Abstract
Timon of Athens could not be more unlike Othello.1 Where Othello gave its audience an all but contemporary Mediterranean world, oriented initially at least around the grand conflict of Christian and Turk, the Athens of Timon is an indeterminate place with the vaguest of classical associations. The characters, situation and atmosphere of Othello were rendered with an almost unnecessary specificity: the age of lago, Cassio’s Florentine origin, the strawberry-spotted handkerchief and its history, Desdemona’s maid Barbary, all filled the play with the thickening detail of human identities. In Timon there is no such individuation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1992 Nicholas Grene
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Grene, N. (1992). Timon of Athens. In: Shakespeare’s Tragic Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379190_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379190_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-38865-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37919-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)