Essay On Racism In Othello

Europe witnessed a big progress during the Enlightenment age. However, this progress lacked the culture of tolerance and respecting others. People who had African origins were treated badly even during the enlightenment age. Literature during this specific period reflected on some important works that could enhance the idea of not accepting the others (Greenblatt, 1980, p.157). In this part, we are particularly concerned with Othello and candied that represent two of the most well-known works of that period. In the two novels, there is much deal of portraying characters who suffered from the injustice that prevailed during this period. Othello as the name suggests refers to one of the African characters who could successfully get the total …show more content…
Othello is a man who belong to African origins and thus his love and marriage of Desdemona was not allowed. Although Othello was close to his leader, Brabantio , he could not tolerate his marriage of his daughter because of his black origins. During this period, there was an attitude towards the refusal of the inter. Most racism in this play is against Othello . Racism comes from Iago, Brabantio, Roderigo and Emilia . Their hatred of Othello could refer to many racist comments and behaviours against this black man who is not allowed to love and marry one of them. Brabantio was very shocked when knowing Othello’s love for his daughter. He could not tolerate the intermarriage and unity between his royal daughter and the moor. He used many racist actions describe Othello such as "lascivious moor", "Wheeling stranger". He also desribed Othello as a foul and dirty no good black when knowing Othello’s love for his daughter. In addition , he ordered his guards to catch Othello and put him in prison. Emilia also expressed her racist hatred for Othello when describing him as a ‘devil black ‘after his killing of Desdemona. Throughout the play, she had unfriendly attitude towards Othello but she was afraid to show this attitude because she did not want to get in trouble with her ‘lord ‘(Fiedler , 1973 , p.275) . In fact , most racism in this play is portrayed through Iago. Despite being Othello’s friend, he turned to be …show more content…
Both of them reported the events honestly and tried to focus on the prevailing conditions of the society during the Enlightenment period. Shakespeare talked about the love story between a black man and a white woman and refers that this love story is a good thing. However, the union between Othello and Desdemona was destroyed by many racist persons who surrounded them. Racism was a common feature of the society and there is no evidence that Shakespeare himself tries to promote the idea of racism in this play. Although racism is one of the dominant themes in this play, we cannot describe the author as a racist person. He wanted to say that racism is found in the society and might destroy noble relations. On the other hand, Voltaire is not a racist. Voltaire was known of criticizing all the passive circumstances that were found in his age. Hence, he was imprisoned by the French government and many of his written plays and novels were burned. Voltaire uses in ‘Candide ‘irony and satire to announce his refusal of all bad conditions and strong beliefs. Both works criticized what the authors considered to be bad or unfamiliar. Shakespeare in his ‘ Othello ‘ wanted to change the traditional view that discriminated between people because of their colors . Voltaire in his ‘ Candide ‘ wanted to say that our world has both happiness and sadness and that the old belief adopted by pangloss is not