SOURCE: Bristol, Michael D. “Charivari and the Comedy of Abjection in Othello.” Renaissance Drama n.s. 21 (1990): 3-21.
In the following essay, Bristol interprets Othello in terms of “charivari”—a carnivalesque ceremony of “unmarrying” meant as an objection to a socially inappropriate marriage, in this case the union of dark-skinned Othello and white Desdemona.