For many years, people have been keen in associating Shakespearean plays with racial prejudices, perhaps to determine whether Shakespeare was a racist or not. Shakespeare’s use of characters of color, for instance, has raised controversies and even curiosity on what role does race contributes in his plays. It should be noted that racism or the belief that one’s race is superior to another is already observed in 16th century Europe. It was during this time when Europeans become increasingly engaged with people of different racial origins, especially with the dark skinned people of the East. The crusades, for instance, have greatly contributed to the interaction of Europeans with the Oriental people of Asia Minor and Northern Africa. These …show more content…
As observed by scholars, “While blackness and Mohammedism were stereotyped as evil, Renaissance representations of the Moor were vague, varied, inconsistent, and contradictory” (Bartels 434). In understanding Shakespeare’s ‘Othello,’ the question about race could not be ignored primarily because the main protagonist, Othello, was described as a Moor. Moreover, there were certain lines in the play that suggests racial insults such as when Iago referred to Othello as a ‘Barbary horse’ and that by letting Desdemona marry Othello, Brabantio, Desdemona’s father is going to taint his bloodline with Moorish blood, which Iago compared to a horse (Othello, The Moor of Venice 10). As stated by Iago, “you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you’ll have your nephews neigh to you; you’ll have coursers for cousins and gennets for germans” (Othello, The Moor of Venice 10). It is quite easy to confuse that these lines reveals Shakespeare’s racial prejudice towards blacks. But looking into the context of English culture during the Elizabethan era, it would appear that Shakespeare’s racially charged statements in Othello may be regarded as insignificant primarily because racial prejudice during his time is not as severe as it is …show more content…
Most likely, Shakespeare used the race issue to describe his protagonists in order to create controversy and not to suggest racial prejudice. In fact, if there is any racist hint in Othello, successfully countered it by portraying Othello as a noble and eloquent foreigner, worthy of respect of his Venetian employers. In a time when Moors are ridiculed because of their barbaric nature, Othello was a contradiction because he is not barbaric or uncivilized at all. On the other hand, one might point out to Othello’s race as Shakespeare’s leverage for justifying Othello’s aggressiveness towards his wife at the later part of the play. It is quite possible to speculate that Shakespeare consciously made Othello a Moor so he can validate the death of Desdemona from Othello’s hands. As if to say that Othello’s barbaric side emerged when he became jealous of Desdemona. Such assumption, however, would violate the development of Othello’s character. Apparently, his downfall was not of his doing. In fact, one might say that Othello was powerless because he knows nothing about the conspiracy led by Iago to ruin him. Othello’s responses, for instance, are just natural responses to anyone who faces a similar scenario. If given a similar scenario, it is quite likely that an English gentleman would also act similarly out of rage and jealousy. It was, therefore, human nature that motivated Othello from acting
Shakespeare’s fictional character Othello, General of the Venetian Army, has an eminently respectable reputation as a result of his plentiful exploits in battle and because of his notoriety to command “Like a full soldier”. Nevertheless, the rough-and-ready commandant is not as emotionally callous as, not only his war-time resume would suggest, but also how Iago and Roderigo portray his as a character in Act 1, Scene 1. Despite his triumphs, numerous characters throughout Othello do not shy away from the casual racist jab towards their black-skinned General. Exposure to repetitive, often overt, verbal-degradation leads Othello to believe that he is racially inferior as the play progresses – this infectious discrimination of Elizabethan racists
The interracial marriage of Desdemona and Othello is in the forefront of the play. As mentioned above, this was extremely unusual in Elizabethan England. In fact there is one case when an English woman, Millicent Porter, a seamstress, slept with a black man and had to do a public penance for it (Elizabethan England Life). Also just three years prior to the release of Othello in 1603, Queen Elizabeth threw all of the Africans out of England ("Othello- An Interpretation" Critical Essays 39). All of this makes the marriage of Othello, a famous black general, and Desdemona, a senator’s daughter, who is white and beautiful, very bizarre to the viewers in Elizabethan England. Most if not all of the characters seem to be just as appalled at the interracial marriage as the audience. Specifically the racism the other characters show toward Othello is apparent. Rodrigo, a man who pays Iago to hel...
Many think Othello is a black African, but really Shakespeare is portraying Othello as a Moor. A Moor is characterized as an African Muslim, however, many believe that Shakespeare is identifying him as black or a Negro. “Racial and cultural difference in Othello 's psychology and behavior” make this personal for some readers (Shakespeare
There had been a lot of travelling and blacks were beginning to be used in Europe for the slave trade. During the time the play was written, the Queen of England had banned all blacks from entering the city. She spoke of them as "Negars and Moors which are crept into the realm, of which kind of people there are already here too many". It seems that Shakespeare is almost mocking the Queen by characterising Othello as a black man who has a high ranking position in the Army and who marries a white aristocratic women, against her fathers will.
The Bard of Avon’s tragic play Othello expresses racism; there is no doubt about this among most critics. However, to what degree – to a vulgar extent? Or to an excusable level?
