othellos race
During the Elizabethan times it was uncommon for black people to act out roles in plays. Shakespeare introduces this to his audience in two plays, the first Titus Andromicus and the second Othello. The first black character, Aaron, is portrayed as a secondary villain. Othello on the other hand is of higher status than many of his peers in the play. This was different for Shakespeare to present a minority person with such authority as a main character. Even with such, many different racial slurs were used by supporters to degrade him. In Act I, Scene I, Iago, the villain in this play and at the same time the right hand man of Othello, is screaming to Desdemona's father from the outside of his house "even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe" (Shakespeare 1051). The "thick-lips" (Shakespeare 1050) is mentioned in this play towards Othello but is not the first time Shakespeare uses it. He uses the phrase in Titus Andronicus to describe the biracial child of the Moor, Aaron. Moor is another term frequently used to identify those darker skinned people. (Shakespeare 1052). Brabantio goes as far as accusing Othello of witchcraft. He say
Race plays less a factor than what most critics makes it out to be. Othello being a minority yet at the same time holding such high status in society, even though 1. Meyer, Michael. "Othello The Moor of Venice". The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000 Name-calling, which is how I describe what Iago was doing throughout the play, is a common way of trying to degrade someone even in today's society. You try to find something in your opponent that distinguishes him from yourself and the people who defend you and you use this to break down their esteem. Iago, out of jealousy, calls Othello names behind his back and still with all this. Iago is very clever in making Othello vulnerable to his word. Iago's manipulation to Othello is never specified to be race related although racial slurs are what he constantly repeats. He simply uses these remarks to mock Othello. This is evidence that leads me to believe that if Shakespeare would not have made Othello of the same race as the rest of the characters the plot of this story would have remained the same and it would have flowed just as well. Shakespeare would just have had to use other non-racial yet discriminating words against Othello. background effects the events in this play. With or without Othello being a Moor the outcome of the play would have worked as well.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2046
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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