not stop her, though, from continuing to care for Othello. Between William Shakespeares most expansive and philosophical tragediesHamlet and King Learis Othello, his most constricted and heart-breaking play. Their union is opposed by Desdemonas father, Brabantio, and by a rival for Desdemona, Roderigo, who in the plays opening scenes are both provoked against Othello by Iago. Rashness: The play is replete with rash decisions. Categories: Drama Criticism, ELIZABEHAN POETRY AND PROSE, Literary Criticism, Literature, Tags: Analysis Of William Shakespeares Othello, Bibliography Of William Shakespeares Othello, Character Study Of William Shakespeares Othello, Criticism Of William Shakespeares Othello, Drama Criticism, Essays Of William Shakespeares Othello, Notes Of William Shakespeares Othello, Othello, Othello Analysis, Othello Criticism, Othello Essay, Othello Feminism, Othello Notes, Othello Play, Othello PSychoanalysis, Othello Summary, Plot Of William Shakespeares Othello, Simple Analysis Of William Shakespeares Othello, Study Guides Of William Shakespeares Othello, Summary Of William Shakespeares Othello, Synopsis Of William Shakespeares Othello, Themes Of William Shakespeares Othello, William Shakespeare, William Shakespeares Othello, Analysis of William Shakespeares Macbeth, Analysis of William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, Analysis Of William Shakespeares Othello, Bibliography Of William Shakespeares Othello, Character Study Of William Shakespeares Othello, Criticism Of William Shakespeares Othello, Simple Analysis Of William Shakespeares Othello, Study Guides Of William Shakespeares Othello, Synopsis Of William Shakespeares Othello, Analysis of Stuart Halls Encoding/Decoding, Jacques Derrida's Structure, Sign and Play. 1924) to move beyond clinical inquiry within the consulting room of psychotherapy to formulate archetypal theory as a multidisciplinary field (Archetypal 1). Archetypal Criticism - Chirila - Major Reference Works - Wiley Online It is in Act 3 Scene 3 where Othello takes on a new persona, where his confidence and happiness is tragically replaced with jealousy and rage. Unlike the other Shakespeare tragedies, which follow the common ideas for Shakespearean tragedy, Othello includes some of the ideas from classical tragedies. Thus, all contrastive categorization would benefit from archetypal analysis. I will withdraw Where a malignant and a turband Turk Other forms previously labeled Jungian are here subsumed under the term archetypal because whatever their immediate specific focus, these forms operate on a set of assumptions derived from Jung and accept the depth-psychological structure posited by Jung. Tis done at your request; but let her live. For Jung, archetype is an explanatory paraphrase of the Platonic eidos (9, pt. Many fell prey to Jungs idiosyncrasies as a reader, ranging widely and naively over genres, periods, and languages in search of the universal archetypes, while sweeping aside cultureand text-specific problems, ignoring their own role in the act of reading and basing critical evaluation solely on a texts contribution to the advancement of the readers individuation process, a kind of literature-astherapy standard. Come, go with me apart. In-text citation: And despite frequently perceptive readings, the work is marred by the characteristic limitless expansionism and psychological utilitarianism of her interpretive scheme. Abstract. According to Hillman, that discourse was anticipated by Evangelos Christous Logos of the Soul (1963) and extended in religion (David L. Millers New Polytheism, 1974), philosophy (Edward Caseys Imagining: A Phenomenological Study, 1976), mythology (Rafael Lopez-Pedrazas Hermes and His Children, 1977), psycholinguistics (Paul Kuglers Alchemy of Discourse: An Archetypal Approach to Language, 1982), and the theory of analysis (Patricia Berrys Echos Subtle Body, 1982). James Baird, Jungian Psychology in Criticism: Theoretical Problems, Literary Criticism and Psychology (ed. Northrop Frye, however, further developed this theory in his book Anatomy of Criticism and later in his essay 'The Archetypes in Literature . "An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare." This book established the priority of interest in the archetypal over the mythological. 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. If it were now to die 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. Unfortunately, this got the ball rolling for Othello's inevitable downfall. 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. Othello - Study Guide and Literary Analysis The three fundamental qualities of an archetype are: An archetype is a preconscious, instinctual expression of man's basic nature. He is the general of the Venetian army and a well respected man by the towns noble men. Character Analysis of Shakespeare's Othello - ThoughtCo the characters in Shakespeare's play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation. Othello assumes that Emilia is helping Desdemona in her infidelity. That such a man should unravel so completely, ushered by jealousy and hatred into a bestial worldview that cancels any claims of human virtue and self-less devotion, shocks and horrifies. Desdemona finally, dramatically appears before the senate to support Othellos account of their courtship and to balance her obligation to her father and now to her husband based on the claims of love: My noble father, In the essay Frye critically analyses literature against the backdrop of rituals and myths. 