Prejudice And Racism As Depicted In Othello '

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1. Racism is a common theme in the first act of the play. Characters have called a black character racial slurs and other times characters have formed their opinion of others based solely on skin color.
Othello is portrayed by Iago as a general who made a poor decision in choosing Cassio as lieutenant instead of Iago. Iago states that he is only serving Othello now to serve his own interests. Brabantio views Othello as man who stole his daughter away from her and secretly married her. Both Iago and Brabantio use racial slurs to name or describe Othello in addition to using his blackness as a fear tactic. Brabantio looks just as racist as others such as Iago and Roderigo for buying into the racism. Brabantio has prejudice against Othello for simply being a different skin color and acts on that prejudice by being disgusted at his daughter’s marriage. This reveals that the author knew that racism was prevalent during his and even the author may also believe that racism is something people can be convinced of.
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Othello knows he cannot properly defend himself so he instead calls upon Desdemona to be brought to talk about how they fell in love. Othello recounts how Desdemona’s father loved him and describes the days where he would tell her farther about his past; Othello states that Desdemona would have interest in these stories and listen from afar. Othello states that Desdemona loved him for his dangerous but heroic past in the following line: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed.”
There are some aspects of poetry in Othello’s monologue such as figurative language and mood. The monologue does make Othello stand out by not only describing where he came from but it always reveals elements of his character. Othello is not plotting or has anything against anyone, but he is simply stating how his wife genuinely fell in love with him. This gives Othello the appearance of being honorable and

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