Comparative Perspectives (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

• Othello is the individual fighting for status, reputation, and love against social norms, moralities, and class constraints

• Jay Gatsby must forge his place and reputation to earn the love of Daisy in a world based on social class and heritage

• In the context of Othello, class structure, gender ideals, and inherent discrimination dictate the social norms of Venice

• Those with status, wealth, and European heritage wish to maintain the status quo:

  • Othello must fight for his right to be Desdemona’s husband and earn his reputation as a worthy, honourable captain

• In the context of The Great Gatsby, elitism and inherited wealth dictate the social norms of America:

  • The residents of East Egg are suspicious of Gatsby’s new money

• Those with wealth and heritage marry into the same class:

  • Gatsby cannot marry Daisy until he conforms 

• Female promiscuity and adultery was unacceptable in 17th century Europe:

  • Desdemona’s fidelity is brought into question

• As her husband, Othello’s reputation as a male is at stake:

  • Othello trusts a man over his wife

  • His jealous rage is responsible for the tragedy

• Daisy’s financial security is tied up in her marriage to Tom Buchanan

• A potential relationship with Gatsby presents a risk:

  • Gatsby’s love for Daisy places huge demands on him

• Othello’s decision to trust Iago leads to emotional crisis

• He faces a moral dilemma which stems from his personal insecurities and pride

• Only in the denouement does he realise his errors 

• Gatsby hides his origins, and redefines his identity

• His success and wealth are based on pressures to conform:

  • His delusions of grandeur lead to his demise

• Othello must justify his position as Desdemona’s husband:

  • He faces racial discrimination and threat of arrest by Brabantio

• Othello’s position as captain is a result of years of battle:

  • His troubling stories of his past encourage Desdemona’s sympathies

• Gatsby’s reputation is under constant attack:

  • He faces suspicions about his past

• To present himself as a gentleman, he takes the blame for others’ actions

• Othello is an outsider fighting for reputation and status against Jacobean social norms, moralities and class constraints

• Jay Gatsby must forge his place and reputation in a world that prioritises heritage:

  • The novel juxtaposes Gatsby’s dreams against the cynicism of the environment that destroys him

• Shakespeare exposes the rigid social structures of 17th-century society:

  • The play exposes the competitive nature of the Venetian military 

  • Shakespeare illustrates the pressures on Othello who must present as noble, strong, and sophisticated 

• Fitzgerald aims to reveal the elitist attitudes of upper-class America in the 1920s

• He critiques the American Dream as a desire for wealth

• Additionally, Fitzgerald addresses Gatsby’s illusions:

  • The novel’s tragic romance portrays the consequences of Gatsby’s artificial life

  • His desire to fit into a society into which he does not belong leads, ultimately, to a doomed fate

• Some early receptions to the play surround Shakespeare’s presentation of a Moor as a hero:

  • Typically, ethnic minorities were presented as uncivilised in literature

• Audiences would understand Othello as a morality play and revenge tragedy as it raises themes of political intrigue, temptation and sin

• As a Renaissance play, audiences are presented with the complexity of the human experience, still relevant today 

• The novel was received by some critics as a glamorous story about the Jazz Age:

  • It depicts the recklessness and indulgence of elitists in 1920s America 

• Although it did not sell well upon publication, the novel has become a classic

• It is a source of study in terms of Fitzgerald’s literary prose: 

  • In particular, Fitzgerald’s vivid sensory descriptions

• Its critique of the American Dream and rampant consumerism remains relevant in contemporary societies

• The Shakespearean tragedy uses dialogue to depict the breakdown of character relationships:

  • Discrimination and jealousy are evident in character’s dialogue 

• Othello’s soliloquies depict an individual struggling to maintain his integrity 

• The reader experiences events through Nick Carraway’s unreliable narration:

  • Nick’s memories and gossip surrounding Gatsby present the pressure to conform 

  • Suspicions about Gatsby’s past are delivered via the gossip at his parties

• Simultaneously, dialogue between Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy present the complex pressures of society on the individual 

• The setting illustrates corruption in 17th-century Venice

• Othello’s race and heritage places him as an outsider in a wealthy, merchant-class European society

• The final scene in Desdemona’s bedroom depicts Othello’s failure to resist societal pressures and overcome his own flaws

• The setting of East and West Egg, Queens, and downtown New York depicts the wealth divide of 1920s America:

  • Gatsby is an outsider from a rural, agricultural state 

• His mansion and “blue” gardens are symbolic of a façade built to conform and win Daisy’s acceptance

