Othello

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Othello

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
says that Othello must have used “drugs and minerals” to get Desdemona to
marry his “sooty bosom”. Iago instigates the characters in this play that do
speak foul of Othello. It is quite obvious from the beginning of the story that
Iago is betraying Othello. Iago mentions to Roderigo “I am not what I am”.
The choice of words he used towards Othello does not necessarily mean that he is
a racist yet at the same time I do not feel that Othello’s Quintana -2-
background effects the events in this play. With or without Othello being a Moor
the outcome of the play would have worked as well. 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 t...

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