Attitudes To Race In Shakespeare's Othello

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In the play ‘Othello’, the characters attitudes to race generally result in the play being seen as a ‘race’ play. As the play was originally published in 1622 it would be expected the play would have some racial slurs/epithets as well as some bad attitudes to women. Therefore it would not be a surprise if the play is to be regarded as a ‘race’ play. The book does include some attitudes to racism however the book also reveals a lot about women. The book has many examples of both attitudes to women and racism. The book’s theme of race starts in the opening lines of the play.
Skin colour is very prominent in ‘Othello’. One person in the play was discriminated against the most and that would have to be Othello. Othello is a black man called a …show more content…

“These epithets include “the Moor” (I.I.57), “the thick lips” (I.I.66), “an old black ram” (I.I.88), and “a barbary horse” (I.I.111).” (Spark Notes) These racial epithets are mainly used in the first Act however there are a few moments when they ae used later in the play. This quote is a really powerful quote as evidence for racism in the play. It can be said that Othello is called an ‘old black ram’ he is older than most of the other characters in the play so in this case it would be possible to call him old. Also Othello is black which can explain why he is being called black, the point of this epithet is because Iago and Brabantio are trying to say that he is an older man, and that Othello is married to his daughter which draws attention to both the differences in skin colour and age. “In Act 3 as Othello resolves to kill Desdemona, he is noticeably preoccupied with Desdemona's ‘whiter’ than snow skin. He implies he won't stab her because he doesn't want to "scar" her flesh. He also seems to think of her as a kind of pale statue – her skins as smooth as monumental alabaster’.”(Spark Notes) Racism in Othello is present throughout the book and contradicts the statement as Racism has a bigger part in the book than attitudes to women. This is evident as racism is show throughout the play and attitudes to women are only shown in sections of the …show more content…

This is because even though there are lots of examples to prove the both racism and attitudes to women in the play are evident there is no proof that the play actually reveals that the play shows/talks more about one. I think that the play reveals more about racism and there are lots of examples as there are a lot of racist epithets especially in Act I. All of the racist epithets are directly aimed at Othello himself, this is because he is the only black character in the play. As Othello is the only black character in the play this makes it hard to determine if the racist epithets are directly aimed at Othello because of his race or if the characters are just using the epithets as ways to put down Othello. Either way it is still racist, however it is actually interesting how racism is used in the

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