56 Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel
aware, to refer once again to Jameson’s thesis, of its vulnerability.^74
Their dark, fetid living conditions present a stark contrast to the
“celestial” light he describes in the richer quarters. These paradoxes
and hypocrisies lead him to compare the city’s character to a pros-
titute’s, with the former having “narrow back canals [that appear]
sluttish beneath her regal garb” (p. 146). However, if Venice is pros-
tituting itself in its relationship with the Jewish moneylenders, the
general also realizes that he is involved in similar practices (hiring a
foreign general such as himself allows the city’s elite to avoid having
a homegrown military leader who might threaten their power).
Importantly, this critical vision of the city’s inner paradoxes and
hypocrisies is achieved by virtue of the general’s being an “outsider”
and thus being able to see society, as the cosmopolitan theorist
Sheldon Pollock puts it, “without obstruction from [... ] boundar-
ies.”^75 One could therefore argue that the character’s ability to per-
ceive the city’s contradictions and faults in this distanced manner
represents a nascent cosmopolitan vision. Of course, given the well-
known tragic outcome of the story, there are overtones associated
with the “Othello” character that present conceptual obstacles to
our sympathy. However, Phillips employs a number of literary strat-
egies that compel us to view the character in another, more con-
ciliatory light. The scenes leading up to the character’s murderous
rage are deliberately elided; neither is there an Iago figure exerting
a malevolent influence on the character. Instead, Phillips portrays
the courtship and successful marriage of Desdemona as something
of a symbolic triumph of the protagonist over the prejudices of the
Venetians. By being so selective in his portrayal of the character,
Phillips conspicuously provokes our sympathy and actively encour-
ages us to better appreciate the important role that historical and
social circumstances play in determining his fate.
It is at this point that Phillips also appears to more conspicuously
reveal the full extent and ramifications of the character’s “double
consciousness,” which also provides a loose psychological explana-
tion of how he progresses from a respected general to a bitter, jealous
murderer. Phillips achieves this with impressive subtlety by adum-
brating the extent to which “Othello” draws a sense of patriarchal
pride from his marriage. In keeping with the prevailing patriarchal