Othello (Vol. 35) | Julian C. Rice (essay date 1974)
Julian C. Rice (essay date 1974)
SOURCE: "Desdemona Unpinned: Universal Guilt in Othello," in Shakespeare Studies: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism, and Reviews, Vol. VII, 1974, pp. 209-26.
[In the following essay, Rice centers on the character of Desdemona in his discussion of guilt and human nature in Othello.]
The linking and parallelism between individual characters in Shakespearean drama is nowhere more prevalent than it is in Othello. As Barbara Everett has expressed it, the characters are all "forced by the 'elements that clip us round about' into a perpetual sense of, or straining toward, community. The 'net shall enmesh them all' is made at the instant the play begins, and is a condition of common need and common imperfection, so that a characters."1 The linking may have serious thematics implications. Is Othello responsible for his actions, or does he perhaps represent a common human vulnerability to...
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