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Quote by Tina Packer

“[Talking about Othello] His dying words are about the service he has done to the state -not what he has done to Desdemona. (...) He acknowledges not love but the power structure (...). Othello believes his fellow officer [Iago] rather than his wife, believes death is suitable punishment for infidelity (...). It makes me uneasy that we so easily state that Othello is a play about race. Race is one of its ingredients, but the most pervasive subject that Shakespeare is tackling is sexism. The two women [Desdemona and Emilia, Iago's wife] end up dead. Bianca, the third woman in the play, Cassio's mistress, ends up in jail for something she never did, and nobody bothers to get her out. Iago, the symbol of evil, remains alive. Brabantio, Desdemona's father, dies of a broken heart because of his daughter's disobedience. And everyone is very regretful about what has happened. But no one, other than Emilia, has pointed out that there is a terrible double standard, something rotten in the system itself.”

Quote by Tina Packer

Work

Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays

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Tina Packer

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“He [Hamlet] sees ghosts and listens to dreams. And when his ghost father tells him that he (Hamlet Senior) was killed by his brother and asks Hamlet Junior to avenge his death, in the right, honorable way, Hamlet says yes, yes, yes, he'll do it. But somehow he never gets round to it. Not like the other two young men in the play. The Norwegian Prince Fortinbras(...) has made his life [!!] pursuing the honor that his father lost when Hamlet Senior beat him in single combat. (...). When the lord chamberlain,Polonius, is killed, his son, Laertes, returns to the court immediately, demanding restitution, (...). So there is no shortage of examples of how young men are expected to and do act in this world where honor demands an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. But Hamlet doesn't do it. Instead, he beats up on his girlfriend and he's cruel to his mother.”

“Vier Tage lang, bis zum 3. Februar, befand sich der Nautilus im Meer von Oman, mit verschiedener Schnelligkeit und in verschiedener Tiefe. Es schien, als fahre er aufs Geratewohl, als habe er über die Fahrt geschwankt; doch kam er nicht über den Wendekreis des Krebses hinaus. Indem wir dieses Meer verließen, bekamen wir einen Augenblick Mascat zu sehen, die bedeutendste Stadt im Land Oman. Ich bewunderte ihr seltsames Aussehen, mitten in einer Umgebung schwarzer Felsen weiße Häuser und Festungswerke in grellem Abstich. Ich sah die runden Kuppeln ihrer Moscheen mit den schlanken Spitzen ihrer Minarette, ihren Terrassen in frischem Grün. Aber es war nur ein Gesicht meiner Phantasie, denn der Nautilus tauchte bald unter die dunkeln Wellen dieser Gegenden.”