He seems to breathe an atmosphere as fateful as that of King Lear, but more confined and oppressive, the darkness not of night but of a close-shut murderous room. Nothing extenuate, We'll take a look right away. While adding to the tone of the story it also adds to the characters overall personality from the reader's perspective. In Act 2, Scene 1 of Othello, Iago formulates his plan to drive Othello mad. But the great literary text for Jungs life and work was Johann Wolfgang von Goethes Faust, not because of its literary qualities but because he sensed that the drama expressed his own personal myth (Letters 1:309-10). He offers throughout the play multiple justifi cations for his intrigue: He has been passed over in favor of Cassio; he suspects the Moor and Cassio with his wife, Emilia; he is envious of Cassios open nature; and he is desirous of Desdemona himself. In-text citation: These archetypalists, focusing on the imaginaland making central the concept that in English they call soul, assert their kinship with Semiotics and Structuralism but maintain an insistent focus on psychoid phenomena, which they characterize as meaningful. On a general level, Jungs and Fryes theorizings about archetypes, however labeled, overlap, and boundaries are elusive, but in the disciplines of literature the two schools have largely ignored each others work. 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. And smote himthus. The patterns are the major intrinsic aspects of a work. He suffers barbs and preconceived notions, yet Othello is esteemed and wins the love of the daughter of a nobleman. The Critical Analysis Of A Novel: Atonement By Ian Mcewan Atonement by Ian McEwan is a literary masterpiece and a highly critically acclaimed novel. Even when Desdemona was found after Othello strangles her, she still believed that her death was not the fault of Othello. These patterns and themes, often referred to as archetypes, are believed to be present in the collective unconscious of all human beings . 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. But heres my husband; - Alfredo Alvarez, student @ Miami University, We use cookies to provide the best possible experience on our site. After Othello was convinced that Desdemona was cheating on him, Othello had started to show his disappointment with her. A storm has dispersed the Venetian fleet so that Cassio arrives first, anxious for Othello's safety. That not another comfort like to this 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 . No more of that. 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). Kibin. 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). 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. 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. 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. Let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse, However, these fields of study contributed a lot to the development of archetypal criticism through the characters of Sir James Frazer and Carl Jung. And so much duty as my mother showd After confronting Desdemona of her crimes he decides to carry out his overall plan to end his trues loves life. 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. 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. Vindicated by the duke of Venice and the senate, Othello, accompanied by Desdemona, takes up his military duties in the face of a threatened Turkish invasion, and the lovers are given a triumphal wedding-like procession and marriage ceremony when they disembark on Cyprus. If it were now to die In spite of his elevated status, he is nevertheless easy prey to insecurities because of his age, his life as a soldier, and his race. Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. Shakespeare shifts the action from Venice to Cyprus. Archetypal criticism is a literary approach that analyzes works of literature based on the idea that there are universal, timeless patterns and themes that recur across all cultures and throughout history. : 2022625 : archetypal criticism in othello In Cinthios story, Alfiero, the scheming ensign, lusts after the Moors wife, named Disdemona, and after she spurns his advances, Alfiero seeks vengeance by accusing her of adultery with Cassio, the Moors lieutenant. His final speech mixes together the acknowledgment of what he was and what he has become, who he is and how he would like to be remembered: I have done the state some service, and they knowt. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single person, but is rather the consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments, misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification revealed by the characters. Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeares greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. "Who can control his fate?" 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. Two publishing events at the beginning of the 1990s in the United States may signal the coming of age of this kind of archetypal criticism through its convergence with postmodern critical thought, along with a commensurate insistence on its roots in the depth psychology of Jung: the reissue of Morris Philipsons 1963 Outline of a Jungian Aesthetic and the appearance of Karin Barnaby and Pellegrino DAcerinos multidisciplinary, multicultural collection of essays, C. G. Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture. Ralph Manheim, 1974); Morris Philipson, Outline of a Jungian Aesthetic (1963, reprint, 1991); Annis Pratt et al., Archetypal Patterns in Womens Fiction (1981); Jos van Meurs and John Kidd, Jungian Literary Criticism, 1920-1980: An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Works in English (with a Selection of Titles after 1980) (1988); William K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Cleanth Brooks, Literary Criticism: A Short History (1957). 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. Twere now to be most happy, for I fear 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. The story opens on Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old growing up in the upper-middle class in England in 1953 with . Iago replies: Demand me nothing; what you know, you know: / From this time forth I never will speak word. By Iagos exiting the stage, closing access to his motives, the focus remains firmly on Othello, not as Iagos victim, but as his own. 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. Thus, all contrastive categorization would benefit from archetypal analysis. 2. 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. 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. Othello: I greet thy love, (V.2.320-322) Giving up is hardly Othello's style, but this is how a noble and true man should react when he has mistakenly killed his wife. Archetypal Criticism Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works, . Further, Jung termed his own theory analytical psychology, as it is still known especially in Europe, but Jungian thought is more commonly referred to today in all disciplines as archetypal psychology.. Othello also matches Aristotle's ideas of tragic hero because our Othello realizes the error of his ways, causing us to feel sympathy for him. He carries out his own execution for a violation that threatens social and psychic order. The execution of his wit, hands, heart He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. Unlike the other Shakespeare tragedies, which follow the common ideas for Shakespearean tragedy, Othello includes some of the ideas from classical tragedies. Sign up I will withdraw (3.3.54) Ex. Archetypal theory then took shape principally in the multidisciplinary journal refounded by Hillman in 1970 in Zurich, Spring: An Annual of Archetypal Psychology and Jungian Thought. 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. Othello, though, decides to kill her. Bibliography Often in our society people are labelled as, or fit into a, certain character mould and their behaviour and actions remain consistent. OTHELLO: My name, that was as fresh. Archetypal theory and criticism, although often used synonymously with Myth theory and crticism, has a distinct history and process. Iago leads Othello to suspect that love and devotion are shams disguising the basest of animalistic instincts. When he realizes the grave mistake he had made by taking an honest Desdemona's life he can no longer live with himself. 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. One excellent example of such an approach, G. M. Matthews's 'Othello and the Dignity of Man', has been referred to at the end of the section devoted to historical and social criticism. However, Othello's words give a deeper insight into how he still misunderstands the situation. : 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. He is the general of the Venetian army and a well respected man by the towns noble men. He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. Hillman also discovers archetypal precursors in Neoplatonism, Heraclitus, Plotinus, Proclus, Marsilio Ficino, and Giambattista Vico. You elements that clip us round about, The dynamic of Othellos character significantly changes throughout the play. Othello is now reduced to questioning his wife's maid, Emilia, looking for evidence of Desdemona's infidelity. The Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology is a critical work published in 1963. Unfortunately, this got the ball rolling for Othello's inevitable downfall. he asks, which gives pause to a theory of pure nobility. She stayed loyal to her lover throughout the entire play and in the end it did her no good. Each literary theory will examine the text through different lenses, resulting in different interpretations. Othello as a character of noble blood seems to conform to all these. In this essay let us examine the various themes and determine which are dominant and which subordinate. OTHELLO: Iago critics. The tragic protagonist must make a fall from a high state of being to a low state or death. This allows our team to focus on improving the library and adding new essays. 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. Othello demonstrates all of these characteristics in the play, proving him to be a tragic hero. 