A Black Man In A White Society

"A black man in a white society." How important do you think this is as a factor in Othello's tragedy?

Plan

What Othello’s tragedy is: essentially believing a dishonest man over his wife
How Othello fits in: Christian and experienced military leader
How he doesn’t: a black Moor, foreigner and subjected to overt racism
Newman: believes in racism himself
Leavis: Othello is ‘too stupid’ to be a tragic hero
Iago is a ‘dramatist’ many critics
AC Bradley: Othello is ‘blameless’
How far Iago is to blame: relate to his change in language
Marjorie Gardner
She poses from being his aly who would guarantee his white status to his sexual and racial other when her husband sees her as an adulteress’ Ania Loombin

Essay

Before the play even starts we already have a sense of how race and place have a paramount importance in the play simple from the title ‘Othello: The Moor of Venice’. This illustrates the fact that Othello is defined by race by being ‘the Moor’ and being in the place ‘Venice’, and how this will affect the outcome of the play. This impression from Iago and Roderigo’s whom we meet at the very beginning of the play by their racist descriptions of him. Iago’s vulgar imagery of Othello the ‘black ram’ ‘tupping’ Desdemona the ‘white ewe’ is an example of this, and it plays on the well-established connotations of good and evil through colour. This is a dramatised example how ‘white society’ (in the case Roderigo and Iago) uses Othello’s skin colour to pervert a situation, and so making him feel like an outsider.
However, it is too far to say that all of ‘white society’ views Othello in this light. It is clear that Othello is a well respected figure simply by his high status position as Captain, and is illustrated by the Duke who greets him as the ‘valiant Moor’ before he even acknowledges Barbantio, despite Barbantio being the highly regarded status of a Senator. This would suggest that there are more convincing factors than merely Othello’s race that contribute towards his tragedy.
In this essay I will argue that how easily Iago convinces Othello of Desdemona’s adultery illustrates the fact how insecure of a character Othello, and so supporting that ‘a black man in a white society’ is an important factor in Othello’s tragedy. This is similar to Marjorie Gardner’s view, who argues that Othello’s insecurities start before Iago even suggests that Desdemona is an adulteress and that it is compounded by Othello’s inability to separate his private from his public life. This is particularly shown by when Othello refers to Desdemona as his ‘fair warrior’ illustrating him marrying his private wife with his job. So when Othello’s identity as a soldier is threatened because the Turkish threat is removed and so his use for Venice is diminished. This is mirrored in his sudden insecurity in his relationship with Desdemona as he says that he ‘fears’ that they will never be happier than they are at that moment when they arrive in Cyprus.
Iago is excellent at interpreting the other character’s traits in order to further his plans in getting revenge upon Othello, so good that some critics label him as a ‘dramatist’ as his plans go accordingly exactly as he wants them to. This is particularly shown in the comic drinking scene, as by Iago realising that Cassio is weak to drink he uses alliteration in the song ‘canikan clink clink’ as a persuasive device for him to drink more. Cassio does this exactly and becomes exactly as Iago predicted ‘full of quarrel’ and eventually leads to his demotion. From this impression, it is perfectly believable that Othello can also be manipulated by Iago, and so refutes Leavis’s claim that Othello is ‘too stupid’. Iago does this by playing on Othello being an outsider by using the stereotype that Venetian women are deceiving that both Othello and the audience would be aware of, by describing Desdemona as ‘super subtle Venetian’. Because of Othello having no previous experience of Venetian women he cannot argue against this claim, and makes Iago’s argument more believable.
A C Bradley suggests however that Iago’s skills are so persuasive that Othello is ‘blameless’ and that any man would be convinced by him, and so this goes against the idea that it is Othello’s blackness that is a factor in his tragedy, which is supported by Othello deconstruction in his language. Othello from dignified blank prose at the beginning of the play, and rhetoric devices such as saying ‘Rude am I in speech’ before going into speaking eloquently, highlighting his master in speech, to using base language that Iago uses by calling Desdemona a ‘whore’ and a ‘strumpet’.
However, one interpretation to consider is how far a modern audience’s reaction to Othello would differ to an Elizabethan one because, as shown by the characters, society was more overtly racist. Black men were often depicted in drama at this time as dangerous by imagery associated with the devil, which is no exception here as Emilia calls Othello as ‘monstrous’ and the devil. This could show that she is voicing the audience’s own thoughts as a form of relief in this dramatic scene, particularly as it is Emilia who reveals the truth that the audience knew all along. Thus, Othello’s behaviour is one that an Elizabethan audience would expect of someone of Othello’s race, and so does not become a tragedy at all. In comparison a modern audience would be more sympathetic to Othello’s plight, particularly as they would probably abhor the racist language used by some of the characters. So as a result, a modern audience is more likely to see ‘Othello’ as a tragedy in the first place because them being more likely to see Othello as a victim in the play, and so are more likely to see his race as a factor in his tragedy.
The point that weakens this interpretation however is the fact that Othello is shown to die on stage, as opposed to Iago who dies offstage. This shows that Shakespeare’s intention was that the audience would have sympathy for Othello’s plight, and so would be considered a tragedy. This has brought one critic to suggest that Shakespeare was questioning the society around him by depicting black Othello as the hero and white Iago as the villain. This is also supported by Emilia speech in the ‘willow scene’ which is often described as being a ‘feminist’ speech by the fact that she argues for equality between men and women by them having the same desires as each other, despite society being pre-feminist. However, if Shakespeare’s views were so starkly different as society’s then it would not have been approved to be performed as it would not have generated a large enough audience, and so this view is limited.
In conclusion, Othello ‘The Moor of Venice’ is clearly an outsider by him being labelled as such, and is highlighted by his insecurities that become apparent very early on in the play. Thus, his tragedy is letting the ironically labelled ‘honest Iago’ play on these insecurities and turning against the one character who truly did not care about his blackness, and so being a ‘black man in a white society’ is a very important factor in his tragedy.