Racism in William Shakespeare’s Othello Essay -- GCSE Coursework Shake

Racism in William Shakespeares Othello In William Shakespeares tragic play Othello racialism is featured throughout, not only by Iago in his despicable animalistic remarks about Othellos marriage, solely similarly by opposite characters. Let us in this essay break up the racial references and their degrees of implicit racism. Racism persists from the opening scene till the gag rule scene in this play. In Historical Differences Misogyny and Othello Valerie Wayne comments on the racism inherent in the final act of the drama When Othello finally kills himself and says he is killing the turbaned Turk who beat a Venetian and traduced the state (V, ii, 349-50), he is killing the monster he became through Iagos mental poison, but he is also killing the only ethnic and racial other of the play. To be more precise, he is killing that self who is the other, the Turk or the Moor, as an act of Venetian patriotism. Just as one wo bithood was praised by Iago for becoming a wight through restr icting her behavior to the requirements of men, so Othello becomes white both virtuous and Venetian through annihilating his extraneous self. (168) Could any lesser playwright have presented a black opus as the hero of a tragedy? Mary Ann Frese Witt in mysterious and White Symbols in Othello would answer this question negatively It was then something of a feat for Shakespeare, and a testimony to his genius, to present a black man as the hero of a tragedy. Playing upon his audiences preconceptions, Shakespeare makes an original, flush use of black and white symbolism throughout the play. It is the black man who is deep down pure, and it is a seemingly honest white man (and a soldier, a type usually portrayed as genuinely honest) who is inwardly e... ...espeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Wayne, Valerie. Historical Differences Misogyny and Othello. The Matter of Difference Materialist womens righti st Criticism of Shakespeare. Ed Valerie Wayne. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press, 1991. Witt, Mary Ann Frese, et al., eds. Black and White Symbols in Othello. The arts Cultural Roots and Continuities. Vol.1. Lexington, MA D.C. Heath, 1985. Rpt. in Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. The Engaging Qualities of Othello. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Introduction to The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare. N. p. Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1957.