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). If we carefully examine the third scene in the third act, we can see how Othello fits into Aristotle's definition of tragic hero. Archetypal critics are also interested in certain myths and rituals that recur in a wide variety of cultures. Aristotle believed that the plot is the most important element in a play and that plot also clearly points out the problem of any characters to be solved. The tragic hero archetype is used in many different pieces of writing and with every character comes a different way of using it. (2023). Nobody; I myself. And the 1980s saw a new, suggestive, and controversial direction in archetypal studies of literature: the feminist. Kibin, 2023. http://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-archetype-criticism-of-othello-a-play-by-william-shakespeare-yJF4zltX. As Othello came to his breaking point, desdemona foreshadows her own death and he lets jealousy take over. / Man but a rush against Othello's breast / And he retires." Kibin does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of the essays in the library; essay content should not be construed as advice. In her final moments, Desdemona chooses not to blame Othello for her death because she saw that the honor of their love was more important than honesty. Act 3, one of the wonders of the stage, anatomizes Othellos psychic descent from perfect contentment in his new wife to complete loathing, from a worldview in which everything is as it appears to one in which nothing is as it seems. "Othello", by William Shakespeare, is a story of jealousy's potential to manipulate thoughts and eventually lead to ultimate demise. Categories: Archetypal Criticism, Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, Myth Criticism, Psychoanalysis, Tags: Achetypes, Alchemy of Discourse: An Archetypal Approach to Language, Anatomy of Criticism, Archetypal Criticism, Archetypal feminist criticism, Archetypal Patterns in Poetry, Archetypal Psychology, Archetypal Theory, Archetypal Theory and Criticism, Archetypal Theory Criticism, Claude Levi-Strauss, Ernst Cassirer, Evangelos Christou, Francis Fergusson, Frazer, Gilbert Durand, Henri Corbin, Hermes and His Children, Hillman, Imagining: A Phenomenological Study, J. G. Frazer, J. G. Frazer The Golden Bough, James Hillman, Jessie Weston, Joseph Campbell, Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture., Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious, Jungian Approach to Literature, Leslie Fiedler, Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, Logos of the Soul, Maud Bodkin, Myth, Myth theory and crticism, New Polytheism, Northrop Frye, Philip Wheelwright, Psychoanalysis, Rafael Lopez-Pedraza, Richard Chase, Spring Journal, Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, Spring: An Annual of Archetypal Psychology and Jungian Thought, The Golden Bough, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Alchemy of Discourse: An Archetypal Approach to Language. An archetype is the original pattern or . I took by th throat the circumcisd dog, In The Tragedy of Othello, Shakespeare details the story of a celebrated military hero who falls victim to the machinations of a conniving villain who goes by the name of Iago. 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. 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. 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 . 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. 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. Emilia comes into the couples bedroom after Othello smothers Desdemona, but hears Desdemona cry out. Active Themes Emilia returns with Desdemona. 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. Commend me to my kind lord. For more information on choosing credible sources for your paper, check out this blog post. Witness that here Iago doth give up 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. Marxist criticism would also have offered a distinctive way of looking at Othello. 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. However, the protagonist of the tragedy play only partially meets the definition of Aristotles tragic hero. First Cassio lands to deliver the news of Othellos marriage and, like the best man, supplies glowing praise for the groom and his bride; next Desdemona, accompanied by Iago and his wife, Emilia, enters but must await news of the fate of Othellos ship. BASIC PREMISES OF ARCHETYPAL THEORY: 1. Othello Zootopia Act 1 The wall Othello is referring to are the Walls of Nicosia which surround the capital city Nicosia in Cyprus. 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 . Mythological literary critics look for archetypes, characters and/or symbols with traits that are seen throughout literature regardless of time or place. Aristotles second requirement for a tragedy is that the tragic hero must have a reversal of fortune. An archetype is universal; it is generated by man's psyche regardless of time of place. This assignment is intended to encourage you, and require you . A archethpes symbol or myth leads to the establishment of a general truth. An archetype is recurrent. ("Literary Criticism.") Othello relies easily on Iago to believe without being thought deeply. This way of proceeding had the effect of putting, and keeping, archetypal criticism on the margins of academic discourse and outside the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines and departments. Now art thou my lieutenant. 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. Here are some examples of archetype in Shakespearean works: Lover: Romeo ("Romeo and Juliet"), Juliet ("Romeo and Juliet"), Antony ("Antony and Cleopatra") Hero: Othello ("Othello"), Hamlet . In his play, he portrays Othello like a tragic hero, a type of literary character. 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. No products in the cart. Archetypal Literary Criticism. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. For the fair devil. Othello is a train wreck that the audience horrifyingly witnesses, helpless to prevent or look away.
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