archetypal criticism in othello

In the beginning of the play, Othello is seen as content with his new bride: For know, Iago, But that I love the gentle Desdemona (1.2.24-25). After confronting Desdemona of her crimes he decides to carry out his overall plan to end his trues loves life. Desdemona is oblivious to what is going on around her and stays loyal to her morals but Iagos rumours lure Othello to thinking otherwise. Further, the text offered confirmation (and poetic representation) of the only direct contribution Jung made to literary theory: a distinction between psychological and visionary texts (Collected 15:89-90). At the center of the plays intrigue is Shakespeares most sinister and formidable conceptions of evil in Iago, whose motives and the wellspring of his villainy continue to haunt audiences and critics alike. Archetypal Criticism Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works, . I will withdraw Jung most frequently used myth (or mythologem) for the narrative expression, on the ethnological level (Collected 9, pt. . As the play progresses, and Iagos plan culminates, Othellos good fortune begins to turn. Both Desdemona and Othello defy by their words and gestures the calumnies heaped upon them by Roderigo and Brabantio and vindicate the imperatives of the heart over parental authority and custom. This causes him to lose his ability to make good judgments and decisions. Earnest Cassirer, a social anthropologist was an important influence on myth criticism. At mid-century, Canadian critic Northrop Frye (1912-91) introduced new distinctions in literary criticism between myth and archetype. This type of criticism was first experimented by Maud Bodkin, in his book Archetypal Patterns in Poetry (1934). The term 'archetype' is taken from the Greek words 'arche' (beginning) and 'typos' (imprint). Iago leads Othello to suspect that love and devotion are shams disguising the basest of animalistic instincts. 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. A fig! Self-interest is all that matters, and love is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. Othello and Desdemona cannot possibly remain devoted to each other, and, as Iago concludes, If sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an err-ing barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her. The problem of Iagos motivation to destroy Othello and Desdemona is not that he has too few motives but too many. Hillman invokes Henri Corbin (1903-78), French scholar, philosopher, and mystic known for his work on Islam, as the second father of archetypal psychology. "Who can control his fate?" Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. Van Meurss bibliography conveys the great variety of Jungian writings on literature even within one language, the increasingly recognized potential for further development and use of Jungs ideas, and the growth in numbers of literary scholars falling under the influence of Jung. Northrop Frye, however, further developed this theory in his book Anatomy of Criticism and later in his essay 'The Archetypes in Literature . ukraine russia border live camera /; June 24, 2022 Farewell / Commend me to my kind lord. The example essays in Kibin's library were written by real students for real classes. An archetype is universal; it is generated by man's psyche regardless of time of place. Speak of me as I am. Othello demonstrates all of these characteristics in the play, proving him to be a tragic hero. 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. 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). An archetype is the original pattern or . After the. As mine own face. . Shakespeare shifts the action from Venice to Cyprus. A Christian Moor and general of the armies of Venice, Othello is an eloquent and physically powerful figure, respected by all those around him. An archetypal critic would suggest that all human experience is linked through literature and that this experience is expressed again and again using the same patterns throughout time and space. Even when Desdemona was found after Othello strangles her, she still believed that her death was not the fault of Othello. Essays may be lightly modified for readability or to protect the anonymity of contributors, but we do not edit essay examples prior to publication. Nothing extenuate, No products in the cart. During the play Iago manipulates Othello because Lieutenant Cassio was promoted ahead of him, and also because he suspects that Othello has had an affair with his wife. According to Aristotle, a tragic protagonist is a nobleman or person from high status, who contributes to his own demise and illustrates a flaw or weakness in judgment. He is a character of high stature that is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. OTHELLO: Iago critics. This juxtaposition between Othello's transparency and Iago's duality identifies him as a sympathetic character despite his actions. what is wrong with franklin baby on tiktok. Frye's work helped displace New Criticism as the major mode of analyzing literary texts . In. Consider the implications of this idea. 1: 67), of the archetypes, which he described as patterns of psychic energy originating in the collective unconscious and finding their most common and most normal manifestation in dreams (8:287). 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? A few names form a core of writers in English (including many Canadians)Martin Bickman, Albert Gelpi, Elliott Gose, Evelyn Hinz, Henry Murray, Barton L. St. Armand, Harold Schechter, and William Stein though no single figure has attracted the attention of academic literary specialists, and no persistent commonalities fuse into a recognizable school critics who draw on Jungs theories. Check out our Privacy and Content Sharing policies for more information.). Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From the theorists, dissertations, articles, and books, often traditionally academic in orientation, appeared; the productions of the practitioners are chronicled and critiqued in van Meurss bibliography. If we carefully examine the third scene in the third act, we can see how Othello fits into Aristotle's definition of tragic hero. This preview is partially blurred. Kibin, 2023, www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX. Beat a Venetian and tradud the state, And the 1980s saw a new, suggestive, and controversial direction in archetypal studies of literature: the feminist. This allows our team to focus on improving the library and adding new essays. Iago will direct the remainder of the play, constructing Othellos down-fall out of the flimsiest evidence and playing on the strengths and weaknesses of Othellos nature and the doubts that erode Othellos faith in Desdemona. This assignment is intended to encourage you, and require you . He has promoted Cassio to lieutenant while leaving Iago as ensign. Written in 2001, this piece of British metafiction tells a brilliant story of love, war, mistakes, forgiveness, and, of course, atonement. The archetypal characteris a simple character template recognizable to all readers. edmonton oilers jokes archetypal criticism in othello archetypal criticism in othello. The formerly self-sufficient Othello has now staked his life to his faith in Desdemona and their union, and she has done the same. 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, while we are reading any of [Shakespeare's] great criminal characters - we think not so much of the crimes which they commit, as of the ambition, the aspiring spirit, the intellectual activity which prompts them to . And concomitantly, on which of these levels was the reader affected? In the essay Frye critically analyses literature against the backdrop of rituals and myths. Here are some ways our essay examples library can help you with your assignment: Read our Academic Honor Code for more information on how to use (and how not to use) our library. 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 . In-text citation: Home Archetypal Criticism Archetypal Criticism, By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on October 22, 2020 ( 0 ). Kibin. This article, then, treats the only form of literary theory and criticism consistent with and derived directly from the psychological principles advanced by Jung. The tragic protagonist must make a fall from a high state of being to a low state or death. "), "An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare." 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. In addition, he modified and extended his concept over the many decades of his professional life, often insisting that archetype named a process, a perspective, and not a content, although this flexibility was lost through the codifying, nominalizing tendencies of his followers. Archetypes Archetypal criticism focuses on patterns in a literary work that commonly occur in other literary works. 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. The present essay, "Archetypes of Literature," is taken from the book. With some of its advocates supported through early publication of their work in the journal Spring, feminist archetypal theory and criticism of literature and the arts emerged fullblown in three texts: Annis Pratts Archetypal Patterns in Womens Fiction (1981), which self-consciously evoked and critiqued Maud Bodkins 1934 text; Estella Lauters Women as Mythmakers: Poetry and Visual Art by Twentieth Century Women (1984); and Estella Lauter and Carol Schreier Rupprechts Feminist Archetypal Theory: Interdisciplinary Re-Visions of Jungian Thought (1985). Iagos motivation is anything but explainable in conventional terms. Thus, all contrastive categorization would benefit from archetypal analysis. While the beautiful. Archetypal criticism ensures the efforts of all these concerned faculties to analyse of a text hence archetypal criticism is of immense significance. As scholar Edward Pechter has argued, During the past twenty-five years or so, Othello has become the Shakespearean tragedy of choice, replacing King Lear in the way Lear had earlier replaced Hamlet as the play that speaks most directly and powerfully to current interests.. 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. I pray you, in your letters, Due to the Moor, my lord. He ends up killing her out of jealousy; when she does not deserve it. He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. Historical is basically know the background story before you making assumptions off the text, and to better understand text lookup time period close to the time like 1600's . Literary Archetypes The Legend of Sleepy Hollow The Loved One The Magus The Making of Americans The Man in the High Castle The Mayor of Casterbridge The Member of the Wedding The Metamorphosis The Natural The Plague The Plot Against America The Portrait of a Lady The Power of Sympathy The Red Badge of Courage The Road The Road from Coorain Archetypal criticism, then, construed as that derived from Jung's theory and practice of archetypal (analytical) psychology, is a fledgling and much misconstrued field of inquiry with significant but still unrealized potential for the study of literature and of aesthetics in general. FREE Archetype Essay Essay - Example Essays This recurring idea of an evil witch is extremely common and archetypal. The critic is at the center of interpretive activity, and the critic functions as teacher, interpreter, priest, seer. However, for Othello this is not the case. The key to extremely detrimental jealousy lies within one's ability to recognize it or deny it. This is not a satisfactory frame of mind for an investigator, and it is certainly not an . Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. Othello, being a hero, enjoys a good reputation and has notable qualities. His works range from ingenious poems, such as Fear No More, to plays, such as The Tragedy of Othello. Olympus-high, and duck again as low Joseph P. Strelka, 1976); Karin Barnaby and Pellegrino DAcerino, eds., C. G. Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture (1990); Martin Bickman, The Unsounded Centre: Jungian Studies in American Romanticism (1980); Maud Bodkin, Archetypal Patterns in Poetry: Psychological Studies in Imagination (1934); Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957); Albert Gelpi, The Tenth Muse: The Psyche of the American Poet (1975); Naomi Goldenberg, Archetypal Theory after Jung, Spring (1975); Julia Kristeva, Stabat Mater (1977, The Kristeva Reader, ed. I took by th throat the circumcisd dog, Archetypal theory and criticism, although often used synonymously with Myth theory and crticism, has a distinct history and process. Frye, then, first misinterprets Jungian theory by insisting on a Lamarckian view of genetic transmission of archetypes, which Jung explicitly rejected, and later settles on a concept of archetype as a literary occurrence per se, an exclusively intertextual recurring phenomenon resembling a convention (99). Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought, Othello must now face the realization of what he has done. The patterns are the major intrinsic aspects of a work. The tragedy of Othello, written by William Shakespeare, presents the main character Othello, as a respectable, honorable, and dignified man, but because of his insecurities and good nature, he is easily taken advantage of and manipulated by his peers and alleged friends. 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. Archetypal analysis is an appropriate model for customer heterogeneity whenever the underlying structure is best defined by the extremes. Eventually, this leads to Othellos suicide. A general in the army, Othello holds a distinguished place in the Duke's court due to his victories in battle, but not an equal one. Archetypal criticism gets its impetus from psychologist Carl Jung, who postulated that humankind has a "collective unconscious," a kind of universal psyche, which is manifested in dreams and myths and which harbors themes . But Wheelwright, for example, barely mentions Jung (The Burning Fountain, 1954), and he, Fergusson, and others often owe more to Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, Oedipus Rex, and the Oedipus complex than to anything taken from Jung. Mythological Criticism and Archetypes BY: TO: AYTEKIN ALIYEVA Prof. SHAHIN KHALILLI. Lon S. Roudiez, 1986); Estella Lauter and Carol Schreier Rupprecht, Feminist Archetypal Theory: Interdisciplinary Re-Visions of Jungian Thought (1985); Erich Neumann, Art and the Creative Unconscious: Four Essays (trans. This book established the priority of interest in the archetypal over the mythological. 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. Othello Zootopia Act 1 The wall Othello is referring to are the Walls of Nicosia which surround the capital city Nicosia in Cyprus. Othello is characterized by his plainspoken read analysis of Othello Iago Othello's disloyal standard-bearer and the villain of the play. Each literary theory will examine the text through different lenses, resulting in different interpretations. : Feminist: Ex. Othello is first shown as a hero of war and a man of, The extent of which Othello is a tragic hero has been open to much debate; the basis on which he is judged falls to Aristotles established view of the crucial elements that distinguish whether a person is truly tragic. Seeing her dying, Emilia asks who would do this. By trying to hide the fact that Othello had murdered her, Desdemona has chosen to put the honor of their love above honesty. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Altho a tragic ending it may be, Othello couldn't stand being a such a fool to have believed such lies about his one and only love. Carl Jungs Contribution to Psychoanalytic Theory. An equal case can be made that Iago here completes his role as Vice, borrowed from the medieval morality plays, sealing the Faustian bargain for Othellos soul in this mock or black marriage scene. Despite naively playing into Iago's hands earlier by giving him the handkerchief, Emilia shows her earnest loyalty to Desdemona. Othello accused her of being unfaithful, when she never was. What makes Othello so unique structurally (and painful to witness) is that it is a tragedy built on a comic foundation. Her Jungian Approach to Literature attempts to cover the Finnish epic The Kalevala, the Persian Atars The Conference of the Birds, and texts by Euripides, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Michel de Montaigne, Pierre Corneille, Goethe, Novalis, Rabbi ben Simhah Nachman, and W. B. Yeats. Even French feminist Julia Kristeva has been brought to praise a Jungian contribution to feminist discourse on the maternal: recognition that the Catholic churchs change of signification in the assumption of the Virgin Mary to include her human body represented a major shift in attitude toward female corporaiity (113). Issues of genre, period, and language were ignored or subjected to gross generalization as Jung searched for universals in texts as disparate as the fourth-century Shepherd of Hermas, the Divine Comedy, Francesco Colonnas Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), E. T. A. Hoffmans tales, Pierre Benoits LAtlantide (1919-20), and Henry Wadsworth Longfellows Hiawatha, as well as works by Carl Spitteler and William Blake. The play is set in Venice and Cyprus where a Moor, Othello, General of the Venetian army gets secretly married to a Venetian noblemans daughter, Desdemona. Key quotation (Aside) O, you are well tuned now!But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, As honest as I am. 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. If it were now to die To you, preferring you before her father, . For Cassirer, reason alone cannot lead to truth, but mythical thinking which focuses on immediate experience is essential. Furthermore, they must also have a fatal flaw, that eventually leads to their downfall. 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. http://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX Be sure to capitalize proper nouns (e.g. Othello as a character of noble blood seems to conform to all these. As Othello came to his breaking point, desdemona foreshadows her own death and he lets jealousy take over. 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. Bibliography Confirmation of this theory was Jungs reading of Faust: part 1 was psychological; part 2, visionary.. 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. 