The Role of Racism in Othello, a Play by William Shakespeare

Racism is a term used to define discrimination towards someone of a different race. Racism plays a huge role in William Shakespeare’s play Othellol With Othello being a black man, there was a lot of tension. MUTLU states how Othello was one of the first plays that is shaped around racismr As stated in the article, ““Othello is a tragedy of racial conflict, a tragedy of honor, rather than jealousy (qtd, in Andreas, 39)”.” Iago could not accept the fact that an African American had a higher position than he did Iago tried to make fun of Othello by calling him names like ‘thick lipped” which really did not offend Othello one bit, Overall, if Othello had been a white man, the entire play would have played out completely differently In the beginning ofAct l, Iago and Roderigo wake Brabantio in the middle of the night to tell him that his daughter, Desdemona, is with a black man Brabantio gets very upset and worried and calls all his men to go find Desdemona Brabantio assumes Othello has used some type or which craft on her which I feel is very racist.

Just because Othello is black he thinks his daughter cannot fall in love with him on her own He mainly thinks Othello is going to ruin his pure daughter.

As Iago says, “Even now, now, very now an old black ram is tupping your white ewemor else the devil will make a grandsire of you” (1,1.89-90) The characters mostly react like this because Othello is black.

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If Othello had been white, Brabantio most likely would not have had a problem with Othello being with Desdemona Throughout the play, Iago constantly shows his jealousy towards Othello for having a higher position than him Iago had been begging for the position but was very upset/raged when Othello got appointed thejob. He could not handle the fact that Othello, being a black man, had more power than him. Iago began to go to extreme measures to make Othello look bad. He began to tell lies that caused Othello to kill Desdemona in the end Maybe if Othello had been white, Iago would not have gone so far as to cause Othello to kill Desdemona and himself, Iago would not have had such a problem with Othello having a better position than him.

Racism, along with many other issues, is one of the biggest factors in the entire play of Othello. There is a lot of tension along with jealousy towards Othello because of the color of his skin To the point where people are killed Racism today is not as big of a problem as it was back when Othello was written If Othello had been white everyone would have probably shown him more respect and not looked down on him as much. We should not let race determine how we treat someone. Just because Othello was black does not mean he was any less worthy or less pure than a white man. Race does not define a person, We have come a long way with it since the play was written, It is a coincidence that this play with having the main character as African American was written around the time of slavery starting.