Social and Cultural Groups Represented in Othello
Discuss the ways in which one or more social and/or cultural groups have been represented in a text studied this semester.
Both cultural and social groups are represented through the drama text, Othello by William Shakespeare and the novel, The Collector by John Fowles. Shakespeare explores the cultural groups in Othello through the portrayal of character constructs and the social groups are explored by Fowles in The Collector, through the way the readers are positioned, and through the context, language and identity used. It is in a negative light that these particular groups are represented in the way that society says no to certain concepts and elements of that time. In Othello’s case the time of the 1600’s, which the society back then compared to now has changed, based on views, beliefs and values. Not completely but majority of it. Looking at The Collector, such negative issues being exposed is again the whole society subject saying no to certain morals, which we as audiences can either agree or disagree to. Language is also a huge part in constructing particular representations. The large language patterns interweave themselves across character, mental state and particular situation, and this dichotomy between being and seeming is reflected in the language of blackness and whiteness, dark and light, hell and heaven which touches so many aspects of the play.
Shakespeare, in Othello explores on a harsh, negative level the cultural constructs and groups of that society. It is mainly the way in which these certain groups are portrayed and the place in which they stand in such particular era. The women are represented on a negative level as to how they were actually materialized by the men and racial difference is also depicted as one of the main issues. The main characters of Othello, is Othello himself known as the outcast, Iago the villain for his own whiteness hides a soul as black as any in the literature of the world, Desdemona the beautiful pure lady
Both cultural and social groups are represented through the drama text, Othello by William Shakespeare and the novel, The Collector by John Fowles. Shakespeare explores the cultural groups in Othello through the portrayal of character constructs and the social groups are explored by Fowles in The Collector, through the way the readers are positioned, and through the context, language and identity used. It is in a negative light that these particular groups are represented in the way that society says no to certain concepts and elements of that time. In Othello’s case the time of the 1600’s, which the society back then compared to now has changed, based on views, beliefs and values. Not completely but majority of it. Looking at The Collector, such negative issues being exposed is again the whole society subject saying no to certain morals, which we as audiences can either agree or disagree to. Language is also a huge part in constructing particular representations. The large language patterns interweave themselves across character, mental state and particular situation, and this dichotomy between being and seeming is reflected in the language of blackness and whiteness, dark and light, hell and heaven which touches so many aspects of the play.
Shakespeare, in Othello explores on a harsh, negative level the cultural constructs and groups of that society. It is mainly the way in which these certain groups are portrayed and the place in which they stand in such particular era. The women are represented on a negative level as to how they were actually materialized by the men and racial difference is also depicted as one of the main issues. The main characters of Othello, is Othello himself known as the outcast, Iago the villain for his own whiteness hides a soul as black as any in the literature of the world, Desdemona the beautiful pure lady