Othello And Racism In Today's Modern Era

Othello is a play that was written around the year 1603 by William Shakespeare. The play focuses on four main characters: Othello, the Moor, who is a general in the Venetian army; his wife Desdemona; his lieutenant Cassio; and his ensign (lowest ranked flag bearer of the army) Iago. The play has been criticized because of the racism that it so boldly expresses. The goal of this paper is to analyze the racism shown in the play in contrast to the racism in today’s modern era. Racism was prevalent during the 17th century, which is the time period Othello was written. During the 17th century, Europeans were seeing more and more people that had darker skin colors than they did. Because these people were from Africa, or African origins, they were

“From about 1600, with the development of science in Europe, racism could be ‘proved’ scientifically. Scientists and philosophers like David Hume could state that Africans were ‘naturally inferior to the whites’. It was widely believed that Africans and Europeans had developed separately. Many, like Sir Thomas Herbert, writing in 1634, believed that Africans must be descended from apes and were part of a separate and inferior race.”(PortCities) By Iago calling Othello an old black ram, it just confirms that this was a common widespread belief at the time Shakespeare wrote Othello. In the above quote, he is also referencing the stereotype of black men having an almost animalistic sex drive. “Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service and you think we are ruffians, 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.”(Gardner 755) Again, Iago is referencing the stereotype of black people having animalistic sex drives.

Shakespeare mainly used animal imagery to describe Othello throughout the play. Not only did the animal imagery refer to the stereotype of black men having an animalistic sex drive or even the belief that they descended from animals. It was also implying that black people were thought of so lowly that