Tension is defined as “the feeling caused by a lack of trust between people, groups, or countries that do not agree about something and may attack each other” (Macmillian Dictionary). Shakespeare seamlessly conveys tensions between different cultures in multiple plays through his expert use of language and ethnic knowledge. These tensions may result from the hatred between two races, two religions or two ideologies. Racial tensions are most pronounced in Shakespeare’s Othello and religious tensions are most prominent in The Merchant of Venice.
Othello is a play where Iago tricks Othello into believing that Desdemona is unfaithful and to do so Iago manipulates and disposes of characters at his will. The play Othello begins with Roderigo and Iago telling Brabantio that his daughter has married Othello. This leads Brabantio to confront Othello, and that is where Brabantio learns that Desdemona willingly chose to marry the Moor. Right after that event, Othello has to go off to war to fight the Turks. Later on, Othello safely arrives in Cyprus while a storm destroys the Turkish fleet so; the city of Cyprus has a celebration. At this party Cassio gets drunk and gets into a fight where he injures Montano, which results in Cassio’s demotion from his position as lieutenant. Iago then tells Cassio to ask Desdemona to help get back his position. Iago tells Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio since they are always together. Emilia gives Iago Desdemona’s handkerchief and Iago places it in Cassio’s possession and then Iago tells Othello that he will get Cassio to admit that he slept with Desdemona. Othello becomes enraged and tells Iago to kill Cassio, but Iago only injures Cassio and then Othello kills Desdemona. At the end o...
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...trayal of Othello and the widespread hatred for Shylock provide indisputable evidence of the racial and religious tensions Shakespeare used as inspiration in his works. These plays help to show the audience that people may have different beliefs and different morals, but that does not justify degrading them in order to rise in stature.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. William Shakespeare's Othello. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Print.
Bloom, Harold. William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. Print.
"Gender and Race in Othello." Gender and Race in Othello. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Nov. 2013
Johnson, Vernon E. Race in William Shakespeare's Othello. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.
"Tension." Macmillan Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
"Themes in The Merchant of Venice." Themes in The Merchant of Venice. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Nov. 2013.
"Othello." The English Review 15.3 (2005): 15. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 8 May 2014. .
There exists a kind of person who can be called by no other name than by “Magnificent Bastard”. They are masters of deception, bloody brilliant, unstoppable in achieving their goals even when it means grinding others into the dust, and yet they have such a flair, such a charming disposition, that they are often admired by even those who are wronged by them. Iago in Shakespeare’s play Othello is one such character. The audience may love or hate him, but either way they must admit that he commands the spot-light. In spite of this, the reason why Iago acts as he does is shrouded in mystery. Even when directly speaking to the audience about his motivations, Iago is not always truthful. In reality, while Iago derives great pleasure from manipulating others, his driving motivation throughout the entire play is his own jealousy; from being unrecognized for his greatness, to an impossible love for Desdemona, and of the virtuous characters all around him.
The story of Othello begins in Venice when Roderigo and Iago having a discussion. Before the discussion with Iago, Roderigo finds that Desdemona has already been married off, to a Othello, a moor, none the less. Iago is enraged by this news, he decides that he now has more than one reason to hate Othello. Othello has not only taken the woman that Iago so desperately longs for, but he had just recently surpassed him over for the position of lieutenant for Michael Cassio, who is not as experienced as Iago. Iago and Roderigo go to the house of Brabantio, the father of Desdemona, to tell him that his dearly beloved daughter has been kidnapped and has married a moor. They tell him to go and check on his daughter to see if she is in the house, when Brabantio goes to check his daughter's room he indeed realizes that she is missing and he quickly sends out some of his officers to find Othello. These events show that Iago will take any chance that he can to take a stab at Othello, no matter what the risks may be, if the king...
Texts and their appropriations reflect the context and values of their times. Within Shakespeare’s Othello and Geoffrey Sax’s appropriation of Othello, the evolution of the attitudes held by Elizabethan audiences and those held by contemporary audiences can be seen through the context of the female coupled with the context of racism. The role of the female has developed from being submissive and “obedient” in the Elizabethan era to being independent and liberated within the contemporary setting. The racism of the first text is overtly xenophobic and natural, whilst the “moor” is unnatural whereas the updated context portrays Othello’s race as natural and racism as unnatural. Therefore these examples show how Shakespeare’s Othello, and it’s appropriation, Geoffrey sax’s Othello, reflect the context and values of their times.
Crawford, Alexander W. Hamlet, an ideal prince, and other essays in Shakesperean interpretation: Hamlet; Merchant of Venice; Othello; King Lear. Boston R.G. Badger, 1916. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2009. (April 30 2014) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/othello/othelloessay2.html >.
