...Marcus Green English 4090 Mr. Michael Parker November 29, 2004 Deconstruction the Discourse of Black and White in Shakespeare’s Othello The complex and confusing values of “black” and “white” are used to reinforce the theme of man’s tragic blindness of good and evil in Shakespeare’s Othello. Thus, one will exam the use of the binary opposition “black” and “white” and the “différance” of these words within the content of the play. Therefore, the “absence” of the meaning of words is what makes a word differ from itself, and opens discourse to its true meaning within the content of the text. Within Othello, the repeated use of the terms “black” and “white,” has various polarized meanings. Hence, the relationship of these terms within the play requires a full explication of Shakespeare’s use of binary opposition in Othello. Deconstruction is a method of textual analysis and philosophical argument involving the close reading of works within literature. Therefore, a deconstructive reading examines the use of binary opposition within the content of a text. Binary oppositions focus on the words of the text; thus, reveal the meaning of the words that are hidden within the content of the language. As a result, words within the structural discourse of language can be used to displace and reassert meaning within the relationship of “différance” (Douglas 185). According to Derrida: différance is what makes the movement of signification possible only if each element is...
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...Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Racism in Othello Once or twice in a lifetime, individuals go through the ordeal of racism or being alienated; in the play by William Shakespeare, Othello, the young man Othello has served the city of Venice in a number of ways ranging from emerging victorious in the wars he fought to providing other services to the same city. At the time the play was being written in the 17th century, the minority groups were considered nonentities, irrelevant and were also ignored in most activities of the society. Despite the frustrations faced by the blacks during this time, Othello emerged a unique black man who managed to become a military general who was even accorded respect by the white people who were also in power. However he started experiencing the diverse effects of racism when he got married to Desdemona, the daughter of a senator by the name Barbantio; what made people to insist that the marriage across the races was not the right thing. Other characters were not pleased with move of Othello to marry the senator’s daughter and resort to calling him names such as the moor, which indicated his race; they referred to him with such names so that they could remind him that he was a descendant of Africa. This fight which was launched against the minority groups within the play Othello later brings his marriage to a tragic end. The play Othello cannot be seen as being racist, but the characters within the play were racists...
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...Implications of Othello’s Blackness in Shakespeare’s Othello Racial tension is a recurring issue in many prominent pieces of literature, including William Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Othello’s skin is darker than the pale European skin that the rest of the characters in the play share, causing him to be judged based on his appearance. Othello struggles to overcome the obstacles that being black cause him in order to prove that his soul is pure white. In the end, Othello lets Iago get the best of him. The blackness inside of Othello overcomes him and coaxes him to make bad decisions and show that his soul might not be so pure after all. Throughout the play, Othello is treated as an outsider. Most people respect Othello regardless of his blackness since he is a highly ranked general in the military, although he is never fully accepted by them. This is largely because “the African is considered ugly, lascivious, an unnatural mate for a European, a practitioner of forbidden arts, of a volatile, even savage nature, and clearly not as polished or as cultivated as Europeans of a similar class” (Adler 249-250). Othello becomes even more ostracized from society when he marries his white skinned wife, Desdemona. Brabantio and Othello were friends before he found out that Othello was marrying his daughter. Once he heard the news, he became enraged that she would marry someone of his race. This goes to show that, regardless of whether Othello comes from a royal family or is highly ranked...
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...Racism in Othello Othello, by William Shakespeare, is a tragedy that tells that story of what happens to a man named Othello after he marries a woman named Desdemona. Othello is a black man, known throughout the play as a Moor and he marries the daughter of a white Venetian Senator. One of the most critical themes of the play is race. While racism is a reoccurring theme throughout the play, the play itself is not racist. The main character is a black man and the evil villain is white. Shakespeare does not dumb down Othello just because he is black, but rather he portrays Othello as a well-liked, high ranking officer in the Venetian military. During the time that Shakespeare wrote Othello many people were racists and people of color where thought of as savage (Essay). Many people at that time would have felt that an interracial marriage was wrong. They would have not thought that Shakespeare’s writing was racist. The audience would be used to the type of racist language Shakespeare used (Blum). Shakespeare would not have been thought of as being racist. The play itself is not racist, but rather individual characters are either racist or not. The most racist character is Iago. Iago is considered “honest” when in reality he is a pure villain. The audience knows that Iago is not what he seems to be. He shares his plans for destroying Othello. Even though Iago is white, he plays the bad guy, while Othello is considered a good man. Iago hates Othello because he did...
