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A note on racism in Othello
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Do you think that race has everything to do about who we are? Because people has been discussing that race in “Othello” by William Shakespeare is not an issue in the story. Race is an important part in “Othello.” It is one part of the element that what makes Othello an outsider, even though he has political power and great reputation all around.But due to all of the doubtness to his experiences, is because he is black. Based on the race in Othello is important in the story based on the Racist insults, how the story would have changed, and weakest target.
Othello’s race might be very important in the play because if he wasn't a moor then it would be just a story where two people falls in love and gets married without the father’s permission. And Iago would have been probably been okay if Othello made the choice of making cassio the lieutenant instead of him and moved along with his life and everyone will been fine.
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In Othello, racial stereotypes are thicken up the plot but yet making a problem that requires a solution. The racial comment between Othello and Desdemona is mention in when Iago tells Brabantio that ‘an old black ram/ is tupping your white ewe'. In calling Othello ‘black ram’, Iago relates physically and animality with Othello and blackness. Yet words that come out of Iago makes Othello erotic, foreign or monstrous, But yet he is also human and sympathetic, vulnerable compared to what Iago lied out of his mouth, the reason the target is Othello is because his difference makes him an easy target to use on. But if Othello was white and secretly having sex with Desdemona and Iago knew he wouldn't tell her father because there isn't much to go against Othello, he isn't much different than the
Racial prejudice against Othello is introduced early in the play and is present throughout. Iago and Roderigo approach Brabantio with news about his daughter Desdemona. They inform Brabantio his
References to black and white carry the most weight and contribute much to the actions of the characters; those colors often are used as a comment on race, on good and evil, on sexuality, or a combination of the three. The play does not proceed far into the first scene without a racial statement, where Iago informs Brabantio that Othello and Desdemona have run away together: “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe” (1.1.85-86). Iago refers to Othello as a “black ram” and to Desdemona as a “white ewe,” pointing out the differences in skin color (since Othello is a Moor). A ram, since it has horns, can also be symbolic of the devil; therefore, Iago makes Othello devil-like and racially different at the same time. Additionally, the color black is often seen as evil or bad, whereas white is seen as good and pure. Since the black ram is “tupping,” or mounting, the white ewe, Iago is making a reference to the sexual act of Othello, black, taking Desdemona's virginity, white and pure. Planting an image like this in Brabantio's mind causes him to react negatively towards the marriage, and because Othello is darker-skinned, it makes the situation worse....
To begin, race is the first and clearest of differences between Othello and other major characters. However race is also the least seen issue in the play. Racism is, as stated by Martin Okin “confined to Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio” (Orkin, “Othello: and the”). Emilia herself has her moments of racism, going from using Moor as a describer of Othello to using it as an insult. Brabantio shows this racism when he discovers that Othello has wed his daughter stating:
The theme of racism in Othello is clearly very important. Because of racism, Othello becomes much more vulnerable to manipulation and is easily tricked by Iago. Racism assures that Othello will remain isolated from his peers while Iago tinkers with his mind by separating him from his white peers and making him the outsider. Although Othello is not solely the tragedy of racism, it truly could not be a tragedy without the negative pressures from racism.
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.
Iago is quoted as saying “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise! Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you. Arise, I say!” Right from the first few lines of the story we are shown blatant racism as Iago notifies Brabanzio that his “white ewe” is being tupped by a “black ram”. There seems to be a notion that black men have some perceived hyper sexuality as why else would one use such animal like terms to describe the sex of a newlywed couple? The end of the quote also speaks volumes on their cultural views towards interracial children as “or else the devil will make a grandsire of you” shows that it would be a shame for Brabanzio to have black grandchildren. Iago then carries on his tirade even further by saying “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 jennets for germans.” Again Iago compares Othello to an animal by saying Desdemona is having sex with a Barbary horse and if it continues Brabanzio will have relatives that “neigh” to him. Once again implying that should Othello and Desdemona have children that they will be no more than animals. There is already two solid examples of blatant racism in the story and we
In the Sixteenth century, as we see clearly from Othello and other works of both Shakespeare and Cinthio's original version of Othello, race was a topic of great debate and discussion. Today, in the twenty-first century the debate retains its controversy and passion. However, attitudes towards race have taken a dramatic turn during the last century. In the developed world people are now living in an increasingly cosmopolitan society would undoubtedly be more tolerant and would reject or even be offended by racial discrimination to any person or sections of the community. Openly 'racist' people today are seen as outcasts. Taking this into account, the way a modern audience would react to race and racism in Othello is dependent upon the way in which that modern audience would interpret 'Othello'. This prompts the questions of what sort of message Shakespeare wanted to send to his audience and was Othello the moor portrayed as a tragic hero or did his character eventually come to resemble the prejudices of which he was a victim. Shakespeare also discusses the issue of race with other characters such as the hateful Iago and the prejudices hidden deep in Barbantio.
