Corruption In Shakespeare's Othello

The massive shift in setting, in Shakespeare's Othello, from Venetian Italy to Cyprus, signifies a loss of order and justice, conveyed through Branbantio's words to Roderigo and Iago's racket made outside his home, : "what tell'st thou of me robbing? This is Venice; / My house is not a grange" (I.i. 102-3). Whereas Cyprus, due to its more isolated features is more subjected to civil unrest as Othello functions as a leader while Iago tries to challenge his position, allowing the power of judgment to fall to the people. Unlike Venice, because despite their anger, Othello is still brought to court for a trial, tying back to a greater sense of civility in Venice.

The time period of Othello, around the late sixteenth century, represented a gradual

and prolonged decline in the history of Venice, as the Venetians struggled to hold their land off shores, including the island of Cyprus, invaded by the Turks, " for he's embarked // With such loud reason to the Cyprus Wars" (I.i. 166-167). They are unable to hold their land outside of their borders as a result of militaristic neutrality, in addition to a lack of military participation by Spain. As a result and because of his position and race, Othello will be held responsible for their great loss, when the Turks sack Cyprus, allowing Iago the higher hand in their dispute.
During the late sixteenth century in Elizabethan England, Moors were regarded as religious outcasts and thus brought froth images of vice and savagery, but Othello's reputation as a leader allows for his assimilation into a predominantly white European society. All is well and dandy, until word get s out of Othello's relations with Desdemona through Iago's misdeeds, "an old black ram/ is tupping your white ewe" (I.i.87-8). While Othello's entrance into their society is accepted, his intermarriage with one of their woman is not, exhibiting the limit to the Venetian's progress in racial tolerance.