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Cobbe Portrait of William Shakespeare
Tag Archives: Othello
“We look back at Shakespeare and regret our absence from him because it seems an absence from reality.”
Conclusion to The Play’s The Thing Part Two By Dennis Abrams ———————————- Honestly, I can’t believe it’s over. For two and half years, We’ve been reading and talking and thinking about Shakespeare. And to help bring this to a close, … Continue reading
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Tagged A Midsummer Night's Dream, All's Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Comedy, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, drama, Falstaff, Hamlet, Henry IV, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Henry V, Henry VI Parts One Two and Three, Henry VIII, Julius Caesar, king henry iv, King John, King Lear, language, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Pericles, Prince Hal, problem play, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, sonnet, The Comedy of Error, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter's Tale, Timon of Athens, titus andronicus, tragedy, Troilus and Cressidas, Twelfh Night, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, writing
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“The Tempest ends, like the other plays in Shakespeare’s last period, in reconciliation and forgiveness. But the ending in The Tempest is grimmer, and the sky is darker…”
The Tempest Act Four, Part Two By Dennis Abrams —————————- From Auden: “Falstaff’s kingdom is made up of Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban. Trinculo recalls all of Shakespeare’s earlier clowns, Stephano resembles Sir Toby Belch, and Caliban recollects both Bottom and … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Four, Ariel, Caliban, Comedy, drama, Falstaff, Ferdinand, frank kermode, language, literature, Macbeth, masque, Miranda, Othello, Prospero, Rilke, Shakespeare, slave, song, The Tempest, tragedy, W.H. Auden, William Shakespeare, writing
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“No full-length Shakespearian tragedy reaches the intensity of these three acts; they move with a whirling, sickening, speed.”
The Winter’s Tale Act Three, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ———————- First off, some highlights from Mark Van Doren, without the most often used quotes from the play: “’The Winter’s Tale’ tells of grievous divisions between friend and friend (Leontes … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Three, drama, Elizabethan tragedy, Hermione, Iago, jealousy, language, Last Plays, late play, Leontes, literature, Mark Van Doren, nature, obsession, Othello, Paulina, Perdita, Polixenes, romance, Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Language, the Shepherd, The Winter's Tale, The Winter’s Tale Act Three, tragicomedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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“I have drunk, and seen the spider.”
The Winter’s Tale Act Two, Part One By Dennis Abrams ———————————- Act Two: Hermione is with her son Mamillius when Leontes rushes in, having heard of Polixenes’s and Camillo’s escape to Bohemia. Taking this as proof of his former friend’s … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Two, drama, Hermione, Iago, innocence, jealousy, language, Last Plays, late play, Leontes, literature, nature, Othello, Perdita, Polixenes, Richard Lovelace, romance, Shakespeare, spider, The Winter's Tale, The Winter’s Tale Act, tragicomedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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“The larger, unspoken question is – what do we do about, how do we cope with, our inescapable sexuality?”
The Winter’s Tale Act One, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————- From Bloom: “Ideologues do not cluster around The Winter’s Tale, as they do around The Tempest, so neither performance nor commentary is much politicized, even in these bad days. … Continue reading
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Tagged act one, Comedy, drama, entertainment, Hermione, Iago, jealousy, language, Leontes, literature, original sin, Othello, Polixenes, sexuality, Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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“What we changed /Was innocence for innocence. We knew not/The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed/That any did.”
The Winter’s Tale Act One, Part One By Dennis Abrams ————————————- MAJOR CHARACTERS Leontes, King of Sicily Hermione, Leonte’s wife Mamillius, their son Perdita, their daughter Camillo, Antigonus, Cleomenes and Dion, lord at Leonte’s court. Paulina, Antigonus’s wife Emilia, Hermione’s … Continue reading
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Tagged act one, Bohemia, drama, entertainment, Hamnet Shakespeare, Hermione, innocence, jealousy, King Leontes, King Polixenes, language, Leontes, literature, Othello, Pandosto, Polixenes, Queen Hermione, Robert Greene, Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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“See what breeds about her heart./Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts?”
King Lear Act Three, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————————– From Tony Tanner: “But of course foldings and pleatings and wrappings directly evoke clothing, and not for nothing are Goneril and Regan ‘gourgeously’ arrayed. There is much changing of clothes … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Three, Albany, Cornwall, drama, Edgar, Edmund, Elizabethan theater, Goneril, heath, Kent, King Lear, language, Lear, literature, Othello, politics, Regan, Richard II, Shakespeare, the Fool, William Shakespeare, writing
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“All of them die: the noble ones and the villains; the level-headed ones and the madmen; the empiricists and the absolutists. All choices are bad.”
Othello Act Five, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ——————– Let’s start by finishing up with Jan Kott: “They talk about her even before she has appeared. They shout that she has run away with a Negro. Her image is already … Continue reading
“Then must you speak/Of one that loved not wisely but too well/Of one not easily jealous…”
Othello Act Five, Part One By Dennis Abrams Act Five: At Iago’s bidding, Roderigo attacks Cassio but only managed to wound him, and in the confusion that follows Iago stabs Roderigo to death. Othello, meanwhile, is about to kill the … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Five, Cassio, drama, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, Hamlet, Iago, language, literature, one that loved not wisely but too well, Othello, othello and desdemona, renaissance humanism, Samuel Johnson, Shakespeare, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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“The world’s history is just that of spiders and flies.”
Othello Act Four, Part Two By Dennis Abrams For today’s post, we’re going to be looking at Othello from two very different angles – contemporary and old school. First, from Polish avant-garde activist, critic, and theoretician, from his book Shakespeare … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Four, Desdemona, drama, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, entertainment, Iago, Iago and Othello, Jan Kott, King Lear, language, literature, Macbeth, Othello, othello and desdemona, renaissance humanism, Shakespeare, shakespearean tragedy, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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The Play's The Thing 