Symbolism And Racism In Othello

The Tragedy of Othello

“Racism springs from the lie that certain human beings are less than fully human. It 's a self-centered falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others as we would not want to be treated.”- Alveda King

Although most people will tell themselves that race is not an issue, the truth always is staring them straight in the eye. The fundamental crime is a flawed belief that some people are above others and deserve to look down on those different. In the play The Tragedy of Othello, William Shakespeare uses symbolism, imagery, and characters to illustrate the prejudice and racism which surrounds different ethnicities and its effects on society.

In the play Othello, Shakespeare uses symbolism

I: Are your doors lock’d?

B: Why, wherefore ask you this?

I: ‘Zounds, sir, you’re robb’d! For shame. Put on your gown! Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul. Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise! Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you: Arise, I say!

B: What, have you lost your wits? (1.1.80-9)

Christopher Pye goes on to say, “To see race as one of the terms freighted thus is to discern the logic behind its virulent and paradoxical insistence within the era of the empty, universal subject.” As seen before, color tends to represent other basic realities of society. As naïve and immature as it sounds, the idea that the color white represent purity and holy and black represents gloom and despair still hold true.

The last element used in the play Othello that reinforced the prejudiced and racism was the use of certain characters. Shakespeare uses certain characters within the play to demonstrate this social judgement. The first character Shakespeare uses to spread the bigotry and hatred within Othello is Brabantio. The other character Shakespeare designed to carry out the racial bigotry towards Othello is

Is there not charms

By which the property of youth and mainhood

May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo,

Of some such thing?

R: Yes, sir, I have indeed. (1.1.155-69) Christopher Pye stated, “If there is force entailed in the designation of race, it is bound up with the forced phenomenalization that sustains those symbolic economies.” True prodigious and racism is a learned behavior which spawns from superior beliefs of one’s race. A majority of the time, persons within a social class deem those lower than them inferior.

The second character, who happens to be primary antagonist is Iago, who shows prejudice towards Othello. Shakespeare goes on to write,

I: Farewell, for I must leave you.

It seems not met, nor wholesome to my place,

To be produced--- as, if I stay, I shall---

Against the moor. For I do know the state,

However this may gall him with some check,

Cannot with safety cast him; for he’s embarked

With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,

Which even now stands in act, that for their souls

Another of his fathom they have none

To lead their business; in which regard,

Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains,

Yet, for necessity of present