![]() ![]() When looking at all the different ways Othello is depicted by these characters, it seems fair to assume that Othello is a racist play. In fact, his own wife continuously highlights his outsider status by often referring to him as “the Moor.” 5 While this method of othering is not as explicit or, perhaps, even intentional, it constantly draws attention to the fact that Othello is foreign and ethnically distinct from everyone else, in turn making it seem he is out of place. Furthermore, it is important to note that the othering of Othello does not only take shape in the degradation of his character. ![]() As a result, the negative feelings they hold toward Othello cannot be untied from their own racial prejudices. Yet, it is impossible to ignore that these descriptions specifically pinpoint and almost exclusively use his race as the means to degrade him. Therefore, it could be argued that their degrading descriptions of Othello are shaped by their already negative views of him. It is important to acknowledge, however, that Roderigo and Iago (and Brabantio later on), hold respective grudges against Othello Roderigo because he is in love with Desdemona and Iago because he was not promoted. There is also a way in which he seems highly predatory, which is then maintained later on when he is described as “lascivious Moor.” 4 All of these characteristics become intrinsically tied to his skin color, as it is continuously labored: “ black ram,” “ Barbary horse,” “lascivious Moor.” In both cases, such imagery makes Othello seem extremely primal and uncivilized, unable to control his baser, sexual instincts. He tells Brabantio “An old black ram/ is tupping your white ewe,” stretching this animalistic imagery even further when he says, “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 small jennets for germans.” 2 ’ 3 Interestingly, in the first description, both Desdemona and Othello are likened to animals, however, in the second, there is a real sense of bestiality. 1 This hypersexual nature of Othello is then emphasized by animalistic imagery, repeatedly used by Iago to describe intercourse between Othello and Desdemona. This is clear, for example, when Roderigo calls Othello “the thick lips,” not only reducing him to a racialized physical attribute, taking away his subjectivity as a whole person, but also alluding to his hypersexual nature, as lips, especially big lips, are often a symbol of sexuality. Throughout Act I, scene i, Othello’s physicality is characterized by Roderigo and Iago and is largely dependent on animalistic and sexualized imagery. Perhaps the most obvious instances of Othello’s othering are in physical descriptions. This becomes increasingly clear when looking at descriptions of Othello, how he is perceived by himself and others, and perhaps more importantly, the implications embedded within the notions of lightness and darkness. When looking further into the play, it is without question that in the binary of the “ideal” and the “other,” the poles are not only separated by skin color or physical attributes, but also by what these phenotypic differences represent. When looking at Othello, it becomes clear that he is characterized as a kind of “other.” Of course, the “other” cannot exist alone but must be defined in relation to something else, to an ideal. That said, Shakespeare makes explicit racial distinctions, many of which echo and build upon notions of racial inferiority that have been more or less consistent throughout history. ![]() Today, race relations and what it means to be black or white, especially in the United States, holds a social and cultural weight that is specific to a certain history, one that occurred years after the Renaissance. ![]() Context here is paramount, as one should not project a modern day sensibility of race onto Shakespeare’s work. Othello is an invaluable piece of Renaissance literature, as it deals with and gives insight into perceptions of race and racial difference that were contextually relevant to the time period. ![]()
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