Race

Race

1. Context: White people were the superior race and they had better rights than those of other cultures. Black people were badly mistreated as it was believed that they meddled with the Devil in order to carry out trials of witchcraft. Black people could infect white people with their 'blackness' and this was used to explain the sins of white people

   • Othello is visibly isolated from the other characters by his physical stature and the colour of his skin. However, this is of little importance to Desdemona as she loves Othello despite his black skin

2. HOW IAGO USES RACISM

   • 'the Moor'
     • Act 1, Scene 1
     • 'Moor' refers to the Islamic Arabic inhabitants of North Africa who conquered Spain in the 8th century
   • 'thick-lips'
     • Act 1, Scene 1
     • Putting a stereotypical 'Moor' stereotype in a derogatory fashion
   • 'a Barbary horse'
     • Act 1, Scene 1
     • A vulgarity which is particularly appropriate in the mouth of Iago, but thid quote, without even seeing Othello, would invoke within a Jacobean audience imagery of a savage 'Moor'
     • 'Barbary' itself refers to the famous horses of the Arab world
       • But could also be referencing 'barbarian', which has associations of paganism and savagery
   • ''Zounds , sir, you're robb'd...Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise; Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, or else the devil will make a grandsire of you'
     • Act 1, Scene 1
     • This quote suggests that Iago uses racism to turn Brabantio against Othello, as Brabantio hating Othello for marrying Desdemona would ultimately make Othello's downfall bigger because of the high social status Brabantio holds within society
     • Iago also plays on Brabantio's fears as he makes him imagine a barbarous Moor whose bestial sexual appetite has turned him into a thief (he implies that Othello stole Desdemona) and a rapist (through claiming that he is 'tupping' her)
       • This would have been believed by a Jacobean audience as a result of the messages of black people that they had been indoctrinated with

3. HOW BRABANTIO USES RACISM

   • 'Is there not charms by which the property of youth and maidhood may be abused?'
     • Act 1, Scene 1
   • 'Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!'
     • Act 1, Scene 2
     • Brabantio uses racism to claim that Desdemona must have been put under a spell by Othello (which is typical beliefs of the time) for her to fall in love with him, purely because he is black. He suggests that Desdemona wouldn't have voluntarily married Othello because she is an upper-class white female and he is a lower-class black male and so there is no reason why she would marry him

4. OTHELLO'S VIEWS OF DESDEMONA

   • 'An unplucked rose'
     • Act 5, Scene 2
   • 'A monumental alabaster'
     • Act 5, Scene 2
     • Despite being convinced that Desdemona has cheated on him, he (ironically) still refers to her as being intact - meaning, still a virgin. 'An unplucked rose' still has its life source and hasn't been tainted, just as 'monumental alabaster' suggests that her skin is smooth and hasn't been touched by another man