Othello: Shakespeare's Realistic Samson
The essay studies the significance of the biblical Samson to early modern reformers, artists, and, primarily, Shakespeare. A long allusion in Love's Labor's Lost identifies Samson as a prototypical lover who learns from Delilah's wit and teaches the play's "book-men" th...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2020
|
| In: |
Religion & literature
Year: 2020, Volume: 52, Issue: 2, Pages: 91-114 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Shakespeare, William 1564-1616, Othello (Game)
/ Samson Biblical character
|
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture HB Old Testament KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history |
| Further subjects: | B
Loneliness
B Desdemona (Fictitious character) B Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 B Reformers B DELILAH (Biblical figure) |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The essay studies the significance of the biblical Samson to early modern reformers, artists, and, primarily, Shakespeare. A long allusion in Love's Labor's Lost identifies Samson as a prototypical lover who learns from Delilah's wit and teaches the play's "book-men" that vow-breaking is necessary for love-making. But tile focus of the essay is Othello, and the essay shows how Shakespeare used the biblical story to create a hero who struggles to grow beyond his martial occupation and idolatrous proclivities through the marriage covenant he enters with Desdemona that is devastating to his self-willed loneliness but finally enabling The essay reveals Shakespeare's compositional process. He buries biblical allusions in the dramatic subtexts and uses touchpoints from Samson's story in Judges-the maternal annunciation, "magical" hair, inter-racial marriage, identity riddles, love bonds experienced as bondage, and, finally, self-sacrifice-to create the psychological conflicts and struggles of his titular character. To recognize Samson's saga as a macro-structure for the drama restores dignity to a character viewed as a noble dupe or a racist stereotype. Othello, like Samson, has a project that is also ours: to identify, call out, and root out cultural stereotypes (mental idols) wherever they lie even in one's own heart. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/rel.2020.0004 |