The audience at this point know nothing of Othello that is gained by their own opinion, instead we are lead to believe from Iago’s race related description that Othello is a threatening and evil moor, whose beastial sexual appetite, conveyed by Iago’s cries to Brabantio, telling him that ‘an old black ram is tupping’ his ‘white ewe’ (1.1.89), is something of a rapist. Iago’s coarse animal related language conveys Iago’s feelings against Othello’s marriage in a much more pronounced way. The image of an ‘old black ram’ gives the audience nothing but negative images of Othello, especially when this ‘old black ram’ is being associated with the innocence of a ‘white ewe’. Iago then associates Othello with the image of ‘the devil’ (1.1.92) because of Othello’s colour, Iago warns Brabantio that he has ‘lost half [his] soul’ now that Desdemona is married to Othello. Iago here emphasises the biracial nature of the marriage, already showing his ability to manipulate people, in this case he is manipulating Brabantio, to believe in Iago’s own opinions and in theory to eliminate all thoughts that Brabantio might of had of his own about the marriage.
	Throughout the first act of the play, Othello is shown as many different characters depending on who is speaking. Iago complains of Othello's pride and "bombast circumstance" and is angered by the appointment of Cassio, an educated military theoretician of Florence to lieutenant, instead of himself. As Iago speaks to Brabantio about Othello, he uses the term "white ewe" to represent Desdemona, and "black ram" when referring to Othello. By using these terms, it shows that he is trying to give a bad impression of Othello when he is speaking to the royal family in Venice, because Othello is a Moor, or a Negro. Iago shows his black hatred for the Moor and his jealousy of Cassio in his first soliloquy and also reveals his evil intentions.
This play revolves around racism, this would have been entirely different if Othello was of white European descent. It probably would have been a play about a valiant hero who gets the fairest woman in Venice, but instead it’s a tragedy because people can’t stand that a person of color has power. Shakespeare used racism as a key theme to tell the story of Othello, and there was a lot of racially geared terminology used but it probably wasn’t too controversially at the time. However over time it has gathered much interest because of its racist undertones. It’s hard to tell if Shakespeare actually held prejudice against people of color or if he just used the societal norms at the time to his advantage to carry the weight of a story he wanted to tell. Intentional or not, the racism in this play played a large part in how the characters interacted and how the play
Othello: The Moor of Venice is probably Shakespeare's most controversial play. Throughout this work, there is a clear theme of racism, a racism that has become commonplace in Venetian society which rejects the marriage of Othello and Desdemona as anathema. The text expresses racism throughout the play within the language transaction of the dialogue to question the societal ethos established by Othello, thereby making him nothing less than a cultural "other." Furthermore, the character of Desdemona is displayed as mad, or out of her wits, for marrying such an "other," and the audience sees her slip from an angelic state of purity to that of a tainted character. Also, the menacing Iago, a mastermind of deviant rhetoric, is able to play Othello and Desdemona against one another until their marriage fails, while at the same time destroying his adversary and friend, Cassio. Thus Iago has a specific agenda, not only to get back at Othello for choosing Cassio instead of him, but also to make Cassio the victim of his plan to destroy the forbidden marriage referred to by Brabantio as a "treason of the blood" (1.2.166-167). Essentially, Iago is a representative of the white race, a pre-Nazi figure who tries to inform the public of the impurity of Othello and Desdemona's marriage. He demonstrates how this miscegenation is threatening to the existing social order. Thus, through analysis of racism, the play represents the hatred possessed by mankind -- a hate so strong that society sees the mixing with an "other" to be a curse to humanity and a terrible threat to Aryan culture.
The theme of racism is strongly depicted in William Shakespeare's Othello. It depicts the attitude of European society towards those that were different in colour, race and language. In Europe, people of white complexion were the majority and all other races were considered to be less important and inferior.
The theme of racism has played a paramount role in works of literature throughout the ages. Othello by William Shakespeare is no exception to this. Race takes up many different roles in order to have a major effect on the play. Viewing the play through a racial lens one can see; the prejudices of Shakespeare’s time, Shakespeare’s own prejudices, the true meaning of Othello’s “blackness”, and the effects of each characters own prejudices. Racism leads to Othello’s downfall and other tragic endings and is thus a highly prevalent theme in Othello.
`It is actually quite remarkable how much Othello, a foreigner, has integrated himself into Venetian society; he is of the utmost importance to the well-being of the state and he holds the respect of the Senate. In addition to his political career, his private life is joined with Venetian society when he marries Desdemona. No longer an outsider, Othello has become everything that "the Moor" cannot be, appearing "far more fair than black" (1.3.285). Yet in the midst of racism, this cannot endure. Something happens that puts Othello in his place as "the
One of the more noticeable themes that Shakespeare discusses in this play is Ethnicity. Othello is a moor that somehow managed to climb his way up the ladder to the rank of general. At this time in history, blacks were considered to be barbarians, and murderous heathens. It is a very rare thing that a black man would be able to obtain the rank of general in a predominantly Caucasian army. It caused quite a bit of jealousy among the other officers serving under Othello. This element may have fueled the fire behind Iago’s lies and hatred for Othello. Another example when the ethnicity of Othello caused a problem was when he and Desdemona were married. Desdemona’s father is furious over his daughter marrying a moor. They even end up going to an Italian court to settle this matter. Normally Othello would have been executed for his actions, but because he was needed to lead the army he was allowed to stay married to Desdemona. This decision by the courts is another element that contributed to Iago’s betrayal, because if the court had ruled against Othello, Rodrigo wouldn’t have had a reason to pay Iago to spread his lies and deception.