Shakespeare’s Othello is seen as a very race driven play but just how much does race influence the characters and the direction of the play? Othello has large overtone of racism, mainly revolving around an inter-racial marriage. Most of all the characters in Othello constantly point out the fact that Othello is a person of color. Because he is a person of color he is treated far differently than his peers and it causes the play to move in a much different direction. Iago turns Iago into an outcast my using his race to make everyone see him as a savage. From the very beginning Iago starts to give Brabontio false information and make matters worse than they are:
“...you'll have your daughter covered with a
Barbary horse, you'll have your nephews …show more content…
So even though he was a very efficient war leader people saw him as a servant more than a hero. Othello is described as having 'the thick lips'(Act 1, Scene 1 line 63), and Othello is described as a 'damned slave'(Act 5, Scene 2 line 241) (Nyoni). The fact that Shakespeare feels the need to discuss the appearance of his lips clearly shows that it is seen as a identifier and not something desirable making the differences between the Moors and the light skinned apparent and making the later seem more appealing which goes with the extremely racist …show more content…
Hugh Quarshie famously declared Othello a play that black actors should avoid: "If a black actor plays Othello does he not risk making racial stereotypes seem legitimate... namely that black men... are overemotional, excitable and unstable?" (Distiller). The fact that even recently people held such strong prejudice against people of color is appalling. One of the reasons that people hold this play up to the light so much is because it’s incorporation of inter-racial marriage which at the time was highly controversial but now that has mainly subsided. But just from reading the text you can tell that Desdemona would be looked down upon for marrying such a man. Whereas Othello seems to be ashamed of himself because in his eyes he has been led to believe that she is higher up than he is.
Yet I'll not shed her
“...you'll have your daughter covered with a
Barbary horse, you'll have your nephews …show more content…
So even though he was a very efficient war leader people saw him as a servant more than a hero. Othello is described as having 'the thick lips'(Act 1, Scene 1 line 63), and Othello is described as a 'damned slave'(Act 5, Scene 2 line 241) (Nyoni). The fact that Shakespeare feels the need to discuss the appearance of his lips clearly shows that it is seen as a identifier and not something desirable making the differences between the Moors and the light skinned apparent and making the later seem more appealing which goes with the extremely racist …show more content…
Hugh Quarshie famously declared Othello a play that black actors should avoid: "If a black actor plays Othello does he not risk making racial stereotypes seem legitimate... namely that black men... are overemotional, excitable and unstable?" (Distiller). The fact that even recently people held such strong prejudice against people of color is appalling. One of the reasons that people hold this play up to the light so much is because it’s incorporation of inter-racial marriage which at the time was highly controversial but now that has mainly subsided. But just from reading the text you can tell that Desdemona would be looked down upon for marrying such a man. Whereas Othello seems to be ashamed of himself because in his eyes he has been led to believe that she is higher up than he is.
Yet I'll not shed her