Throughout time, writing has evolved such that gender, race and creed have taken on a more pivotal role in fiction. Some people argue that race in William Shakespeare’s tragedy, “Othello,” is hardly an issue. However, to many people, race is everything in “Othello. The challenges that Othello, the lead character, faces are directly attributed to his “Moor” complexion and if he were of a different nationality, the outcome of his situation would have been drastically different. These claims are supported by the articles of “Othello’s Alienation” by Edward Berry and “Race Mattered: Othello in Late Eighteenth-Century England” by Virginia Mason Vaughan that argue that race is a major element in “Othello.”
Within the first scene of “Othello,” the antagonist, Iago, shows his true feelings for Othello. He confides in Roderigo that he deserved the job that Othello gave to Cassio. In Iago’s rant, he proclaims that Cassio has been given the job of lieutenant while he would be the “his Moorship’s ancient.” Iago goes on to say, “Now sir, be judge yourself, /whether I in any just term am affined/to love the Moor. Yet, again, Iago refers to Othello’s race as if it were a deciding factor in his actions.
His statement leads to the question: Would Iago feel any more loyal to Othello if he were of a different complexion? Would Othello have the same problems if he were white? And ultimately, why would Othello so undisputedly believe the lies that he was told?
In the article, “Othello’s Alienation,” Berry explains that Othello’s race is “not only a mark of his physical alienation but a symbol, to which every character in the play, himself included, must respond” (Berry 319). In this alienation comes insecurities; Othello cannot help but to be...
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...his proclamations on Desdemona’s infidelity and hating the appropriate people, Othello is seeking Iago’s acceptance. He is trying subconsciously to appeal to Iago’s better nature even though Iago’s actions contribute to Othello’s demise. Because Iago is white and Othello is black, the events that incur are inevitable.
William Shakespeare’s “Othello” is a change from the norm in regards to play write in regards to race. Because Othello is black, Shakespeare was able to open up to new means of producing extreme emotions from the cast. These emotions entail rage, passion, jealousy, and love. All these emotion are attributed to the race of the main character and the tension that arises. Iago’s hatred for Othello relies solely on his race and provides a vehicle for which Iago can exact his hatred. Because of this malicious intent due to racism, “Othello” is possible.
Othello is also the protagonist of the play, nevertheless he was still considered the hero as well. Othello’s refusal to face reality lead to his downfall. His flaw is his insecurities as a Moor and his inability to accept the success he has earned, the importance he has places in his honour and reputation caused his ultimate downfall. Iago easily manipulated Othello because Iago knows Othello’s flaw. Othello cannot stand the thought of his reputation being marred as a general and a Moor in the Venetian army. Like a soldier, honour was what Othello hold dear to his heart. Although Othello is a highly respected general in the Venetian army, he is still a Moor. Because he has been a soldier his entire life, his way of thinking have affected his confidence in perception. As a black man in a white people’s world Othello was discriminated and considered an
Iago has been regarded as : “Shakespeare’s greatest villain”; shown by his ability to be both admired and despised for his manipulative and obsessive nature towards Othello and his relationship with Desdemona. In Act One, Iago can be seen to be admired for his work within the Venetian army and his want to warn Brabantio about the ‘evil’ Othello’s plans to ‘bewitch’ young Desdemona: “The Moor is of a free and open nature, That thinks men honest that but seem to be so....” Here, Iago is speaking within a soliloquy and is warning the audience that Othello has cruel intentions. Within the Jacobean era, the time of which the play was performed, attitudes towards black people were very negative and therefore, a white man would play the character
F. R. Leavis discusses the breakdown of sympathy for Othello, arguing that ‘Othello is too stupid to be regarded as a tragic hero’. Other critics also argue that Shakespeare ‘fully exploits the unique cultural opportunity to develop a more complex and sympathetic representation of black experience’ [The Noble Moor – Othello and Race in Elizabethan London, Roger Lees], implying that the sympathy that a contemporary audience would have felt for Othello was based oncultural context, given that the audience were predominantly white. However, it could be argued that it cannot just be the cultural context to Shakespeare’s audiences that has allowed Othello to become one of his most renowned tragedies; if this were the case, the play would have lost all critical interest by the 18th Century. It is Shakespeare’s use of the conventions of tragedy in attributing Othello with hubris that, although making it hard to empathise with at times, in the...