3. Hillman also discovers archetypal precursors in Neoplatonism, Heraclitus, Plotinus, Proclus, Marsilio Ficino, and Giambattista Vico. 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. Another important influence was Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) who used the term archetype to what he called "primordial images". 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. Desdemona senses a change in Othello and she has a feeling that she will die soon due to the hands of Othello. Desdemona replies that it was her fault: Nobody I myself. The character of Iago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to the last hated and despised. In Shakespeare?s play Othello, Othello himself is the tragic hero. 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. The play imitates life through basic human emotions such as jealousy and rage. The fulfillment of the wedding night that should come at the climax of the comedy is relocated to act 2, with the aftermath of the courtship and the wedding now taking center stage. Between William Shakespeares most expansive and philosophical tragediesHamlet and King Learis Othello, his most constricted and heart-breaking play. . Human emotions have a lot of power over how we react to situations in life, the trick is learning how to not let them take over. But Jung's theory of the archetypes of the collective unconscious differs . When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, For more information on choosing credible sources for your paper, check out this blog post. the characters in Shakespeare's play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. For Jung, archetype is an explanatory paraphrase of the Platonic eidos (9, pt. Placing responsibility in the stars - he calls Desdemona an "ill-starred wench" - is hardly a gallant course of action. And it is thought abroad that twixt my sheets Hes done my office. Unfortunately, this got the ball rolling for Othellos inevitable downfall. Learn what works (and what doesn't) from the reader's perspective. For the fair devil. Within these three days let me hear thee say They also attest to his self-confessed lack of interest in literature: I feel not naturally drawn to what one calls literature, but I am strangely attracted by genuine fiction, i.e., fantastical invention (Letters 1:509). Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation. In his play, he portrays Othello like a tragic hero, a type of literary character. 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. Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand, The young Venetian noblewoman, Desdemona, has eloped with the middle-aged Othello, the military commander of the armed forces of Venice. And so much duty as my mother showd The term archetype can be traced to Plato (arche, original; typos, form), but the concept gained currency in twentieth-century literary theory and criticism through the work of the Swiss founder of analytical psychology, C. G. Jung (1875-1961). Egypt) and titles (e.g. 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. "An Archetype Criticism of Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare." If after every tempest come such calms, Thus criticism evolving from his work is more accurately named archetypal and is quite distinct from myth criticism. Emilia comes into the couples bedroom after Othello smothers Desdemona, but hears Desdemona cry out. (V.2.316, 323) It is beyond a doubt Othello's fault that all of this wreckage befalls him, and his still has not had a moment of recognition of his failures at reasoning and understanding. 364-367). O my souls joy, In Othello, the themes such as love and jealousy reflects on the characters motivation and their values. Eliot, Samuel Taylor) characterize themselves as realists, pragmatic, practical, eschewing the supporters of the so-called weaker Othello, who conversely tend to describe themselves as somehow morally elevated, more empathetic. (2.1.191-93) Setting the scene. Archetypal criticism focuses on such things in a work. James Hillman, Archetypal Psychology: A Brief Account (1983), Re-Visioning Psychology (1975); C. G. Jung, Collected Works (ed. This explains his fascination with a text like Rider Haggards novel She: The History of an Adventure (1886-87), with its unmediated representation of the anima. As Jung himself noted: Literary products of highly dubious merit are often of the greatest interest to the psychologist (Collected 15:87-88). He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. 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.. A tragic hero has many characteristics, 3 of them being that they must have an error in judgement, they must have a reversal of fortune, and they must recognize that the reversal of fortune was brought about by their own actions. However, Othello's words give a deeper insight into how he still misunderstands the situation. Myth criticism grew in part as a reaction to the formalism of New Criticism, while archetypal criticism based on Jung was never linked with any academic tradition and remained organically bound to its roots in depth psychology: the individual and collective psyche, dreams, and the analytic process. In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago is one of the most compelling villains in English literature. reflects the archetypal villain" (Sen, ). 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. No more of that. The dynamic of Othellos character significantly changes throughout the play. Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away Evil is displayed before him, not indeed with the profusion found in King Lear, but forming, as it were, the soul of a single character, and united with an intellectual superiority so great that he watches its advance fascinated and appalled. That Cassios not alive. Twere now to be most happy, for I fear The intensity and focus of Othello is unalleviated by subplots, comic relief, or any mitigation or consolation for the deterioration of the noble Moor and his collapse into murder and suicide. 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). You know how looking at a math problem similar to the one you're stuck on can help you get unstuck?