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...6 November 2014 Othello William Shakespeare`s Othello is a play set in Venice. The plot is based on a story about two people who love each other dearly and the problems and conflicts they face from the start. The conflicts are, for the most part, tied in with racial issues and questions of race and loyalty. These conflicts stem from the society around the couple, as well as from the couple themselves as they too are part of this society, but with very different backgrounds: The female protagonist is the daughter of a highly-respected Venetian senator Brabantio. Othello also known as the Moor--is a foreigner, black in color, has a past filled with tragic and exotic tales and has proved himself worthy of the title General in the Venetian army. During the time the playwright was written ethnic minorities were so unimportant that they were almost ignored. Even before we, as an audience, have had a chance to meet Othello and Desdemona we learn that the match is considered as disgusting as it is outrageous. From the very beginning everyone and everything seem to work against them, but in the hope that love will conquer all we do not allow ourselves to despair as yet. And indeed, the first act proves us right. After having explained why they love each other the world seems to accept this alliance. As the play continues Othello starts to lose his dignity and question his own racial identity as undesirable. The problems occur when Othello marries Desdemona, the young...
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...today. Yet race problems are not something new in human history, in Shakespeare’s Othello named after the main character who is a black man, in an all white society. Othello married Desdemona, a white venetian women and around them the plot circles. Microaggression have been part of our society for awhile. These two text show race is two different societies and time periods. Yet the similarities between race relation in each text, begs the question how far we really come in race relations. Citizen and Othello shed light on...
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...Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Racism in Othello Once or twice in a lifetime, individuals go through the ordeal of racism or being alienated; in the play by William Shakespeare, Othello, the young man Othello has served the city of Venice in a number of ways ranging from emerging victorious in the wars he fought to providing other services to the same city. At the time the play was being written in the 17th century, the minority groups were considered nonentities, irrelevant and were also ignored in most activities of the society. Despite the frustrations faced by the blacks during this time, Othello emerged a unique black man who managed to become a military general who was even accorded respect by the white people who were also in power. However he started experiencing the diverse effects of racism when he got married to Desdemona, the daughter of a senator by the name Barbantio; what made people to insist that the marriage across the races was not the right thing. Other characters were not pleased with move of Othello to marry the senator’s daughter and resort to calling him names such as the moor, which indicated his race; they referred to him with such names so that they could remind him that he was a descendant of Africa. This fight which was launched against the minority groups within the play Othello later brings his marriage to a tragic end. The play Othello cannot be seen as being racist, but the characters within the play were racists...
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...represented in Othello? An outsider is someone that is not fully accepted by society. They tend to be shunned and excluded, deemed different and a threat. Outsiders don’t conform to society’s values and beliefs and the concept of this is represented in Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. In this tragedy, the Outsider alienates themselves by going against sixteenth century attitudes about sex, gender, and race. Shakespeare comments on how a society excludes and mistreats someone different from the paradigm that defines the Venetian society. The tragic figure, Desdemona, is an example of this concept and her actions, and the actions of people around her ultimately doom her. Desdemona is portrayed as a beautiful, young, Venetian woman. She is first set as an outsider when she chooses to marry an old, black man, Othello over young, wealthy, white Venetians. Interracial marriage was highly uncommon and looked down upon. This is clearly shown when Iago makes racial comments about Othello, “Even now, now, very now an old black ram is tupping your white ewe”. Iago’s use of black and white imagery degrades Othello and gives the impression that he has defiled the pure ‘white ewe’, Desdemona. Iago clearly doesn’t approve and sees the union of black and white as a bestial one. Shakespeare uses repetition (now, now, very now) to emphasise the particular idea that what is happening is shocking. Shakespeare is deliberately startling and troubling the audience, using the terms black and white to reflect the...
