Is Shakespeare Racist?
One very touchy subject bleeds off the pages of Shakespeare’s play, “Othello,” It has been a touchy subject for a lot of us for a long time now. It has caused an uproar of great controversy between multiple groups for decades and it happens to be racism. Racism has ALWAYS been around, even during the time of Shakespeare. However, it wasn’t, and still isn’t today, a subject anyone would like to talk about. So why would an experience, intelligent, famous author write a play about such a hush-hush concept? To Grab Attention. This is one of Shakespeare’s first plays to purposefully incorporate an African American man into his plays. The reason for this is not to simply poke fun or discriminate or even himself be racist; it is to show how racism can be a very ugly idea. Racism is so prominent within in the play that it becomes an antagonist in “Othello.” We never found out Iago’s true motives for deceiving Othello. Although Iago says he hates Othello for possibly sleeping with his wife (II. i. 316-323), he certainly might just be giving excuses to hide the fact that he doesn’t respect Othello for his skin color. Iago almost always refers to Othello as “the Moor,” except when his lips are in the present of the moor himself. Shakespeare does this to show Iago’s hidden disrespect for Othello and his skin color. Overall, Shakespeare is not a racist person himself. He simply explored the negative concept of racism to demonstrate how ugly and evil it can be on its own.
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Dawson Bartlett:
So we just stopped reading Othello - thank goodness! Here's a blog to tell you all about it. Be careful... there are spoilers! |