1: 4), but he distinguishes his concept and use of the term from that of philosophical idealism as being more empirical and less metaphysical, though most of his empirical data were dreams. Kibin, 2023, www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX. Othello sends Emilia outside to guard the door. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the readers heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation. That's a matter of opinion. Archetypal Criticism of Othello Othello, one of Shakespeare's most popular tragedies, is full of symbols, motifs, and themes that make it relatable to people all over the world. Archetypal school of literary criticism is a type of literary criticism that is concerned with recurring myths and archetypes in symbols, characters, actions, and situations within literary pieces. Desdemona replies that it was her fault: Nobody I myself. As Othello came to his breaking point, desdemona foreshadows her own death and he lets jealousy take over. : In this quote, Othello is stating that his wife's supposed infidelity has ruined his name and turned it "black" and dirty like his own face, showing that a woman's fidelity was linked to a man's honor. Archetypal Criticism - GetSetNotes 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. Archetypes In Othello - 816 Words | Studymode Reading example essays works the same way! Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. Earnest Cassirer, a social anthropologist was an important influence on myth criticism. "), "An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare." Abstract. The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains a number of themes; their relative importance and priority is debated by literary critics. Shakespeare derived his plot from Giraldi Cinthios Tale of the Moor, in the story collection Hecatommithi (1565), reshaping Cinthios sensational tale of jealousy, intrigue, and murder in several key ways. 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. Following his anatomizing of the painfully introspective intellectual Hamlet, Shakespeare, at the height of his ability to probe human nature and to dramatize it in action and language, treats Hamlets temperamental oppositethe man of action. Literary Theory from 1900 to 1966: A-Z A Alexander Chirila First published: 24 December 2010 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444337839.wbelctv1a009 Read the full text PDF Tools Share Abstract Archetypal criticism is a form of analysis based on the identification and study of recurring symbolic and mythic patterns. Despite this, Desdemona continued to stay true to Othello. She stayed loyal to her lover throughout the entire play and in the end it did her no good. Wow! The men of the play manipulate her image of a naive lover to being a strumpet! (V.ii.94). Othello as a character of noble blood seems to conform to all these. 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. Desdemonas true morals is her absolute devotion to her husband. Due to the Moor, my lord. Othello relies easily on Iago to believe without being thought deeply. Othello, a play that was written in 1604 by William Shakespeare, is an example of a type of story called a tragedy. Throughout the course of the work, Othello proves himself to be very easily misled, despite his heroic status. Archetypal theory and criticism, although often used synonymously with Myth theory and crticism, has a distinct history and process. 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 . In this essay let us examine the various themes and determine which are dominant and which subordinate. Child and Youth Care and Disability CYC 3000 Assignment: Getting to Know Disability Justice A deep dive into activists introduced by L. Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Due Week 2, Friday at 11:59p It is important that you begin to learn about the various people and organizations that are leading the conversation on disability justice. Thus Jungian theory provided no clear avenue of access for those outside of psychology, and orthodox Jungians were left with little in the way of models for the psychological analysis of literature. This heuristic distinction was formed, however, solely on psychobiographical grounds: Did the text originate in, and remain principally shaped by, the authors experience of consciousness and the personal unconscious or his or her experience at the level of the archetypal collective unconscious? 