The beginning of the play starts when Iago and Roderigo were discussing about their plan of Iago wants to be second-in-command and Roderigo wants to make love with Desdemona. Next, they went into a dispute with Desdemona’s father about Othello marrying Desdemona. When, Othello marry Desdemona, Iago first plan was to get Cassio lose his job by getting drunk and into a fight. Afterwards, Desdemona tries to convince to Othello about giving Cassio’s job back. Then, Iago gets Desdemona, Othello, Cassio, and Bianca stuck in a situation about who are cheating on what, the handkerchief and Cassio’s job. Later on, Iago got in trouble of the evidence that reveal everything that actually happen in the play. Lastly, Othello killed himself, Iago receives imprisonment with torture, Emilia dies later and Cassio became the governor of Cyprus.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, race is a concept that is only minimally explored. Characters in the play assume that, since they are English, they are superior and foreign characters (like Othello the Moor) are inferior. This is not questioned much at all, and in fact it is assumed outright that Othello is indeed a lesser man because of his skin color and the ways in which characters like Iago and Roderigo treat him. While an early modern audience would accept this concept without hesitation, an audience of today’s age is left to question whether Othello is actually acting out because of the societal pressures, beliefs, and actions put upon him, or because he is inherently different as a person who is not white. While Shakespeare seems to think the contrary, Othello’s development in his actions and words—from a confident general to a depressed, wife-killing maniac—show clearly that his demise and his reactions were products of his peers (namely, Iago) and that he is not inherently different because of his race. Ultimately, it was all Iago’s fault.
Orkin, Martin. “Othello and the “plain face” Of Racism.” 2nd ed. Vol. 38. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 166-88. Shakespeare Quarterly. Folger Shakespeare Library in Association with George Washington University, Summer 1987. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. .
Shakespeare, William. "The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice" The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stanley Wells & |Gary Taylor. New York/London, W.W. Norton Company,1997. 2100-2174
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.
In the tragedy Othello, Shakespeare creates a mood that challenges the way a person sees his or her self and the world. Subjects like racism, sexism, love, hate, jealously, pride, and trickery are thoroughly developed in the play of Othello to enable the audience to view the characters and also themselves. The Shakespearean tragedy of Othello was written in a time of great racial tensions in England. According to Eldred Jones, in 1600 just three years before Othello was written, Queen Elizabeth proclaimed an Edict for the Transportation of all "negars and blackmoores" out of the country ("Othello- An Interpretation" Critical Essays 39). It is in this atmosphere that Shakespeare began the masterpiece of Othello, a drama about a noble black Arab general, Othello, who falls in love with and marries, Desdemona, a young white daughter of a senator. From the above knowledge one may conclude that Shakespeare wrote Othello to express that all people, of all ethnicity, are basically the same in human nature. Shakespeare borrowed the idea of Othello from an Italian love story by Giraldi Cinthio. However, Shakespeare focuses more on the differences in color and age between Othello and Desdemona than Cinthio. Shakespeare does this to escalate Othello’s isolation from the rest of Venetian society and to display Othello’s vulnerability due to his color. In the tragedy not only is Othello susceptible to weaknesses but so is every major character . The tragedy reminds humans that even one’s good nature can be taken advantage of for the worse. The drama Othello expresses, through relationships and emotional attitudes, a theme that all humans are vulnerable to destruction even if they are in positions of power and glory.
Othello: Summary." emotes: Othello. Ed. Penny Satoris. Seattle: Enotes.com Inc, October 2002. eNotes.com. 18 April 2011. .
Nowadays, everyone interprets together Shakespeare in their own way. In the case of Othello, this may upset traditionalists who may insist that he should be African American, as Shakespeare intended. However, the fact is that no one can say for definite and cannot speak for Shakespeare and what his intentions were. In the end, it is important to resonate the legacy that his plays continue to change and mutate in ways he could never imagine. Everyone clearly has their own set of interpretations for how Othello should be
"Othello Summary and Analysis." Othello Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of Act II. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .
In this play, three timeless elements that are very relevant today and throughout history are prejudice, money, and love. Shakespeare included many examples of all these themes in his play. Bassanio, Antonio, Gratiano, Lorenzo, Portia, and Shylock are the main representatives of these themes. You could take anyone in history and compare him or her to anyone in this play. An example of this would be the prejudice and mean spirit that both Shylock and Hitler share. Shakespeare did a very good job showing these elements in real life scenarios. Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it perfectly; this play is a “representation of men in all ages and all times.”