The Role of Race in Othello

Although the plots of Shakespe bes plays are specific, the motivations of the characters as well as of Shakespeare himself have been the blood of much debate. Arguments continue over interpretations of Shakespeares intentions in part because his plays remain so profoundly relevant. (www. pbs. org, Teachers Guide, Othello Essay on race, web. ) Othello is the story of a Berber who in the fourteenth century, has reached the outstrip of the pyramid in the Republic of Venice thanks to his value as a valiant general of the army.However, his life ended prematurely and tragic each(prenominal)y in the nefariousness of jealousy and crime. Othello is the only one able to defeat the Turks on the Cyprus battlefront. This is why the Doge sent him for this mission and, incidentally, gives him approval to bond with a woman from the nobility of Venice , Desdemona, daughter of Senator Brabantio, despite the reluctance of the latter, which obviously does non this Moor in his family. The drama takes place at the couples arrival in Cyprus and victorious of the Turks without a single take the field since it is served by the storm which swept the enemy fleet.Othello becomes the governor of the island and is at the height of his military and personal life since he won the heart and selflessness of Desdemona who so far strongly opposed her father to stay with him. From there, its a highway to hell that Shakespeare offers us, and we are right to ask the question of why such a tragedy, when Othello had bonny made an exceptional course and that nothing, could predict such a fall? In the play, the Venetian society claims not to be racist, what is true because it allows Othello to become a governor of Cyprus.But just wish our western and modern society, this racism rises under a speech of tolerance and fan outing. And it re-appears on the occasion of social struggles, of political or economic crises. It is the case in the play on the occasion of the fight between Iago and Cas sio. But this racism is also interiorized by Othello. Why does not he speak to Desdemona? Why does not he rely on her? Because he built his life in a violent fight against exclusion, so that he cannot believe in his happiness.His class is printed for ever in the face. Othello is a text on otherness, on the impossibility for a Southerner, a Moor, a Berber from atomic number 7 Africa to find his place in Venice at that time without denying all of the above. But if this denial and that is the demonstration made by Shakespeare can last a while, and so it turned against its author whose life turns to a tragedy. The play rises the question of the status of the stranger in our human society in general.Similarly, Othello may sound like a denunciation, a text that Shakespeare would have made masked in a classical tragedy that could please his audience. But we can also hire that the work, with its multiple facets exceeded its own author. It seems t that the idea there is probably a refle ction on the question of otherness and the need of human societies to be open to the Other, to avoid the risk of dying themselves from the isolation in which they stand, is widespread with regard to this text. The heart of this tragedy is the question of acculturation.To take a place in society, the Stranger or more precisely the dominated, is obliged to begin this process which is to adopt the dominant culture to be recognized in the human being of mainstream. The question of the disappearance of the line of productsal culture becomes glaring, because without it the dominated loses its soul and so a part of his life. Returning to the text, we can notice premier that Othello is often referred to its origins, the semblance of his skin, his strangeness, in short, non-membership in the Republic of Venice, this irrespectively of the invaluable services he could have render.In the first scene of Act I, Iago, Othellos faithful servant, who could not bear not to have been appointed by him as lieutenant, is trying to oppose the Senator Brabantio, Desdemonas father , to the love affair between his master and Desdemona. Iagos call would today lead to court prosecution for racism Youll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse Youll have your nephews neigh to you, youll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans.A weeny further the remarks are no less moderate I am one sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the moor are making the beast with 2 backs . We also learn in this first act, when Othello is obliged to explain the circumstances of his love with Desdemona (strange and against nature), that Brabantio that was linked to him in some friendship exactly we understand that it was true as he remained in the place which was his own, without going to compete with the Venetian nobles and hope to enter, for example, in the family.In this situation, the witch trials is already wielded by Brabantio accusing Othello of magic. Othello Her father lov ed me, he often invited me, he asked me the story of my life . This is in sharp contrast to the despair and violence of the father when he learns that his daughter left with Othello. He even make explicit reference to skin color and supposed ugliness of the stranger Scene 2 of the first act Can a girl so tender, so beautiful would never ran from the tutelage of her father in a black soot to be like you, to fear, not to delight. . Scene 3 of the first act become, despite his love of nature she was afraid to look . Othellos forced denial is nab he converted to Christianity and blames himself the Turks who represent Muslim revivalism, until his last words which will be discussed further. No word on his Berber origins nor his first religion which is Islam in all likelihood It seems to devote a genuine hatred for the Turks in the name of this total feeling of belonging to the Republic of Venice. He understood that his ascent is the price.It is solely swept away, erased its own and profound identity in its very essence. We can see in the same time as the others always refer to the particuliarities that are his, his strangeness, and then only when it comes to belittle, humiliate and to remove any legitimacy on this earth for which he fought body and soul. His denial is the cause of Othellos descent into hell, into a good-hearted of belated recognition that he was at the zenith of its glory. The homecoming seems to be inevitable for all of us, especially one who is living an important moment of his life and history.At the peak of his life, the Moor of Venice is undoubtedly aware of his confinement in this gilded citadel military glory and carnal love. Then he givse up, probably unconsciously, self-annihilation and easily falls into the trap of his so called faithful villainous Iago. There is a strong moment in this play, the only one to make a positive reference to the origins of Othello it is the episode of the handkerchief, a crucial object that comes from his mother when she was on her deathbed. Othellos mother is quoted there for the first time, as a remnant of that origin killed out of necessity This hences the importance of the handkerchief Othello and focusing on its loss. The fact that the object has been given to Cassio, Desdemonas supposed lover, therefore appears quite high. The behavior of Lodovico, the Doges sent to Cyprus to disclaim Othello, is the most emblematic of the shaky status of Othello in this society he wanted to endorse with all his heart it is as if Othello man considered and respected, was expected at the turn, as if it were enough for him to make any mistakes so that everybody will sound the most negative about him and forget immediately all its virtues.Thats what it feels well in Act 4, Scene One Lodovico, ironic, after seeing Othello in the grip of jealousy hit Desdemona This would not be believed in Venice, Though I should asseverate I saw it . Othello seems to be the subject of a hostile nature, a so rt of presumed guilt until he proves he is innocent The tragedy of Othello is that he matte one day that his meteoric success was insignificant because it was really and deeply socially and culturally was denied by a block of domination in a society which he lived in and which he has become, paradoxically, one of the banners.Irreversible process, there remained to be a good reason for the man to end the world, and he is guide by hatred Iago who is going to serve him a dish of lies and machinations . Othello then gives up again. Iago does not kill Othello, scarce gives him the means to destroy himself. After his doctrine tainted by political and military actions that Venice could not accept, he decides to kill the woman who deeply loved him and to end his own life with these words that intelligibly show his awareness of the wrong way it has made in his life f one whose hand, like the base Judean, threw the pearl away richer than all his folk of one whose subdued eyes, albe it unused to the melting mood, drops tears as fast as the Arabian trees their med cinable gum. Set you down this. And say besides that in Aleppo once, where a malignant and turbaned Turk beat a Venetian and traduced the state, I took by th throat the circumcised dog and smote him thus (He stabs himself). Everything is here, up to the tribe of Othellos origins and thus he has betrayed And we might think that circumcised dog is Othello himself. As we said in the beginning, Shakespeares work have always been the source of much debate and of many interpretation. In deed, lets conclude with a quote from the critic Harold Bloom in his book Shakespeare The Invention of the Human notes, We can keep finding the meanings of Shakespeare, but never the meaning. As each generation re-interprets Shakespeare, its likely that these issues will continue to challenge, infuriate, and intrigue audiences.