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...The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice In the theatre of Shakespeare, one can encounter multiple “others” or “outsiders” when reading this text Othello `through a physco-analytic lense. Found throughout is Shakespeare desire to label Othello as “alien”, “outsider”, the stranger” and “other,” which can be seen as an unconscious, collective thought shared by members of this culture. The citizens tragically delude themselves by accepting him into their Venetian society, when in fact he is an “outsider” in ever way possible. Othello epitomizes what can be seen as an “outsider” in a white, Christian society where blacks are labeled as “strangers.” The tone of his skin is essentially what attributes to him being considered an intruder who...
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...OTHELLO’S FOCUS ON RACISM The play, Othello, by Shakespeare is a tragic play that reveals that racism played a part in why various incidents happened throughout the story. Throughout the play, there are a few cases in which Othello seems to recognize and comment on his differences from those around him. Othello is very humble and doesn’t pretend to “act” like a pompous figure and states, “Rude am I in speech,/And little blessed with the soft phrase of speech” (I.iii.81-82). This humility defines his character throughout the first half of the play. Othello’s friendly personality allows him to woo his friends (and lovers) with tales that they want to hear again and again. This allows him to realize that he is admired, at least in part, because of the exotic elements of his character in his stories. Othello is a man that is willing to accept that he is racially different, yet not racially inferior, and in fact he realizes that his being categorized as “other” in a world of white men sets him aside and pronounces his race and exotic life story. “Racism creates racial otherness, making contingent attributes such as skin color into sins of supposedly essential identity in order to justify the community’s practices of domination and exclusion” (Skura, 300). All of the racism throughout the play is directed toward Othello, who was a brave soldier from Africa, who was currently the supreme commander of the Venetian army. Almost every character in the play uses some form of a racial...
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...Racism Jealousy, and a Doomed Marriage in Othello Almost everyone, in his or her lifetime, may experience alienation or racism at least one time. In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, Othello has done a considerable amount for the city of Venice in which he lives whether it is his military victories or other services he has for the city. However, during the time of the play, which is the very early 17th century, minorities were irrelevant and ignored by many on society. Despite the role of a minority in the time, Othello is a black man who rises to power as a general in the military and is respected by the other white people in power. However when he marries a young beautiful woman named Desdemona, who is the daughter of Senator Barbantio, the effects of racism are in full effect. Characters get jealous and use his race as a means of trying to break up the marriage of Othello and Desdemona. Othello is known as the Moor and is called the name by other characters in the play, which signal that he is from African decent. In Othello, the conflict of racism toward a minority ultimately ends up in the ending of the marriage in a tragic way. The play, Othello, is concerned with one of the major anticipated disgraces and embarrassments of Western Civilization and tradition, i.e. the martial union of a black man and a white woman of superior social status (Toker 31). Once the marriage between Desdemona and Othello was complete, the man who was once respected by everyone...
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...King James I and his court were the first to watch a production of William Shakespeare’s “Othello.” The famous playwright was in the midst of his tragedy period, penning such classics as “Hamlet,” “King Lear,” and “Macbeth.” The story of “Othello” has its roots in the historical events and cultural atmosphere of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was a common practice of playwrights at the time to borrow or lift plot ideas from other preexisting stories, and Shakespeare was no exception to the rule. The plot of “Othello” most closely resembles a 1565 story by the Italian writer Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinzio: a Moorish general is tricked by one of his officers into thinking his wife has been unfaithful. Shakespeare took the basic plot points of this tale and embellished them for dramatic effect, adding characters like Roderigo and Brabanzio and more fully developing the character of the villain, Iago. To heighten and speed up the drama, “Othello” takes place over the span of a few days. The backdrop of “Othello” has its origins in the real-life conflicts between Turkey and Venice that occurred in the late 16th century. The action of the play takes place in Cyprus, a Venetian military outpost that was conquered by the Turks in 1571. A contemporary study of these wars was “The History of the Turks,” written and published by Richard Knolles in 1603—just a year before “Othello” premiered. It is reasonable to assume that Shakespeare, like anybody of the time who kept...
