OthelloDuring the Elizabethan times it was uncommon for black people to act out rolesin plays.
Shakespeare introduces this to his audience in two plays, the firstTitus Andromicus and the second Othello. The first black character, Aaron, isportrayed as a secondary villain. Othello on the other hand is of higher statusthan many of his peers in the play. This was different for Shakespeare topresent a minority person with such authority as a main character.
Even withsuch, many different racial slurs were used by supporters to degrade him. In ActI, Scene I, Iago, the villain in this play and at the same time the right handman of Othello, is screaming to Desdemona’s father from the outside of hishouse “even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe”(Shakespeare 1051). The “thick-lips” (Shakespeare 1050) is mentioned in thisplay towards Othello but is not the first time Shakespeare uses it. He uses thephrase in Titus Andronicus to describe the biracial child of the Moor, Aaron. Moor is another term frequently used to identify those darker skinned people.
(Shakespeare 1052). Brabantio goes as far as accusing Othello of witchcraft. Hesays that Othello must have used “drugs and minerals” to get Desdemona tomarry his “sooty bosom”. Iago instigates the characters in this play that dospeak foul of Othello. It is quite obvious from the beginning of the story thatIago is betraying Othello. Iago mentions to Roderigo “I am not what I am”.
The choice of words he used towards Othello does not necessarily mean that he isa racist yet at the same time I do not feel that Othello’s Quintana -2-background effects the events in this play. With or without Othello being a Moorthe outcome of the play would have worked as well. Name-calling, which is how Idescribe what Iago was doing throughout the play, is a common way of trying todegrade someone even in today’s society. You try to find something in youropponent that distinguishes him from yourself and the people who defend you andyou use this to break down their esteem.
Iago, out of jealousy, calls Othellonames behind his back and still with all this. Iago is very clever in makingOthello vulnerable to his word. Iago’s manipulation to Othello is neverspecified to be race related although racial slurs are what he constantlyrepeats. He simply uses these remarks to mock Othello. This is evidence thatleads me to believe that if Shakespeare would not have made Othello of the samerace as the rest of the characters the plot of this story would have remainedthe same and it would have flowed just as well.
Shakespeare would just have hadto use other non-racial yet discriminating words against Othello. Love andjealousy are the central feelings portrayed in this story, not racism. All Iagowants is to take over the leadership power that Othello has. He enjoys creatingchaos as all villains do and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Thisdemonstrates the evil he has within himself. Iago persuades Roderigo to sell allof his belongings so that there may be a chance between him and Desdemona.
(Shakespeare 1065) Two-faced Iago also flourishes Desdemona with his praises. (Shakespeare 1068) is making himself out to be a loyal friend in her eyeseveryone is easily influenced by Iago. He has his way with everyone. NeitherRoderigo nor Desdemona are different in color Quintana -3- complexion for Iagoto deceive them but he does anyway.
They are all part of his betrayal. Iago isall for himself. He even goes to the extent of convincing his wife to steal ahandkerchief from Desdemona and then made it part of his scheme. There were nolimits for him.
He took down whomever he had to. Even though Othello was blackhe was integrated into the Venetian society and was also the states militarychampion against the Turks, which made his status equal to that of Desdemona’sfather, Brabantio. Prior to Othello having eloped with Desdemona Brabantio hadinvited this Moor to his house and held this black man as one of his peers. Buteven having all of this authority Othello is nonetheless an outsider and he isvery much aware of this.
Othello tells us this in Act I, Scene III when hementions his mercenary at a “rented field”. Othello’s black skin color isless a racial issue than a cultural discriminator. Nevertheless racialstereotyping rather tham simple division between Venetian and non-Venetian doessurface in Othello. In the minds of Shakespeare’s audience black people wereidentified with witchcraft and other non-Christian superstitions.
Brabantioaccuses Othello of witchcraft, saying that the Moor must have used “drugs andminerals” to overcome Desdemona to his “sooty bosom”. In act III scene IVOthello’s explanation of the missing handkerchief implies that his motherengaged in charms that she acquired through other non-whites, in this case anEgyptian. Race plays less a factor than what most critics makes it out to be. Othello being a minority yet at the same time holding such high status insociety, even though Quintana -4- conditioned to his usefulness to Venice,proves this. It was common for Skakepeare’s audience to stereotype andassociate his color complexion with witchcraft but by no means identical to whatoccurs in present day society. Bibliography1.
Meyer, Michael. “Othello The Moor of Venice”. The Compact BedfordIntroduction to Literature. New York: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2000 2. Moore,Roger. “Hamlet Click-Guide”. All Shakespeare [online] “last updated 1 July2000” [cited 8 July 2000] Available from World Wide Web: URL: http://www.
allshakespeare. com3. Ogude, S. E.
“Literature and Racism: The Example of Othello” Othello: NewEssays by Black Writers. Ed. Mythili Kaul Washington, D. C. : Howard UniversityPress, 1997, pp.
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