“You have to implicate the audience. They’ve got to squirm, not just over what happens, but because they did nothing about it. They had all the knowledge – this guy was not to be trusted – and they just sat there. People have jumped onstage to stop Iago, wrestled him to the ground. One actor in the 19th century was killed in the part, shot by an audience member. I’m glad that didn’t happen. Maybe I just wasn’t good enough.”
A quick, yet hard-hitting read, Tracy Chevalier tackles Othello in an accessible and fast-paced retelling. Without losing any of the drama, tragedy, or heartbreak, Chevalier places Othello into a 1970’s suburban playground. This little novel brings to the surface the racism that permeates our past and present, and actually parallels the original story amazingly well within this new context. I would recommend (mature) young readers to read New Boy next to Othello for a full understanding of the play and how literature has a large impact on perceiving and understanding the world around them.
yknow if romeo had just Cried on juliets corpse for a couple hours instead of drinking poison Right Then they would have been Fine
The moral of the story is: always take time to cry for a few hours before making important decisions.
So I’m more or less being facetious here, but this is actually a thing.
Hamlet is genre savvy. Hamlet knows how Tragedies work, and he’s not going to rush in and get stabby without making absolutely certain he’s got all the facts.
Except once he thinks he has all the facts – once he’s certain that it really is the ghost of his father and Claudius really did kill him, he rushes in and stabs the wrong guy, which starts a domino line of deaths and gets Laertes embroiled in his own revenge tragedy and ultimately results in the deaths of nearly every character other than Horatio.
That’s the irony and the tragedy of the story. Hamlet knows his tropes and actively tries to avoid them, and the tropes get him anyway. It’s inevitable, the tropes are hungry.
I want a sticker that says the tropes are hungry so I can put it on my laptop
i met a scholar once who said that tragedies aren’t about a silly “flaw” or anything, it’s about having a hero who’s just in the wrong goddamn story
if hamlet swapped places with othello he wouldn’t be duped by any of iago’s shit, he’d sit down & have a good think & actually examine the facts before taking action. meanwhile in denmark, othello would have killed claudius before act 2 could even start. but instead nope, they’re both in situations where their greatest strengths are totally useless and now we’ve got all these bodies to bury.
The tropes are hungry and the hero is in the wrong goddamn story.
Started of very well, but only lasted about an hour. While Desdemona was quickly using the restroom., Iago, who “happened” to be at the same restaurant too, pointed out Othello, that it was just outrageous how Desdemona flirted with the waiter. When the waiter came to collect the order an ugly scene ensued. Desdemona shared a taxi with Emilia who left early too after a row with her husband.
Hamlet and Ophelia:
Ophelia left exasperatedly after Hamlet had not been able to decide which starter he would like to have after she had already finished her four course meal. She decided that a date with the prince really wasn’t worth skipping her swimming classes.
Beatrice and Benedick:
A concerned waiter offered to help mediate in their dispute, only to gain two surprised glances and to be informed that they weren’t arguingat all and that he kindly should not Interrupt their date.
Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Winsdor:
Falstaff received adoring, ardent, passionate replies to his many invitations (no less than he expected), but strangely enough the only one who showed up was Master Ford…. (btw the ladies had a faboulous Pride and Prejudice film night at the Ford’s, Sigh Darcy with no wet shirt…)
Antonio and Sebastian, Sebastian and Olivia
Antionio had scraped his Money together to invite Sebastian to this really fancy restaurant. However, when Seabstian arrived, Olivia caught sight of him as he entered the restaurant and asked him to sit with her in her private room. Antonio spent the evening watching the door, noticing a man in alarmingly yellow socks doing the same, drinking a lonely bottle of wine.
Othello, Winter’s Tale, Much Ado. They’re really quite similar if you think about it…
Characters:
a woman who has been falsely accused of cheating on her husband/boyfriend – Desdemona, Hermione, Hero
said jealous husband/boyfriend – Othello, Leontes, Claudio
fierce feminist woman and protective friend of #1 – Emilia, Paulina, Beatrice
controlling dad of #1 – Brabantio, Leonato
man with whom #1 is accused of cheating – Cassio, Polyxenes
man who first plants the idea in #2’s mind that #1 is cheating on him – Iago, Don John
I love how all three of these are different genres of play, though. Kinda shows how you can take the same plot, tweak it a little, and end up with a completely different story…
Fun fact: Atari illustrator Jim Kelly served as the model for the covers to both Othello and Night Driver. That’s right, by established visual cannon, Iago spends his spare time street racing.
[Alt text: The figure presents two images of box art for Atari games. Text on the first box reads “Othello*, video computer system ™, game program ™, 4 video games, Othello*, one player, two players.” Asterisks next to “Othello” are explained with a footnote that reads “Othello ® is a registered trademark of C B S, Inc. for its strategy game and disc equipment.” The image on the box is as follows. In the upper left of the image, a white guy holds his hand to his waxed goatee in contemplation; his curly hair, receding hairline, and wedding band are all visible, despite everything but his face being washed out by a powerful yellow light. Four smaller images of his face and hand appear in succession as the man reaches down to a digitized Othello game board where he makes his move. If one unfocuses their eyes, the five interconnected heads with bushy hair and beards coalesce into a large cartoon caterpillar. The second box is for a game titled “Night Driver ®” and the box contains much of the same superfluous text. The image on the box is as follows. Stock cars are moving on a track at sunset, tightly clustered together. Superimposed over this in the upper left of the image, the same white guy from the first image is wearing a driving helmet that hides any hair and beard except for his thick eyebrows. His face is screwed up in concentration as he tightly grips a steering wheel in front of an ephemeral checkered flag and a digital timer.]
To give some context and analysis on the othello reference bc I’ve studied othello
Othello specifically courted desdemona by telling her stories about his life bc he was a general and went to lots of cool places and told her stories of them so Quincey being compared to othello is like…he’s the Adventurer originally from foreign lands (Texas in this case ig) and so it kinda sets Quincey up in his archetype.
If I were to go really literary analysis insane, I would say that there’s an interesting ambiguity in one of othellos speeches about courting desdemona where he describes her as saying that “she wished heaven had made her such a man”
There’s a double meaning in that, firstly that like desdemona is like doing the tuck her hair behind her ear thing and going “wow I wish heaven had made a guy like you for me…wink” but the other interpretation is like “I wish that I was a guy like that who could go on adventures” and this reading is somewhat echoed by Lucy saying “I know now what I would do if I was a man and I wanted to make women love me” so I think this is meant to imply there’s some part of Lucy that wants to have an adventure which…good news! You are in the novel dracula :3
A Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth but the Ghost of Banquo is just an actor with a white sheet draped over his head and two holes cut out for eyes
