Othello Analysis

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Through studying Shakespeare’s and Cinthio’s Othello, I explored the concept of ‘The Moor’. ‘The Moor’ is a disrespectful and racist term , often used by white Europeans referring to arabs and blacks, and people of other races with relatively dark skin, such as Othello. During Shakespeare’s time, blacks are considered to be outsiders and are inferior to white people. In Cinthio’s work, it stated that moors are hot-headed as evident in this quote ‘you moors are of so hot a nature that every little trifle moves you to anger and revenge’ which is evident that moors are hot-headed. In scene 1 of the play, Iago told Desdemona father that his daughter was robbed by a thief, Iago uses metaphor to describes Othello as a “black ram”. Desdemona’s father was shocked that his daughter will fall in love with a black man. He believed that Othello must have use some magic to make his daughter fall in love with him; as there is social class difference at that time and it is unimaginable that a white woman will love a black men.

The description of Othello’s appearance by Iago makes him looks inferior to the others. Othello is was described by other characters using stereotypes against moorish people, such as a barbarian with a great sexual appetite, and as a thief who stole the heart of a beautiful white woman by illegitimate means, particularly sorcery. Desdemona father and Roderigo both believed that. This is obviously racial discrimination.

Although Othello and Desdemona are deeply in love at the start as evident in them holding each others’ hands tenderly. Iago can easily manipulate Othello to think that Desdemona has an affair with Cassio. This is due to the fact that Othello does not have enough confidence himself. He is not totally...

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...whelmed by jealousy and rage and murdered his wife. Overall, Othello showed numerous characteristics of a great fighter who at that time is associated with Black people. However, there are parts of the story that show Othello is a learned man and can discuss and argue with others. Even though creating,viewing and reading increased my understanding of ‘The Moor’ concept, creating was the brought me the most understand of ‘The Moor’ concept out of these three medias. Recreating the piece allowed me to further understand the cultural and social aspects of ‘The Moor’ especially when the conceit of our plotline was motivated by the audience imperative. When we wrote the script, we maintained the basic plotline but twisted it a bit through changing setting and the language and the costumes to allow the audience imperative to understand the play and connect to it better.

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