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). If after every tempest come such calms, He ends up killing her out of jealousy; when she does not deserve it. The execution of his wit, hands, heart At mid-century, Canadian critic Northrop Frye (1912-91) introduced new distinctions in literary criticism between myth and archetype. A storm has dispersed the Venetian fleet so that Cassio arrives first, anxious for Othello's safety. Check out our Privacy and Content Sharing policies for more information.). Shakespeare shifts the action from Venice to Cyprus. The character of Iago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to the last hated and despised. reflects the archetypal villain" (Sen, ). Historical-Cultural Criticism In William Shakespeare's Othello 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. archetypal criticism in othello The romantic climax comes in the trial scene of act 1, in which Othello success-fully defends himself before the Venetian senate against Brabantios charge that Othello has beguiled his daughter, stoln from me, and corrupted / By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks. Calmly and courteously Othello recounts how, despite the differences of age, race, and background, he won Desdemonas heart by recounting the stories of his exotic life and adventures: She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them. Wonder at Othellos heroic adventures and compassion for her sympathy have brought the two opposites togetherthe young, inexperienced Venetian woman and the brave, experienced outsider. I took by th throat the circumcisd dog, However, Othello's words give a deeper insight into how he still misunderstands the situation. Desdemona is shown as the most pure and proper of the women in Othello and is put into the center of all the drama. Their discourse is conducted in poetic language; that is, their notions of soul-making come from the Romantics, especially William Blake and John Keats. Literature in English: Archetypal Criticism - Blogger 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). Such characters can be found in works of fiction, long or short, and in more poetic works. How to respect you; you are the lord of duty; O, farewell! (5. He notes that Singers Unholy Bible: A Psychological Interpretation of William Blake (1970), though oversimplified in its psychobiographical approach and its treatment of characters as psychological projections of the author, does make original use in a literary context of such Jungian techniques of dream interpretation as amplification and of such fantasy-evoking procedures as active imagination.. "Othello is like a hero of the ancient world in that he is not a man like us, but a man recognized as extraordinary". That Cassios not alive. Thus archetype is recognized as the tendency to form and reform images in relation to certain kinds of repeated experience, which may vary in individual cultures, authors, and readers (Lauter and Rupprecht 13-14). William Shakespeare utilized archetype frequently as a literary device in his plays. To you, preferring you before her father, And smote himthus. Archetypal Literary Criticism. The story opens on Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old growing up in the upper-middle class in England in 1953 with . He carries out his own execution for a violation that threatens social and psychic order. In Othello, the themes such as love and jealousy reflects on the characters motivation and their values. After Othello learns of a possible affair between Cassio and Desdemona, at this instance is the turning point in Othellos fortune because it changes his views, attitudes and ultimately his fate. As he attempts to carry out his execution of Desdemona, she for the first time realizes his charges against her and his utter delusion. Discuss The Archetypes Of The Tragedy In Othello | 123 Help Me Moreover, Shakespeare, by deliberately clouding the issue of Iagos motive, finds ever more sinister threats in such a characters apparently bottomless and unmerited hatred and capacity for evil. Feminist Critique of the Character Desdemona in Othello Introduction Women during Elizabethan age are assumed to have spent their lives in the service of men - prearranged marriages, child rearing, and their role as sexual objects. Frye's work helped displace New Criticism as the major mode of analyzing literary texts . Peopleshow more content An outburst that othello has in a crowd of his peers causes people to start to question their noble leader. The concept of the archetype is a venerable philosophical principle that came into new prominence and usage in the twentieth century with the development of archetypal literary criticism through the theories of psychologist C. G. Jung and literary theorist Northrop Frye. The traits of the tragic hero lead the audience to feel compassion for the helpless victim. Let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse, The moment he showed violence towards Desdemona, the audience lost interest in comforting Othello. She is not as strong-willed like the other ladies and is Shakespeares example of the archetype of the innocence and has the bases of a flat character. And new theories increasingly give credence to the requirement, historically asserted by Jungian readers, that each text elicit a personal, affective, and not merely intellectual response. To wronged Othellos