By analyzing this play, we can come to understand the dangers of racial injustice. If I may take the liberty of paraphrasing: "O beware, my lord, of racial prejudice! It is the green-eyes monster, which doth damage the society it thrives in." In the character of Iago, Shakespeare demonstrates the dangers of holding racial prejudices. Othello is the victim of the pervasive social stereotypes which lead to his downfall. This play should serve as a warning of the horrid plague of racism which festers in our society.
Texts and their appropriations reflect the context and values of their times. Within Shakespeare’s Othello and Geoffrey Sax’s appropriation of Othello, the evolution of the attitudes held by Elizabethan audiences and those held by contemporary audiences can be seen through the context of the female coupled with the context of racism. The role of the female has developed from being submissive and “obedient” in the Elizabethan era to being independent and liberated within the contemporary setting. The racism of the first text is overtly xenophobic and natural, whilst the “moor” is unnatural whereas the updated context portrays Othello’s race as natural and racism as unnatural. Therefore these examples show how Shakespeare’s Othello, and it’s appropriation, Geoffrey sax’s Othello, reflect the context and values of their times.
Both Othello and Iago have many different qualities but the ones that are the same are what proves the point of them not just simply being two sides of one coin. Othello had many weaknesses and Iago plays off every single one of them, the “hellish villain”(V, ii, 354) that Iago is killed every living ounce that was left in Othello, and once the truth came to the surface, Othello only wished he could awaken and “arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell” (III, iii, 507). The fact that Iago had “ensnared [Othello’s] soul and body” (V, ii, 354) made Othello believe that “honesty’s a fool” (III, iii, 436) and his life was over.
Orkin, Martin. “Othello and the “plain face” Of Racism.” 2nd ed. Vol. 38. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 166-88. Shakespeare Quarterly. Folger Shakespeare Library in Association with George Washington University, Summer 1987. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. .
Because of racism, Othello becomes much more vulnerable to manipulation and is easily tricked by Iago. Racism assures that Othello will remain isolated from his peers while Iago tinkers with his mind by separating him from his white peers and making him the outsider. Although Othello is not solely the tragedy of racism, it truly could not be a tragedy without the negative pressures of racism. Work Cited Shakespeare, William. The.
Have you ever thought about how much Othello’s race and the racism around him affected his life? Othello struggled a lot during the play because of his dark skin color. He was called several racist names like “the Moor,” “old black ram,” “Barbary horse,” and “thick lips” (Shakespeare 1.1.40; 1.1.88; 1.1.111; 1.1.66).The term “racism” has been around for several years; it started in the twentieth century (Bartels 433). By the way the Elizabethan era viewed black people was similar to how racism is today with all of the racial comments, and stereotypes. Being a black person in a mostly white ethnicity area at that time had to be challenging based on Othello’s experience. Othello was the black sheep crowded around a herd of white sheep, he was an outcast. Racist comments were made by many of the characters like Iago, Brabantio, Roderigo, and Emilia. If there was an award for most used racial comment towards Othello, Iago would win. Racism in Othello had a tremendous impact on Othello. He was judged by the color of his skin and not his personality. Othello’s race and the racism around him affected his life by ruining his marriage with Desdemona, alienating him from everybody in Venice, and by making him an easy target to be manipulated by Iago.
In the Sixteenth century, as we see clearly from Othello and other works of both Shakespeare and Cinthio's original version of Othello, race was a topic of great debate and discussion. Today, in the twenty-first century the debate retains its controversy and passion. However, attitudes towards race have taken a dramatic turn during the last century. In the developed world people are now living in an increasingly cosmopolitan society would undoubtedly be more tolerant and would reject or even be offended by racial discrimination to any person or sections of the community. Openly 'racist' people today are seen as outcasts. Taking this into account, the way a modern audience would react to race and racism in Othello is dependent upon the way in which that modern audience would interpret 'Othello'. This prompts the questions of what sort of message Shakespeare wanted to send to his audience and was Othello the moor portrayed as a tragic hero or did his character eventually come to resemble the prejudices of which he was a victim. Shakespeare also discusses the issue of race with other characters such as the hateful Iago and the prejudices hidden deep in Barbantio.