An aspect of reading Othello that cannot be overlooked is the issue of race in the play. Attitudes towards race in Elizabethan England were negative. If we look at representations of different races in theatre of the period, we find that there are many negative connotations through the language that arise. The Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice says “Mislike me not for my complexion.” (The Merchant of Venice.) This foreshadows some of the language of Othello. This however is quite soft language when we consider how Elizabethan theatre represented other races as being violent and bloodthirsty. In this we have, “In the night-time secretly would I steal to travellers’ chambers, and there cut their throats.” (The Jew of Malta.) This was said by the Turkish character in Marlowe’s, “The Jew of Malta.” Furthermore in, The Battle of Alcazar we have, “Dammed let him be, dammed and condemned to bear. All torments, tortures, plagues and pains of hell.” So as you can see through out Elizabethan theatre this villainous image of black men, and blackness in general was prevalent. In this period in London it wasn’t necessarily a common place for blacks but there were defiantly African Americans living in London. They appear in England in the late 16th century, and it was not entirely uncommon for people of wealth to have black musicians, servants, and even Queen Elizabeth had black musicians in her service. However, in 1596 she tried to have them all expelled. What historians have found is that there were hardly any really expelled, because people who had black servants in their household, refuse to give them up because there was no compensation. According to Imtiaz Habib, Shakespeare would have definitely ...
"Shakespeare's Colors: Race And Culture In Elizabethan England." Old Dominion University. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
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...
...I,iii,507) Before he kills Desdemona, he notes how white her skin is, describing it as "that whiter skin of hers than snow / and smooth as monumental alabaster." (V,ii,4-5) Othello, we know, has been driven to kill Desdemona by his jealousy. However, it is clear that his jealousy is inspired by the racial prejudice that is prevalent throughout the play.
The European Renaissance forever changed the life of the contemporary individual. Explosive advancements in education, technology, and trade broadened geographic and mental horizons; however, in England these developments were paired with population crises of poverty and unemployment. In addition, the increased interaction with foreign cultures fomented by various commercial and diplomatic engagements gave rise to apprehension in English sensibility. Eventually, Christian England would attempt to reshape these ‘strangers’ in their image and modern racial tensions sprung forth. Recursion of the trope of race, under the guise of blackness, heathenry, or even femininity occurs extensively in literary tradition, and especially within Shakespeare’s oeuvre. “There exists in all literature an archetypal figure who escapes both poles of the classic definition – appearing sometimes as hero, sometimes as villain, sometimes as clown…[he] has been named variously the ‘shadow,’ the ‘other,’ the ‘alien,’ the ‘outsider,’ the ‘stranger.’” It is with this borderline figure, mired in ambiguity, that this investigation is concerned: primarily with the stranger as the Moor in Othello, the Welsh in Henry IV, Part 1, and the woman in both.
Shakespeare does not give specific details of Othello’s background, however, it is apparent Othello is a dark-skinned outsider. The characters in the play call him the Moor. A moor is a member of a northwestern African Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent. He is referred to as black by several characters including himself. Roderigo even calls him thick-lips which is a racial slur towards African Americans.
Iago cleverly emphasizes the issue of race and its association with devilry when he and Roderigo announce to Brabantio that Desdemona has eloped with Othello. Iago is the first to emphasize the biracial nature of the marriage by referring to Othello as an "old black ram" and to Desdemona as a "white ewe" (1.1.85-86).1 Iago then associates Othello with the image of "the devil" (88) because he is black, warning Brabantio that he has "lost half [his] soul" (84) now that Desdemona is married to Othello. It is Iago who initially suggests that Othello exemplifies the stereotype that a black person is inherently evil and likely to be a practitioner of witchcraft. Granted, it is unlikely that Iago's few brief statements give birth to Brabantio as a racist; yet by plaguing Brabantio's thoughts with a dialogue that feeds his natural tendency tow...
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.
One of the major issues in Shakespeare's Othello is the impact of the race of the main character, Othello. His skin color is non-white, usually portrayed as African although some productions portray him as an Arabian. Othello is referred to by his name only seventeen times in the play. He is referred to as "The Moor" fifty-eight times. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) states that a Moor is "Any individual of the swarthy races of Africa or Asia which have adopted the Mohammedan religion. In Spanish history the terms Moo, Saracens, and Arabs are synonymous." This indicates that Othello is constantly being degraded and set up as an evil person throughout the play. What this really means is that Othello is being judged by his skin color rather than the person under the skin. The view that whites and non-whites are equal is a relatively new concept in our society. In institutionalized racism, such as American slavery, those of a different color were often viewed as inferior. As Shakespeare wrote Othello, this idea was becoming quite prominent as England entered the African slave trade. One can look at the racial issues from the perspective of color, slavery, and society.
Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice , one of the many plays written by William Shakespeare, explores a variety topics that were uncommon for pieces of literature in the 1600’s. These subjects include the effects of prejudice and racism in society. This play opens up a dialogue for motivations behind actions to be discussed. Centuries later, in modern times, the relevance of these issues remain at large.