Race And Ambiguity In Shakespeare's Othello

Othello’s race and ethnicity are never explicitly revealed in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, so they have become the topic of great speculation. Othello’s race and ethnicity are still heavily debated amongst Shakespeareans today; although it may appear obvious to some controversy arises when it comes to defining the term Moor which is used to describe Othello’s ethnicity. Some believe that Othello’s race is simply black, or African, as described in the play, others believe he may have been a Spanish Moor, or Arab. The term Moor was also “sometimes used in Elizabethan drama to refer to characters who [were] [villains] … or merely brunette in complexion” (Butcher). Othello’s appearance is described periodically throughout the play, but Shakespeare never goes into great detail which is why Othello’s race is so ambiguous. In the beginning of the

Iago refers to Othello as “the devil” (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 87), and according to “Elizabethan superstition … devils and evil spirits sometimes took the form of Moors and Negroes” (Butcher). Iago also calls Othello a “Barbary horse” (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 107), and the Barbary Coast is a part of Northern Africa suggesting that this may be where Othello is originally from (Rosenberg). In another play written by Shakespeare called Titus Andronicus he describes a Moor name Aaron as “a ‘thick-lipp’d slave’ with a ‘fleece of woolly hair’. It is difficult to imagine that Shakespeare was describing a Spaniard or an Arab here” (Arogundade). Shakespeare also describes Aaron as “raven colour’d” and “coal-black” (Butcher). Considering that this play was written 15 years before Othello you would be forgiven to believe that Shakespeare means the same thing when he refers to Othello as a Moor; however, unlike in Titus Andronicus Shakespeare calls Aaron’s child a blackamoor which is never said when referring to