• He is exposed in the “Plaza Hotel” in New York, where he is separated from his artificial life in West Egg

• Through dialogue and soliloquies, audiences are encouraged to bear witness to Othello’s naive trust in Iago

• Soliloquies reveal Iago’s hatred and jealousy 

• Dialogue presents Brabanzio and Iago’s discriminatory attitudes

• Through the narrator Nick Carraway’s subjective narration, readers are invited to draw conclusions about characters

• Gatsby’s tragic aspirations and unrequited love is presented in his dialogue:

  • Pathos is evoked as readers are offered a sympathetic portrayal of Gatsby’s flawed illusions 

• The morality play alludes to Christian values via references to biblical passages

• Iago is symbolic of the devil: his dialogue uses imagery denoting hell:

  • Desdemona is connected with heaven 

• Othello alludes to classical Greek tragedy:

  • To elevate his speech, Othello refers to the Odyssey and Greek heroes

• Nick Carraway describes his career in bonds in terms of Midas, a mythical Greek figure whose love of gold destroys him:

  • Fitzgerald refers to “Versailles”, connoting to extreme wealth

  • Nick Carraway’s reference to Gatsby as “Trimalchio” alludes to his poor origins and unethical accumulation of wealth

• Historical allusions to World War I, such as the “Kaiser Wilhelm” and “Von Hindenburg”, serve to sully Gatsby’s reputation

• References to “charms” and “spells” present the suspicion surrounding Othello’s ability to win Desdemona’s love:

  • This raises themes about the fear of foreigners and the “Other”

• Animal symbolism (directed towards Othello) works to derail his position by presenting him as lesser than a human:

  • This relates to the hierarchical structure of the Great Chain of Being

• Bright colours symbolise the vibrant lifestyle of the wealthy in contrast to the “grey” industrial, working-class Queens

• Fast cars are a motif symbolic of the consumerism and recklessness of the wealthy elite:

  • A car-crash contributes to Gatsby’s death, presenting him as a scapegoat for others’ mistakes 

• Othello is portrayed as humble while eloquent: “Rude am I in my speech, and little blessed with the soft phrase of peace"

• Othello’s misguided trust in Iago foreshadows his doomed fate:

  • He considers Iago a “fellow of exceeding honesty”

• Othello’s moral conflict comes from his prideful love for Desdemona: “But I do love thee! And when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again” 

• Gatsby’s sympathetic portrayal comes from Nick Carraway’s descriptions of him:

  • He holds “some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life”

• His place as an outsider sees him looking up to an "unfamiliar" sky

• Gatsby’s insecurities lead to his facade: “He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford’, or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him now”

• Gatsby’s illusions and the distance between he and Daisy are presented via the symbolic “green light” which Gatsby describes as visible through a “mist” across the “bay”

• Iago represents an embittered working-class soldier who feels victimised by his society:

  • He desires promotion, power, and admiration 

• Stanley Kowalski, as a working-class male, is suspicious of those in a higher social class and critical of intellectualism

• Othello resists societal norms regarding race and heritage:

  • Born a slave, he rises to upper-class society

  • His eloquence and prowess on the battlefield earns him reputation and his position as a captain 

  • He wins Desdemona’s love as a result

• Societal attitudes to femininity are presented via Stella and her opposite,  Blanche DuBois

• Blanche attempts to resist traditional ideals of femininity in a patriarchal world:

  • She challenges Stanley’s attempts to undermine her, but, without the support of Stella, fails  

• Shakespeare presents Iago as pure evil

• Iago’s insecurity and jealousy is aimed at Othello, an outsider: 

  • Othello is an easy target for Iago’s discriminatory attitudes

• Driven by a sense of betrayal, Iago weaponises his manipulative skills against the trusting Othello

• Stanley’s physical aggression towards Stella and Blanche defines him as an antagonist

• Blanche’s hyper-sexuality is frowned upon by peers

• Stella’s loyalty and submissiveness to her husband is perceived as good, yet she betrays her sister

• Othello is a tragic hero who is a noble warrior

• His hamartia is his pride and naïve trust in Iago

• Iago, as the  Machiavellian antagonist, seeks to ruin Othello

• In this endeavour, he is willing to destroy Desdemona and his wife

• Blanche is a tragic hero who represents intellectualism

• Her fatal flaw is her inability to accept change as well as her resistance to rigid gender roles

• Stanley, the antagonist, is willing to harm Blanche to maintain his masculine pride