service. Another important influence was Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) who used the term archetype to what he called "primordial images". Indeed, myth criticism seems singularly unaffected by any of the archetypal theorists who have remained faithful to the origins and traditions of depth, especially analytical, psychologyJames Hillman, Henri Corbin, Gilbert Durand, Rafael Lopez-Pedraza, Evangelos Christou. Because of that, it has generated a lot of literary criticism in the 400 years since it was written and first . Patterns originate from the writer's . This scene has suggested to some critics that Iagos true motivation for destroying the marriage of Desdemona and Othello is a repressed homosexual love for Othello. To protect the anonymity of contributors, we've removed their names and personal information from the essays. Consistent with his role as guardian of order in the state, Othello carries out his own execution, by analogy judging his act as a violation reflected by Venices savage enemy: And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Archetypal critics are also interested in certain myths and rituals that recur in a wide variety of cultures. Using Critical Lenses to Analyze Othello: Historical, Cultural and For Frye, as William K. Wimsatt and Cleanth Brooks put it, archetype, borrowed from Jung, means a primordial image, a part of the collective unconscious, the psychic residue of numberless experiences of the same kind, and thus part of the inherited response-pattern of the race (Literary Criticism 709). The patterns are the major intrinsic aspects of a work. Despite naively playing into Iago's hands earlier by giving him the handkerchief, Emilia shows her earnest loyalty to Desdemona. Emilia in Othello: Character Analysis & Quotes - Study.com In Re-Visioning Psychology, the published text of his 1972 Yale Terry Lectures (the same lecture series Jung gave in 1937), Hillman locates the archetypal neither in the physiology of the brain, the structure of language, the organization of society, nor the analysis of behavior, but in the processes of imagination (xi). Succeeds in unknown fate. Archetypal Criticism Volume I. However, the protagonist of the tragedy play only partially meets the definition of Aristotles tragic hero. Othello A Christian Moor who has earned a high reputation as a general in the Venetian army and has recently married Desdemona, daughter of the Venetian senator Brabantio. He had even gone as far as hitting her (4.1 134). 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). Feminist Criticism In Othello - 1360 Words - Internet Public Library His expression of his jealousy quickly devolves from the conventional"Farewell the tranquil mind"to the absurd: Farewell the plum'd troops and the big wars. To date, the British Journal of Analytical Psychology and the retitled American Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture are the best resources for archetypal criticism of literature and the arts even though only a small percentage of their published articles treat such topics. The play imitates life through basic human emotions such as jealousy and rage. Considered according to this definition, the concept becomes a useful tool for literary analysis that explores the synthesis of the universal and the particular, seeks to define the parameters of social construction of gender, and attempts to construct theories of language, of the imaginal, and of meaning that take gender into account. Othello, being a hero, enjoys a good reputation and has notable qualities. If Hamlet is a tragedy about youth, and Lear concerns old age, Othello is a family or domestic tragedy of a middle-aged man in which the fate of kingdoms and the cosmos that hangs in the balance in Hamlet and Lear contracts to the private world of a marriages destruction. QAFQAZ UNIVERSITY SPRING, 2013. The critical annotations are astute and, given their brevity, surprisingly thorough and suggestive. Bibliography Historical Criticism in Othello by Marissa Willette - Prezi Othello: Themes | SparkNotes Role of the Archetypal Symbols The handercheif is utilized throught Othello to demonstrate the loyalty of Desdemona, as well as Othello's love for her. Mythological critics compare one work to others with similar story . However, as the play progresses, jealousy clamps down his mind, and his decisions are colored with jealousy that Desdemona is betraying him, leading him to kill her and take his own life. This last text explicitly named the movement and demonstrated its appropriation of archetypal theory for feminist ends in aesthetics, analysis, art, and religion, as well as in literature. : Feminist: Ex. In Othello, the plot meets the definition of both Aristotle and Shakespeare on a tragedy. Mythological Criticism "In Sidney's view, tragedy provokes "the affects of admiration and commiseration" and so demonstrates "the uncertainty of this world". It has been mentioned earlier that pattern in literature refers to recurrent images, forms and words. As hells from heaven. For more information on choosing credible sources for your paper, check out this blog post.