In this Book
- A Fury in the Words: Love and Embarrassment in Shakespeare's Venice
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Fordham University Press
summary
Shakespeare's two Venetian plays are dominated by the discourse of embarrassment. The Merchant of Venice is a comedy of embarrassment, and Othello is a tragedy of embarrassment. This nomenclature is admittedly anachronistic, because the term "embarrassment" didn't enter the language until the late seventeenth century.
To embarrass is to make someone feel awkward or uncomfortable, humiliated or ashamed. Such feelings may respond to specific acts of criticism, blame, or accusation. "To embarrass" is literally to "embar": to put up a barrier or deny access. The bar of embarrassment may be raised by unpleasant experiences. It may also be raised when people are denied access to things, persons, and states of being they desire or to which they feel entitled.
The Venetian plays represent embarrassment not merely as a condition but as a weapon and as the wound the weapon inflicts. Characters in The Merchant of Venice and Othello devote their energies to embarrassing one another. But even when the weapon is sheathed, it makes its presence felt, as when Desdemona means to praise Othello and express her love for him: "I saw Othello's visage in his mind" (1.3.253). This suggests, among other things, that she didn't see it in his face.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Prologue: Language as Gesture
- pp. 1-16
- Introduction
- pp. 19-21
- 1. Negotiating the Bond
- pp. 21-22
- 2. Antonio’s Blues
- pp. 23-26
- 3 . Curiositas : the Two Sallies
- pp. 26-27
- 6. Portia the Embarrasser
- pp. 32-36
- 7. The archery of Embarrassment
- pp. 36-41
- 8. The First Jason
- pp. 41-44
- 10. Another Jason
- p. 50
- 11. Portia Cheating
- pp. 51-54
- 12. Portia’s Hair
- pp. 55-56
- 13. The Siege of Belmont
- pp. 56-58
- 14. Covinous Casketeers
- pp. 59-61
- 15. Moonlit Maundering
- pp. 62-66
- 16. Coigns of Vantage
- pp. 67-69
- 17. Standing for Judgment
- pp. 69-73
- 18. Standing for Sacrifice
- pp. 73-75
- 21. Death in Venice
- pp. 79-84
- 22. Prehistory in Othello
- pp. 87-100
- 23. Othello’s Embarrassment in 1.2 and 1.3
- pp. 100-109
- 24. Desdemona on Cyprus: Act 2 scene 1
- pp. 109-119
- 26. Dark Triangles in 3.3
- pp. 129-141
- 27. Desdemona’s Greedy Ear
- pp. 141-149
- 29. On the Emilian Trail
- pp. 169-183
- 30. Iago’s Soliloquies
- pp. 183-200
- 31. Othello’s Infidelity
- pp. 201-212
Additional Information
ISBN
9780823246205
Related ISBN(s)
9780823241941
MARC Record
OCLC
830022958
Pages
240
Launched on MUSE
2012-12-20
Language
English
Open Access
No