How Does Shakespeare Show Othello's Exclusion
LONG ESSAY
DRAMA-OTHELLO BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Jessica Higgins
Throughout the centuries, people have been marginalised on account of their ethnicity. It is a timeless issue. The process begins with one dominant group, who exclude the minor group, on basis of inferiority. The feeling of superiority from the dominant group or culture may not be intentional, but is often a prevailing attitude at the time, which subtly influences people. Human kind through all of time is known for rejecting the unfamiliar, which is surely demonstrated in Othello, by William Shakespeare. In Othello, one man is excluded or set apart on the grounds of his being an outsider. His name is Othello. There are many methods, subtle and obvious, that Shakespeare uses to show Othello's exclusion and how he is devalued.
Othello is a black protagonist in the play, Othello. He differs from all of the other characters, because he is not a native European. Other characters notice and use his race and ethnicity as a means to belittle him. He is identified by other characters as being a ..Moor.' The Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula. The way that other characters respond and speak and about Othello …show more content…
Perhaps it stemmed from an ancient xenophobia, which associates blackness with the devil, which is also a contemporary association. The colour black has, through the centuries, been associated with evil, and the devil, so that Othello's colour, being referred to as black was symbolic of Othello being connected with the devil. Emilia says in Act 5, scene 2, Line 133, "O, more the angel she/ and you the blacker devil!" This connection made him a wicked, distrustful black man, in the self-righteous Venetians eyes. As the Venetians were deeply religious, they felt that Othello, as he was supposedly associated with the devil was an affront, and impious compared to them and their own way of
DRAMA-OTHELLO BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Jessica Higgins
Throughout the centuries, people have been marginalised on account of their ethnicity. It is a timeless issue. The process begins with one dominant group, who exclude the minor group, on basis of inferiority. The feeling of superiority from the dominant group or culture may not be intentional, but is often a prevailing attitude at the time, which subtly influences people. Human kind through all of time is known for rejecting the unfamiliar, which is surely demonstrated in Othello, by William Shakespeare. In Othello, one man is excluded or set apart on the grounds of his being an outsider. His name is Othello. There are many methods, subtle and obvious, that Shakespeare uses to show Othello's exclusion and how he is devalued.
Othello is a black protagonist in the play, Othello. He differs from all of the other characters, because he is not a native European. Other characters notice and use his race and ethnicity as a means to belittle him. He is identified by other characters as being a ..Moor.' The Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula. The way that other characters respond and speak and about Othello …show more content…
Perhaps it stemmed from an ancient xenophobia, which associates blackness with the devil, which is also a contemporary association. The colour black has, through the centuries, been associated with evil, and the devil, so that Othello's colour, being referred to as black was symbolic of Othello being connected with the devil. Emilia says in Act 5, scene 2, Line 133, "O, more the angel she/ and you the blacker devil!" This connection made him a wicked, distrustful black man, in the self-righteous Venetians eyes. As the Venetians were deeply religious, they felt that Othello, as he was supposedly associated with the devil was an affront, and impious compared to them and their own way of