The audience at this point know nothing of Othello that is gained by their own opinion, instead we are lead to believe from Iago’s race related description that Othello is a threatening and evil moor, whose beastial sexual appetite, conveyed by Iago’s cries to Brabantio, telling him that ‘an old black ram is tupping’ his ‘white ewe’ (1.1.89), is something of a rapist. Iago’s coarse animal related language conveys Iago’s feelings against Othello’s marriage in a much more pronounced way. The image of an ‘old black ram’ gives the audience nothing but negative images of Othello, especially when this ‘old black ram’ is being associated with the innocence of a ‘white ewe’. Iago then associates Othello with the image of ‘the devil’ (1.1.92) because of Othello’s colour, Iago warns Brabantio that he has ‘lost half [his] soul’ now that Desdemona is married to Othello. Iago here emphasises the biracial nature of the marriage, already showing his ability to manipulate people, in this case he is manipulating Brabantio, to believe in Iago’s own opinions and in theory to eliminate all thoughts that Brabantio might of had of his own about the marriage.
	Throughout the first act of the play, Othello is shown as many different characters depending on who is speaking. Iago complains of Othello's pride and "bombast circumstance" and is angered by the appointment of Cassio, an educated military theoretician of Florence to lieutenant, instead of himself. As Iago speaks to Brabantio about Othello, he uses the term "white ewe" to represent Desdemona, and "black ram" when referring to Othello. By using these terms, it shows that he is trying to give a bad impression of Othello when he is speaking to the royal family in Venice, because Othello is a Moor, or a Negro. Iago shows his black hatred for the Moor and his jealousy of Cassio in his first soliloquy and also reveals his evil intentions.
Othello was the black sheep crowded around a herd of white sheep. Racist comments were made by many of the characters like Iago, Brabantio, Roderigo, and Emilia. Iago got the trophy for the most used racial comments. Racism in Othello had a tremendous impact on Othello. Being the only black person in a mostly white ethnicity area influenced him in a bad way. He was judged by the color of his skin and not his personality. Othello’s race and the racism around him affected his life by ruining his marriage with Desdemona, alienating him from everybody in Venice, and by making him an easy target to be manipulated by Iago.
Othello: The Moor of Venice is probably Shakespeare's most controversial play. Throughout this work, there is a clear theme of racism, a racism that has become commonplace in Venetian society which rejects the marriage of Othello and Desdemona as anathema. The text expresses racism throughout the play within the language transaction of the dialogue to question the societal ethos established by Othello, thereby making him nothing less than a cultural "other." Furthermore, the character of Desdemona is displayed as mad, or out of her wits, for marrying such an "other," and the audience sees her slip from an angelic state of purity to that of a tainted character. Also, the menacing Iago, a mastermind of deviant rhetoric, is able to play Othello and Desdemona against one another until their marriage fails, while at the same time destroying his adversary and friend, Cassio. Thus Iago has a specific agenda, not only to get back at Othello for choosing Cassio instead of him, but also to make Cassio the victim of his plan to destroy the forbidden marriage referred to by Brabantio as a "treason of the blood" (1.2.166-167). Essentially, Iago is a representative of the white race, a pre-Nazi figure who tries to inform the public of the impurity of Othello and Desdemona's marriage. He demonstrates how this miscegenation is threatening to the existing social order. Thus, through analysis of racism, the play represents the hatred possessed by mankind -- a hate so strong that society sees the mixing with an "other" to be a curse to humanity and a terrible threat to Aryan culture.
Speaking of the reasons of Othello’s tragedy, the opinions have been various. Some people believe that racial discrimination contributes to the tragedy; some deem that Othello’s character defects causes the tragedy; some think that the instability of their love leads to the tragic end……