Race and Culture In The Play Flashcards
Is Othello a racist play?
There is enough evidence of racial stereotyping in Shakespeare’s England. There were enough people of African descent in England at the time to prompt Elizabeth I to express her discontent about the matter. She expressed her discontent for the number of ‘negars and Blackmoors which crept into the realm’ and she proceeded to expel some of them form the country.
Many travel books portrayed the people as being barbarous, lawless and a people of ‘Beastly Livinge’.
A contemporary writer at the time claimed that African people ‘ whomsoever they finde but talking with their wives they presently go about to murder them…by reason of jealousy’
A source that Shakespeare used when he was writing Othello was Leo Africanus’s A geographical History of Africa around 1600. He stated ‘ the inhabitants of the cities of barbarie are somewhat needie and covetous, being also very proud and high minded’.
‘The Moor’
The word ‘moor’ is used to describe people form North Africa from places like Algeria and Morocco. Yet during Shakespeare’s time it was often used as a generic term to describe anyone from African descent.
What critics have said:
Samual Taylor Coleridge expressed the view that:
‘It would be something monstrous to conceive this beautiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable negro’
F.R.Leavis (the common pursuit 1952) echoes some early renaissance attitudes towards men of African descent. He suggests that Othello has ‘voluptuous sensuality’ and suggests that they stuff of which he is made begins to shown itself unfit’. He suggests that Othello is an unstable man who is prone to having uncontrollable sexual urges and jealousies. This was a highly influential view at the time.
Is Othello a play about race?
The Caribbean writer C.R.L James asserted that Othello was not a play about race and that if the racist attitudes were to be removed form the plot, the plot would remain the same. The play is about jealousy and ethnic origins, the characters are irrelevant.
The same view was shared by Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet, who stated that he changed his mind about the play as he was the only black persons in the audience. He drew parallels between himself in the audience and Othello on stage, as he felt isolated, just like Othello must have done.
He stated ‘any black man who has gone out with a white women knows there are lots of Iago’s around’ ‘ history has made it a play about race’
Is Othello black?
The question of Othello’s race has received a great deal of attention in recent decades. Modern critics have examined the play through the context of contemporary ideas about race and racism, pointing out that Othello’s violence, jealousy, and alleged sexual prowess (according to Iago and Roderigo) reinforce contemporary stereotypes about black men. Also problematic is that fact that until the middle of the twentieth century, Othello was played by white actors like Laurence Olivier who darkened their skin with makeup, a practice that recalls the deeply racist use of “blackface” in minstrel shows of the nineteenth century. When black actor Paul Robeson played the role in London in the 1930s, audiences were shocked to see a black man kiss a white woman onstage. But Robeson revived the role on Broadway in the 1940s, and since then Othello has almost always been played by a black actor in major productions. (Productions of the opera Otello, on the other hand, have featured white singers in dark makeup much more recently.) In 1997, the white actor Patrick Stewart played Othello in an otherwise all-black production; a more recent staging featured black actors as both Othello and Iago. While the original meaning of Othello’s blackness has grown obscure, the provocative and timeless nature of the play’s subject matter make it fit for countless interpretations as notions of racial identity continue to evolve
Black and white imagery:
Black and white imagery is portrayed throughout the play. The marriage between a black man and a white women, which can be equated to good and bad, and hell and heaven. Shakespeare’s use of antithesis, e.g ‘black ram’ and ‘white ewe’ expresses the conflict which is usually at the heart of all of his dramas.
In Shakespeare’s day black people were not usually cast as hero’s and this would likely cause the audience to make negative associations.
Othello is often referred to as being a ‘moor’ and having a ‘sooty bosom’ associating him with evil. This is ironic as Iago being a white man, turns out to be evil immersing himself into images of hell.
On the other hand, Desdemona is often referred to as a ‘pearl’ and as ‘light’.
Commentators have suggested that Othello’s inherent bravery and calmness at the begging of the play over rides the colour of his skin. He is comfortable being a general and he speaks with calm authority. Yet after he is corrupted by Iago, he becomes more conscious of the colour of skin, and begins to conform with the racist stereotypes.
Heaven and hell imagery:
In early Christian images devils were always portrayed as black. This is evident when Emilia calls Othello a ‘blacker devil’. Iago also links blackness with sinfulness as he states ‘when devils will the blackest sins put on’
This could be compared with Macbeth as the three witches are called ‘secret black and midnight black’ and the tyrant himself is referred to as ‘black Macbeth’.
