Othello (Vol. 35) | M. D. Faber (essay date 1974)
M. D. Faber (essay date 1974)
SOURCE: "Othello: Symbolic Action, Ritual and Myth," in American Imago, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer, 1974, pp. 159-205.
[In the following essay, Faber asserts that Othello's development from joyful bridegroom to murderer can best be understood in terms of the hero's attempt "to resolve the mystery of maternal ambivalence "—a trait which the critic contends is common to Western tragic literature.]
The following discussion is grounded in specific theoretical and critical propositions which should be stated clearly at the outset: I believe that western tragedy, whether it receives narrative or dramatic expression, invariably presents us with characters who undergo a traumatic reactivation of infantile feelings. Tragedy's inner chaos, tragedy's inner disruption expressed through the character of the hero, is always a chaos, is always a disruption, grounded in reactivation. What is reactivated? Basically, the...
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