International Journal Online of Humanities (IJOHMN) Shakespeare's Othello: The Esteemed, Reviled, Shunned, and Integrated (original) (raw)
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Shakespeare’s Othello: The Esteemed, Reviled, Shunned, and Integrated?
IJOHMN (International Journal online of Humanities)
In Shakespearean literature, one can find themes that challenge the Elizabethan conventional way of thinking and life, and the tragedy of Othello is no exception. In a dramatic presentation, Shakespeare challenges the way in which Black people are seen in Elizabethan society by placing a Moor in the context of Venice, Italy who is both hated and respected in his place in a racist society. There is no doubt that there is racism in Elizabethan society. According to Eldred Jones, during the era in which Othello is composed, Queen Elizabeth enacts legislation that calls for all Black people to leave the country (Jones, 1994). Racism is not the core theme of the dramatic piece; however, the existence of racism is illustrated and expressed via Shakespeare’s artistic medium. Just as feminism, greed, jealousy, hubris, and varying other matters dealing with the human spirit do not seepage Shakespeare’s consideration, nor do race matters. Furthermore, just as he dramatizes human issues, he dr...
Racism, Ethnic Discrimination, and Otherness in Shakespeare’s Othello and The Merchant of Venice
International Journal of English and Comparative Literary Studies, 2021
This study aims to present a comparative examination of the traces of racism and discrimination in two plays of Shakespeare, Othello and The Merchant of Venice, written in 1603 and around 1598, respectively in the Elizabethan Period. The attempt in this paper is to explore the construction of racism and the evidences of discrimination as depicted in Othello and the Merchant of Venice by use of the deconstruction of marriage. For this purpose, it deconstructs the marriage by focusing on Othello in Othello, and The Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice; and, depicts racism and discrimination by comparing the characterizations of Othello in Othello and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Both sections critique the cruel issues these people experienced as other. The notion of ‘otherness’ and its application in the characterizations of Othello and Shylock, Othello vs. Shylock, the application of deconstruction of marriage to Othello and The Prince of Morocco, and racism in Othello a...
RACE, CITIZENSHIP, AND SOCIAL ORDER IN SHAKESPEARE'S OTHELLO
This paper examines the issue of race in Shakespeare's Othello. It attempts to show that race is a very important issue raised by Shakespeare in the play in his eagerness to highlight the racial problems confronting Europe in the seventeenth century. In this play he attempts to expose the racial prejudice that exists in the Venetian society in particular and Europe in general. He also attempts to subvert the European feelings of racial superiority against the blacks in particular and people of other races in general. He sets out to do this by making a black man (Othello) marry a white woman (Desdemona) of an aristocratic extraction against the will and wish of her father. This inter-racial marriage may not in reality be possible in the seventeenth century, but all the same Shakespeare contrived it to be so, possibly as a way of foregrounding future change in European attitudes toward other races. The paper also looks at how individual citizens of a city-state like Venice can constitute themselves as threats to its social well being, by allowing their personal interests to override the national ethos. In this regard the activities of Othello, Iago and Roderigo are examined.
Race, Citizenship and Social Order in William Shakespeare’s Othello
This paper examines the issue of race in Shakespeare's Othello. It attempts to show that race is a very important issue raised by Shakespeare in the play in his eagerness to highlight the racial problems confronting Europe in the seventeenth century. In this play he attempts to expose the racial prejudice that exists in the Venetian society in particular and Europe in general. He also attempts to subvert the European feelings of racial superiority against the blacks in particular and people of other races in general. He sets out to do this by making a black man (Othello) marry a white woman (Desdemona) of an aristocratic extraction against the will and wish of her father. This inter-racial marriage may not in reality be possible in the seventeenth century, but all the same Shakespeare contrived it to be so, possibly as a way of foregrounding future change in European attitudes toward other races. The paper also looks at how individual citizens of a city-state like Venice can constitute themselves as threats to its social well being, by allowing their personal interests to override the national ethos. In this regard the activities of Othello, Iago and Roderigo are examined.
LITINFINITE JOURNAL, 2021
Shakespeare could lay the human mind sole-naked without upholding any moralistic yardsticks. He described human nature as it is-it was and it will be not as others would like it to appear within their threshold of judgments. There is no trouble with the logical development of the characters in Shakespeare's plays; in his greatest tragedies, the reactions of the characters to every turn in the action are always intuitively right and their development as the play proceeds is felt to be inevitable. As we have seen in Othello and other plays, he stood up for the purity of morals
Gender and Color in Shakespeare: A Study of absent women and Racism in The Tempest and Othello
TIJER - International Research Journal , 2023
Both sexism and racism, two dominant concepts of the twentieth century, are central themes in many of Shakespeare's plays. In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, the character of Othello is used as the target of prejudice, and his wife, Desdemona, is the victim of bigotry. Shakespeare makes fun of Elizabethan society's belief that Black and White relationships are arranged by the devil and also raises the possibility that mixed-race marriages would result in mixed-race offspring. Shakespeare lived in a patriarchal society where fathers and men held control over one another, with women serving primarily as a means of exchange. Gender connections, family structures, and marriage and courtship traditions are all important topics in feminist criticism. Feminist interest often focuses on Prospero's dominant role as the parent in The Tempest as well as Ferdinand and Miranda's engagement and subsequent marriage when they declare their love for one another in front of Miranda's father as a witness.
Racial Conflict in the Selected Plays of William Shakespeare
SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH, 2021
William Shakespeare embraces the racial concerns of the seventeenth century in his various plays. The racial clash was one of the significant inquiries of the seventeenth century. There were numerous prohibitions against the relationship of black and white. The etymological colonialism was at the core of the Shakespearean dramatization that rendered on racism. The language utilized as a pioneering instrument for racial discrimination. Moreover, Shakespeare's play was effectively associated with darker-looking individuals during Elizabethan times. Therefore, the darker-looking Othello and the Jewish Shylock have assumed a significant role in the play. They dominated their respective play, that’s why Shakespeare's works depict the dramatization of racial conflict. There are numerous cases of racial segregation in the current situation, so the issue of race is expected to be re-evaluated with a fresh point of view.This knowledge will help to solve the problem of racial conflict...
“Dangerous conceits”: Racial Bodies and Microaggression in Shakespeare’s Othello
Crossings: An Undergraduate Arts Journal
Many scholars read Othello, written during England's entrance onto the global stage as a colonial power, as Shakespeare’s reflection upon the increasingly diverse population of England and the rise of a modern conception of race and racism. While conceptions of race and racism shift with culture, Othello is positioned at the inception of racism and systems of oppression that are still at work today. Similarly, subtle racial slights towards Othello mirror what Professor Chester Pierce first termed as microaggressions. Drawing on Kevin Nadal's clinical research and the poetry of Claudia Rankine that details the bodily experience of microaggressions, I argue that the barrage of subtle and explicit racism that Othello experiences provides context for what at first appears to be an unbelievably quick turn against Desdemona. Othello’s tragic demise, rather than resulting from an individual character flaw, demonstrates the devastating and accumulated impact of microaggressions on r...