Othello as an Outsider in Shakespeare’s Play

In Shakespeare’s play “Othello” the character Othello is presented as an outsider to the events that are taking place amongst the other characters. He was excluded from what the truth holds and this caused his downfall, along with his jealous nature and stubbornness. To make things worse Iago’s cunning plans captures Othello into a downward spiral to his defeat. The sense of irony involved is regarded as a highly important technique that is repeated through out the play. As a stubborn and decisive man he was unable to discern from evil and good.

His extreme jealous nature is a significant character trait in which plays a large roll in Othello’s actions. Othello is presented as an outsider to the events that take place throughout the play, this causes the drama and increased irony within the play. He is unaware of the conversations and relationships that are taking place between other characters such as Desdemona and Cassio. Being oblivious towards the truth and having an insecure nature he jumped to conclusion without attempting to sort out complications.

His insecurities lead him to only trust the one and only “honest” Iago, without knowing he is trusting the wrong person he was manipulated. Due to the fact that Othello only believed in his “honest” Iago he was unable to make decisions that weren’t biased from the rumors which Iago convinced was true. Othello as an outsider came with difficulties due to the lack of trust he had with Desdemona, the lack of trust came from the insufficient amount of communication they had with each other.

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He placed a small amount of trust into his own wife compared to the trust he had give to “honest” Iago. This may have been due to his lack of communication with females during his military conflicts. The lack of knowledge of communication may have made it difficult for him to communicate with his wife. He may have learnt to never trust a woman in military situations but found it difficult to adjust into household situations. A fatal flaw that Othello had was the jealous nature in which he had.

His high amount jealousy made it convenient for Iago to manipulate Othello through his cunning words “beware, my lord, of jealous: it is the green eyed monster”. Although he seems to be convincing Othello to be aware of jealousy he secretly wants Othello to turn jealous. By saying this it highlights the dramatic irony in which Iago challenges to destroy Othello’s success. His jealous nature and with the ocular proof before him he could not resist from planning his wife’s death “I’ll not expostulate with her, let her body and beauty unprovide my mind again”.

This is enough to suggest Othello is a very stubborn and decisive man that does not liked to be questioned. Just like a General he will take responsibility for his actions and for his woman. His judgment and accusation that he made was unreasonable and he refused to listen to her explain to “unprovide my mind again”. Othello has a constant fear for his reputation that has been put into jeopardy by his wife. As a General he is highly regarded and if anyone were to find out of this cuckold he would be shamed in front of his army.

In Act 2 Scene 3 Cassio foreshadowed Othello in the lost of his reputation, “I have lost the immortal part of myself”. The loss of reputation is seen as loosing a part of one’s self, Cassio was unable to bear the consequence of losing face in front of his general. He repeats the word reputation to emphasise the importance of his reputation in which he has lost. After the death of his wife in Act 5 Scene 2 he feels the shame in “one that loved not wisely, but too well”. Othello admits his weakness as a jealous man, which led him to kill himself from the truth of his actions.

The trafficking of human beings from Africa to western countries was highly common in the time of Othello’s leadership of his men. This is a crucial point in which reflects on the concept of Othello as an outsider. Othello as an Arabian Moor was a slave in his past years “And sold to slavery”, this may have caused his low self-esteem and unconfident image. In Elizabethan times society’s attitudes towards Moors and different races were often very poor. It was clear that Moors like Othello were not welcome to a place in the Elizabethan social order.

Shakespeare’s audience would have seen Othello and Desdemona’s marriage as an outrage. It would have caused the audience to perceive this as unusual because he is a black man. Others around him may have been jealous of his success like Iago, it was too much for him to accept which led him to feel the need to destroy Othello. Brabantio was too ashamed of his daughter’s decision to marry a Moor. It was seen as an unjustified action, Brabrantio’s reaction towards the marriage was very poor. This issue relates back to the theme of reputation and loss of face amount colleagues.

Brabantio had lost face in front of the Duke and all the Senators of the State because of Desdemona. “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: She has deceived her father and may thee”, Brabantio is foreshadowing the reason of Othello’s downfall. As an Arabian Othello was unaware of Venetian customs and traditions. This played a major part in the play because of the uncertainties Othello had for his wife and himself. The uncertainties lead to a low self-esteem and knowledge about his wife, without knowledge of Venetian women it was hard for him to understand Desdemona.

Through out the play Othello as in outsider had unfair stereotypes placed upon him, this proved to be a challenge for him. There was a constant fear of his reputation at stake, it was possible that he did not want to remain a slave for the Venetians. Shakespeare’s use of a black man as a main character of the play, this suggests that he disagrees with the stereotypical white man as the superior character. If Othello was not an outsider he may have been the superior protagonist of the play and there would not have been a downfall in his success.