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...Does Shakespeare reinforce or question contemporary attitudes to cultural outsiders in 'Othello' and The Merchant of Venice? In the plays the Merchant of Venice and Othello, Shakespeare explores the effects of racial oppression and attitudes to race in general. The idea of cultural outsiders is one of the main themes present in the plays. 'Culture' is the customs and social behaviour of particular groups of people and societies and an outsider is a person who does not belong in a particular situation, organisation or community. This definition relates to both Othello and Shylock as throughout the play we see them as victims of prejudice and injustice because of their cultural differences. In the play Othello, Shakespeare expresses the culture outsider, Othello himself in this instance. As a moor. The term Moor means a person or persons of an African descent. During the renaissance time period there were various stigmas attached to 'moors' and other cultural outsiders. Leo Africanus wrote a book named 'the history and description of Africa (1526)' where he portrayed Moors as being extremely prideful. 'Subject unto Jealousy; who would rather lose their lives than put up any disgrace on behalf of the women.' This is ironic and would lead one to believe Shakespeare reinforced Africanus' ideology in the tragic ending of Othello. Shakespeare also reinforces contemporary attitudes to Jews through the protagonist Shylock. During the 1600’s Jews were extremely disliked and according...
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...Literature Paper 3: Othello How are conflicts between the individual and society presented in the play, Othello? In drama terms, the definition of conflict is the opposition between characters or forces that motivates or structure the action of the plot. In Othello, the conflicts between the individual and society are manifested through the conflicts between friends and enemies, Othello’s inner conflict, cultural and racial disparities which lead to racial discrimination. In this play, society precedence over the individual as the society somehow has forces to control the individual. takes Shakespeare uses techniques such as contrast, soliloquys, dramatic irony, syntax rhythm to achieve this. As a foreigner, Othello is an individual who is discriminated by the society he lives in which is dominated by white Venetians. Though he is a respectable general, he is still regarded as an outsider. In the beginning of the play, Iago presents Othello as a misfit in Venetian society because of different race and skin tone. This is seen through the snide remarks about Othello. “…an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe…” (1.1.88-89) This dramatic incongruity between Othello as the “old black ram” and Desdemona as the “white ewe” emphasises the Othello’s otherness. Through the antithesis-the contrasting light and dark imagery-we see the racial conflict between Othello (individual) and the Venetian society. The conflict between Othello and Brabantio is a microcosm of the conflict...
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...a comprehensive construct of society’s values and one’s ethnic background in addition to our occupational duties and interactions with others. In Shakespeare’s ‘Othello,’ and the film, “To Sir with Love,” the identities of the key characters are shown to be a constitute of such circumstances with a particular focus on the influence of relationships. In Shakespeare’s ‘Othello,’ the discriminative attitude of Venetian society towards people of black ethnicity is presented as a significant influential factor in the shaping of Othello’s identity. This is explored through the use language in which Othello is repeatedly referred to as the “Moor” and by the derogatory terms “thick-lips” and a “Barbary horse.” Othello’s black exterior denotes to his position as a ‘outsider’ and therefore his marriage to Desdemona, a white woman is considered unfathomable, “If she in chains of magic were not bound, whether a maid so tender, fair and happy, so opposite to marriage that she shunn’d,” Contrastingly, Othello’s elevated status in Venetian society, reflected in his high naval position, forms an identity that is greatly respected, so much so that not even the accusations of Brabantio affect his status. This is clearly demonstrated when the duke says, “Your son in law is far more fair than black,” thus signifying that Othello’s black skin hides an amiable interior. Othello’s important role in society is juxtaposed with society’s prejudices to...
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