• Shakespeare exposes the discriminatory, and corrupt social structures of 17th-century Venice:

  • The play exposes Iago’s manipulation of contemporary superstitious fears and discriminatory attitudes

• Tennessee Williams aims to explore the duality of good and evil within society

• He presents sympathetic characters caught up in conflicting forces of good and evil

• Williams’s realist play critiques the American Dream as an illusory concept:

  • He presents its masculine ideals as cruel

• Audiences would understand the play in its literary traditions:

  • As a morality play and revenge tragedy, it raises classical ideals of Christian values

• As a Renaissance play, audiences are presented with the complexity of human morality, still relevant today 

• The play received mixed reviews in 1940s America

• Notably, critics were unsettled by its depiction of rape and homosexuality 

• Blanche was seen by some as a moral outcast

• The Shakespearean tragedy uses dialogue to raise ideas of good and evil:

  • Discrimination is evident in character’s dialogue

  • Desdemona’s honesty and loyalty is juxtaposed with Iago’s deceit 

• Iago’s soliloquies show audiences his true motivations, which depicts his evil intentions and embittered thoughts 

• Williams juxtaposes Blanche's poetic dialogue against Stanley’s colloquial dialogue to present their different backgrounds

  • Williams presents their contrasting natures as a source of conflict

• Verbal irony often reveals character flaws:

  • Blanche is presented as deluded and naive

  • Stanley’s dialogue exposes patriarchal attitudes and his frustration with Blanche 

• The setting illustrates the vices of 17th-century Venice:

  • Shakespeare reveals hedonism and greed in the civilised city and centre of the Renaissance

• Williams sets his play in New Orleans to reveal the tensions between the old and new American South:

  • Blanche’s aristocratic past clashes with the multi-cultural, impoverished New Orleans

• The morality play alludes to Christian values in references to biblical passages

• Iago is symbolic of the devil: his dialogue uses imagery denoting hell

• Desdemona’s dialogue (and other character descriptions of her) makes reference to heaven 

• In Blanche’s characterisation as an English teacher, allusions to Edgar Allen Poe present her as melo-dramatic

• Allusions to Greek mythology, such as “Elysian Fields” presents her doomed journey to New Orleans

• References to witchcraft symbolise the Venetians’ perceived evils of Othello’s relationship with Desdemona

• Ideas of evil are symbolised by animal imagery:

  • Othello’s pride is represented by toads

• Blanche’s fatal flaw and weakness is symbolised by a "paper moon" and her “paper lantern”:

  • Male characters’ perceptions of Blanche as evil is represented by Mitch and Stanley’s symbolic tearing of the lantern

• The symbolism of alcohol and meat represent patriarchal attitudes which lead to Blanche’s demise

• Iago’s evil is depicted as miserable jealousy: "And nothing can, or shall, content my soul / Till I am evened with him, wife for wife"

• Othello’s sense of goodness is defined by his status: “My parts, my title, and my perfect soul / Shall manifest me rightly"

• Shakespeare juxtaposes Othello’s evil pride and Desdemona’s innocence when Emilia says: "O, the more angel she, / And you the blacker devil!" 

• Stanley’s masculine pride is presented as a dominating force: “I am the king around here, so don’t forget it”

• Blanche’s versions of good and evil differ to Stanley and Stella’s: “I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth”

• Williams depicts evil  manifesting in cruelty:

  • Blanche says: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”

  • This idea is repeated in the denouement when she is taken to an institution

The conflict between individual identity and restrictive social expectations

1984

Both texts explore the failure of the individual against powerful characters who use language as a tool of oppression

Othello’s jealous pride leads to his doom, while Winston Smith’s individuality is ultimately destroyed by torture

Shakespeare criticises patriarchal standards regarding female sexuality 

The Handmaid’s Tale

Both writers challenge patriarchal traditions and domestic oppression

Shakespeare critiques attitudes to infidelity, while Atwood depicts female reproduction as a means of control

Soliloquies create dramatic irony and reveal a character’s inner turmoil, animal imagery represents evil and human debasement 

Things Fall Apart

Both writers employ protagonists who are doomed as a result of  masculine pride 

Shakespeare uses a classical revenge tragedy, while Achebe’s realist novel illuminates alternative perspectives 

Othello as an articulate and high-status black Moor protagonist sways from traditional tragic heroes

Hamlet 

Both texts challenge audiences to reconsider accepted social norms and cultural assumptions

Shakespeare’s Othello challenges ideas of the “Other”, while Hamlet critiques corruption within the court and monarchy