Drama Othello
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LONG ESSAY
DRAMA-OTHELLO BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Jessica Higgins
Throughout the centuries, people have been marginalised on account of their ethnicity. It is a timeless issue. The process begins with one dominant group, who exclude the minor group, on basis of inferiority. The feeling of superiority from the dominant group or culture may not be intentional, but is often a prevailing attitude at the time, which subtly influences people. Human kind through all of time is known for rejecting the unfamiliar, which is surely demonstrated in Othello, by William Shakespeare. In Othello, one man is excluded or set apart on the grounds of his being an outsider. His name is Othello. There are many methods, subtle and obvious, that Shakespeare uses to show Othellos exclusion and how he is devalued.
Othello is a black protagonist in the play, Othello. He differs from all of the other characters, because he is not a native European. Other characters notice and use his race and ethnicity as a means to belittle him. He is identified by other characters as being a Ð..Moor. The Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula. The way that other characters respond and speak and about Othello enlightens the viewer on their feelings towards him, and makes the viewer feel that perhaps there is a certain amount of racism happening in the time that Othello was written. The characters certainly demonstrate signs of being xenophobic, which perhaps reflected the general feeling at the time. An example of this is when Iago blackens Othellos name in the first act, to Brabantio, a Venetian Senator, and Desdemonas father. He uses crude, racist language to appeal to the senators established attitudes, including such phrases as, “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe! (1.i.87-88) Iago even goes so far as to suggest that Brabantios grandchildren will be animals because of his daughters base marriage with a black man. “Youll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse, youll have your nephews neigh to you, youll have coursers for cousins, and jennets for germans.” (1. i. 110-113) Further into the play, the audience can observe for themselves that Iagos motive is jealousy and he uses the method of racism to undermine Othello, playing on Brabantios prejudices to incite him, even though, as Othello tells later, Her father loved me, oft invited me. (1.iii.129) A surprise and a few crude comments from Iago is all it takes to make a respected figure turn against a close friend of equal stature simply because of skin colour. This suggests a deeper underlying current of racism, running in the people.
Characters in Othello, were not overtly racist to Othello, because of his colouring and specific mores, but because he was different. From the start, the audience is aware of Othellos separateness. Iago describes him in prejudicial and derogatory terms before the audience even knows his name, calling him an “old black ram” and “the devil.” Yet, when Othello appears to for the first time to the audience, his actions and words show that he is an upright, honest, and confident man. In the beginning of the play, Othello was a respected general, in the Venetian army. Although racism was not systemic or institutionalised at the time, an example is Othellos being chosen as a general which was a position of honour and prestige. However there was obvious underlying racism in the society of the time, manifested by the broad cross-section of people who discriminate against Othello. There is a clear theme of racism throughout, one which was firmly embedded in the Venetian society which rejects the marriage of Othello and Desdemona as erring, against all rules of nature, (1.3.102) Another good example of this is Brabantio, Othellos unwilling father-in-law. He lost a daughter to a foreigner who was welcome as a guest, but not as a son-in-law. Under the prejudices that Brabantio had, Othello becomes the object of suspicion, based on his ethnicity. “Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!/ For Ill refer to me all things of sense, /If she in chains of magic were not bound.” (1. ii. 63-65) Brabantio assumes that because Othello is a black man (“..The Moor.” (1. i. 63)) that he was a practiser of magic, although further reference into Othello proves that Othello was actually a convert to Christianity. It is symbolic that the magic that Othello was believed to be practising in order to make Desdemona want to marry him, is known as Ðblack magic.
The racism so apparent in Othello takes many forms, and many beliefs. Perhaps it stemmed from an ancient xenophobia, which associates blackness with the devil, which is also a contemporary association. The colour black has, through the centuries, been associated with evil, and the devil, so that Othellos colour, being referred to as black was symbolic of Othello being connected with the devil. Emilia says in Act 5, scene 2, Line 133, “O, more the angel she/ and you the blacker devil!” This connection made him a wicked, distrustful black man, in the self-righteous Venetians eyes. As the Venetians were deeply religious, they felt that Othello, as he was supposedly associated with the devil was an affront, and impious compared to them and their own way of life.
Othello was constantly compared to the Venetians, whether by them, or even himself. Othello searches to fit in with the Venetians and his actions in the play, Othello demonstrate this. Even though Othello is a successful military man, he still lacks confidence in his place in society and wants to belong, and he seeks to secure his position in society by marrying Desdemona. Othello converts to Christianity, perhaps giving up his religious view of his own culture in the process. Nothing separates Othello from, the wealthy curled darlings of our nation, (1.ii.68) except skin-colour, he matches or even exceeds them in reputation. The colour of his skin will never change, no matter what he achieves, so Othello will always be alien, and different to the people he seeks to fit in with. Othello tries to lose himself in Venetian culture instead of embracing his own. As a result, he is doomed to fail because of his own insecurities of his identity. Othello feels conspicuously different to all of the other Venetians, for good reason, because he is. However, in the beginning of the play, he was inclined to feel that the Venetians around him could, in