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 . Frazers and Jungs texts formed the basis of two allied but ultimately different courses of influence on literary history. 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. 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. 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. Despite naively playing into Iago's hands earlier by giving him the handkerchief, Emilia shows her earnest loyalty to Desdemona. 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. 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. 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. Othello: I greet thy love, 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. As Othello came to his breaking point, desdemona foreshadows her own death and he lets jealousy take over. 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). What makes you cringe? Othello falls in love with Desdemona and they secretly marry; later, he leaves to Cyprus to stop the Turks. 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. 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. Desdemonas true morals is her absolute devotion to her husband. O my souls joy, 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. Bettina Knapps 1984 effort at an authoritative demonstration of archetypal literary criticism exemplified this pattern. 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. To The Reader Baudelaire Analysis; Used Dudek Universal For Sale; Is Ignatius J Reilly Autistic; Spring League Football Tryouts; marxist criticism in othello act 1 . Despite his deliberately selective focus on critical works written in English on literary texts that are, for the most part, also written in English, van Meurs, with the early assistance of John Kidd, has collected 902 entries, of which he identifies slightly over 80 as valid and valuable literary criticism. (And nope, we don't source our examples from our editing service! 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'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). For more information on choosing credible sources for your paper, check out this blog post. Desdemona and Othello, therefore, face the usual challenges of the lovers in a Shakespearean comedy who must contend with the forces of authority, custom, and circumstances allied against their union. And concomitantly, on which of these levels was the reader affected? 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. Kibin. Up until Act III Scene iii Othello, "noble Moor" is in an elated position and is very aware of his importance. (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 is a type of literary criticismexamining the presence of archetypal characters within a piece of literature. 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. 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. 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. Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeares greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. Othello is a tragedy plan written by William Shakespeare. In a mess of questions of good and evil, right and wrong, critical supporters of Iago (T.S. 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. 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. OTHELLO: My name, that was as fresh. And it is thought abroad that twixt my sheets Hes done my office. When citing an essay from our library, you can use "Kibin" as the author. 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. 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. In this play there are only three women in the entire play. He turns to Iago, who has been brought before him to know the reason for his actions. As Iago asserts to Roderigo, Virtue? Such characters can be found in works of fiction, long or short, and in more poetic works. Learn what works (and what doesn't) from the reader's perspective. Shakespeare shifts the action from Venice to Cyprus. I am hitherto your daughter. Othello demonstrates all of these characteristics in the play, proving him to be a tragic hero. Their discourse is conducted in poetic language; that is, their notions of soul-making come from the Romantics, especially William Blake and John Keats. No products in the cart. No more of that. This causes him to lose his ability to make good judgments and decisions. 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 . Mythological literary critics look for archetypes, characters and/or symbols with traits that are seen throughout literature regardless of time or place. These patterns and themes, often referred to as archetypes, are believed to be present in the collective unconscious of all human beings . Beat a Venetian and tradud the state, Patterns originate from the writer's . Thus, with the archetypal theorists multiplying across disciplines on the one hand and the clinically practicing followers serving as (generally inadequate) critics on the other, archetypal literary theory and criticism flourished in two independent streams in the 1960s and 1970s. 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. An archetype is the original pattern or . Bibliography However, for Othello this is not the case. That not another comfort like to this 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). We'll take a look right away. Othello is a man of high rank in Venice. 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. : Feminist: Ex. May the wind blow till they have wakened death, Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation. The young Venetian noblewoman, Desdemona, has eloped with the middle-aged Othello, the military commander of the armed forces of Venice. : 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. 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. 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. 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. For the fair devil. Carl Jungs Contribution to Psychoanalytic Theory. Desdemona is shown as the most pure and proper of the women in Othello and is put into the center of all the drama. Finally, Othello arrives giving him the opportunity to renew his marriage vows to Desdemona: It gives me wonder great as my content William Shakespeare utilized archetype frequently as a literary device in his plays. The execution of his wit, hands, heart And let the labouring barque climb hills of seas 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 . 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. Farewell! 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. 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. Archetypal criticism ensures the efforts of all these concerned faculties to analyse of a text hence archetypal criticism is of immense significance. 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. After confronting Desdemona of her crimes he decides to carry out his overall plan to end his trues loves life. 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). Othello is now reduced to questioning his wife's maid, Emilia, looking for evidence of Desdemona's infidelity. But Jos van Meurss critically annotated 1988 bibliography, Jungian Literary Criticism, 1920-1980, effectively challenges this claim. Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. Consider the implications of this idea. Commend me to my kind lord. Archetypes Archetypal criticism focuses on patterns in a literary work that commonly occur in other literary works. Othello relies easily on Iago to believe without being thought deeply. His works range from ingenious poems, such as Fear No More, to plays, such as The Tragedy of Othello. (3.3.54) Ex. 3. In his play, he portrays Othello like a tragic hero, a type of literary character. In his "The . Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, Spring: An Annual of Archetypal Psychology and Jungian Thought, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Analysis of Stuart Halls Encoding/Decoding, Jacques Derrida's Structure, Sign and Play. To you, preferring you before her father, archetypal criticism in othello america undercover life of crime Juni 12, 2022. used kawai upright piano . The example essays in Kibin's library were written by real students for real classes. 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). His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. 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, 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). Of one that loved not wisely but too well, By speaking of soul as a primary metaphor, rather than defining soul substantively and attempting to derive its ontological status from empirical demonstration or theological (metaphysical) argument, archetypal psychology recognizes that psychic reality is inextricably involved with rhetoric (Hillman, Archetypal 19).