Key Themes In Shakespeare's Othello Still Relevant Today

Shakespeare’s Othello is considered to be a timeless text with the key themes that are incorporated into the play still relevant in today’s society. The text’s central themes are racism, honesty and jealousy, themes that are still seen in contemporary society, therefore making the text just as relevant today as in the Elizabethan era.
Racism is a widely explored theme in Othello and is mainly delivered throughout the play by Iago. In the Elizabethan era, black men were considered to be lesser men and Iago attaches diabolic language to Othello which casts him as the ‘other’. He is accepted in the public world because of his position and reputation in the army; however he is not acknowledged in the society because he is believed to be instilled with witchcraft and is believed to possess animal
The animal characteristics can be seen from the quote ‘an old black ram is tupping your white ewe’. The colour ‘black’ has negative implications of evil where it abolishes the innocence of the ‘white ewe’ in this case it is the purity of Desdemona showing the ease of which women can be defiled. Othello is often referred to the Moor throughout the play. By not calling his name, it damages his character as he is perceived below the characters of Iago and Cassio, showing that he is not considered to be a part of society despite his achievements in war. The manipulation of Othello by Iago, it becomes apparent that the attack on Othello’s race was useless. Greer shows through the line ‘We no longer feel, as Shakespeare’s contemporaries did, the ubiquity of Satan, but Iago is still serviceable to us, as an objective correlative of the mindless inventiveness of racist aggression’