Othello: the Other

Othello: The Other Race and religion seem to be very prevalent in Shakespeare’s Othello. From the beginning of the play the reader gets the impression that the protagonist, Othello the Moor, is considered an “other” in the Venetian society. Othello’s high military ranking gives him the respect of the characters in the play, but his race and religion are brought up a lot throughout the play in the speech of the characters in the play. Despite the characters in the text constant dehumanization of Othello because of his racial and religious differences and the imposition of assimilation, Shakespeare challenged the stereotypes of the Moors and created a hero that was more human than the rest of the characters in the play. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a Moor is a “member of a Northwestern African Muslim of mixed Berber and Arab descent,” (OD). At this point in time, the Moors were viewed as savage-like and monstrous because of their skin color and stature. In Europe, Moors were seen as the “other” because of their skin color and religion. An early recount of Spain’s view on the Moors was that “their faces were black as pitch, the handsomest among them was black as a cooking pot, and their eyes blazed like fire,” (Brann). The most interesting aspect of the play Othello is how the other characters act around him. They never seem to address him by his name and when they are speaking of him, they refer to him as the Moor. It seems as though they placed a huge importance on his race and religion since the two are so closely connected. According to Emily C. Bartels in her article Making more of the Moor:Aaron, Othello, and Renaissance Refashionings of Race, “the term ‘Moor’ was used interchangeably with such similarly ambiguous terms as ‘African,’ ‘Ethiopian,’ ‘Negro,’ and even ‘Indian’ to designate a figure from parts or the whole of Africa (or beyond) who was either black, Moslem, neither or both,” (Bartels 434). Even though Othello is characterized as a

Cited: Adelman, Janet. "Iago 's Alter Ego: Race As Projection In Othello." Shakespeare Quarterly 48.2 (1997): 125-144 Agnes, M., and D. B. Guralnik. Webster 's New World College dictionary. 4th. Cleveland, Ohio: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 1998. 942. Print. Bartels, Emily C. “Making more of the Moor: Aaron, Othello, and Renaissance Refashionings of Race.” Shakespeare Quarterly 41.4 (1990): 433-454 Berry, Edward. "Othello 's Alienation." Studies In English Literature (Rice) 30.2 (1990): 315 Brann, Ross. "The Moors?." Medieval Encounters 15.2-4 (2009): 307-318. Academic Search Premier Butcher, Philip. “Othello’s Racial Identity.” Shakespeare Quarterly 3.3.(1952): 243-247. Academic Search Premier Cohen, Stephen. "I Am What I Am Not: Identifying With The Other In Othello." Shakespeare Survey 64.(2011): 163-179