Othello Play Essay Research Paper If Othello free essay sample

Othello Play Essay, Research Paper ? If Othello didn? t Begin as a drama about race, history has made it one. ? The Venetian society that Othello is set in is representative of the authors context. The attitudes and values that Shakespeare reveals through the text are those same attitudes and values of Elizabethan society in England in the sixteenth-century. Although Othello is set in Venice and Cyprus, the attitudes and values shared in the text are likely brooding of the attitudes and values of Shakespeare # 8217 ; s ain society. It is hard to measure the attitudes and values of people in sixteenth-century Britain to the comparatively few inkinesss populating amongst them. We are given an penetration into those attitudes and values through the representation of race and gender in the text of Othello.These attitudes and values are declarative of what a civilization believes in and supports. By the clip Othello was written the English were going more and more aware of the being of other races in the universe besides themselves. We will write a custom essay sample on Othello Play Essay Research Paper If Othello or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There had been a batch of going and inkinesss were get downing to be used in Europe for the slave trade. During the clip the drama was written, the Queen of England had banned wholly inkinesss from come ining the metropolis. She spoke of them as? Negars and Moors which are crept into the kingdom, of which sort of people there are already here excessively many? . It seems that Shakespeare is about mocking the Queen by characterizing Othello as a black adult male who has a high ranking place in the Army and who marries a white blue adult females, against her male parents will. Ruth Cowlig suggests that the presentation of Othello as the hero must hold been galvanizing for Elizabethan audiences. This may hold been the instance, but through the representation of Othello we are able to see that some members of society such as the Duke, looked over his coloring material to delegate him his place whereas, others such as Iago, expression on his coloring material as a manner to mock him. Hostility is shown to Othello by characters such as Iago and Roderigo. This attitude may hold been encouraged by the widespread belief in the fable that inkinesss were posterities of Ham in the Genesis narrative, punished for sexual surplus by their inkiness. The Elizabethan # 8217 ; s discussed at length whether this skin coloring material was due to life in a hot clime or whether it was a penalty for wickedness. To the Elizabethan # 8217 ; s, who thought hierarchically, just tegument was the prototype of beauty and hence dark tegument ranked below it. The term black was used in a assortment of texts to stand for wickedness, crud, ugliness, evil, and the Devil. This value is ascribed to Iago when he describes Othello as the? black Moor? suggesting at something other than merely coloring material. Attitudes to race aren? t the lone attitudes revealed in the text though. Attitudes and values about gender are besides revealed in the portraiture of adult females and their actions in the text. A premier illustration of this is when Desdemona elopes with Othello without her male parent? s permission, which during that clip would hold been socially unacceptable. This is revealed to us through Brabantio? s reaction as Shakespeare uses Brabantio as a vehicle for the representation of higher society? s positions on affairs. Another value revealed in the text is that of matrimony. In the Elizabethan epoch matrimony was non merely a religious brotherhood but besides a belongings dealing ; the bride brought a dowery from her male parent and the groom? s male parent ( or the groom if he had already inherited his estate ) had to settle lands on her in return, as a jointure. Therefore, to get married without the bride # 8217 ; s father # 8217 ; s permission could be seen as an act of larceny. This may explicate why Brabantio reacted so strongly to the brotherhood of Othello and Desdemona.These attitudes and values contrast rather drastically to those ascribed to society today. Nowadays coloured tegument is a common happening and a character such as Othello would be rather socially accepted. Race is both more recognized and more abused than in Shakespeare # 8217 ; s clip. With the feminist motion values given to adult females have besides changed rather drastically. This is because adult females are now seen less as belongings and more of an equal. Marriage has besides changed. In the 16th century misss tended to be married off instead immature in their teens and to hold their hubbies chosen for them by their male parents. Now girls tend to acquire married in their late mid-twentiess and are free to take their ain spouse. These attitudes and values that are revealed in the text are done so through the representation of race and gender. Race and gender are revealed in the text by the utilizations of imagination, word picture, secret plan, stylistic techniques, and linguistic communication. Race is represented in many different ways to let the attitudes and values of Elizabethan society to be revealed through it. The manner race is portrayed allows us to hold entree to these attitudes and values. Race is portrayed by the character Othello, who is a Moor, and by what is said about him, and how he? s reacted to. Othello is presented ab initio as a unsafe animal by Iago, before he reveals himself to be of baronial, human, position, merely to devolve subsequently to the status of a bloodthirsty and irrational animate being. He is the hero of the drama and this is achieved by his last address ( V. ii. 340-356 ) where he rights himself at the terminal of the drama. ? I kissed thee ere I killed thee: no manner but this, Killing myself, to decease upon a buss? ( V. two. 359 ) . By demoing us these contrasting images of the Moor, Shakespeare is uncovering the two different attitudes to race. The one of credence, as shown through characters such as Montano. And the one of hatred, as shown through characters such as Iago. Iago and Roderigo are full of racial aversion in the first scene. The animate being images? you? ll hold your girl covered with a Barbary Equus caballus? ( I. I. 112 ) convey the thoughts of person less than homo. The manner race is portrayed reflects Shakespeare? s and his society? s attitudes to race. Earlier Shakespeare created two other Moors. Aaron in? Titus Andronicus? , and Marocco in? The Merchant in Venice? . The most negative manner, and the chief manner race is portrayed is through Iago? s mentions to Othello and what he says about him, such as ; ? old black random-access memory, ? and? Barbary horse. ? ( I. I. 89-112 ) A more positive manner that race is portrayed is through the character of Othello himself. He is described as ? baronial Othello? , and Valiant Othello? . He has secured the love of an blue adult females, he has a high place and is regarded good in society. Even after his devolution he is still able to compensate himself in the eyes of the people, and dies as the hero of the drama. Possibly the most brooding position of race in Elizabethan society is demonstrated in the character of Brabantio who, as I said earlier is a vehicle for the representation of higher society? s positions on affairs. Brabantio accepted Othello as a member of society # 8230 ; # 8230 ; . , and he respected his place. He even invited him to dinner # 8230 ; # 8230 ; . But to hold him get married his girl was acquiring a small excessively much. To Brabantio the brotherhood between Desd emona and Othello is? a lese majesty of the blood? ( I..i.160 ) and he feels that society? s credence of Othello will cut down Venetian solon to? bond slaves and heathens? ( I.ii.99 ) . He besides believes that Desdemona could non love ? the sooty bosom of such a thing? ( I.ii.70 ) . One who she feared? To fall in love with what she feared to look on? ( I.iii.98 ) . The thought of race developed as a manner to explicate societal divisions in a society that thought it believed in equality. And what constitutes race has changed rather dramatically since so. Othello is neither a racialist text or a non-racist text but is simply demoing the representation of race in a sixteenth-century society. I suppose one could reason that Iago International Relations and Security Network # 8217 ; t racialist, as the secret plan would no uncertainty stand the same if you remove all the racialist comments, but I can # 8217 ; t conceive of nearing the drama or the function from that position. For one thing, the Venetian universe is slightly racist, and Othello is widely considered the nominal exclusion to the regulation. More specifically, Iago knows how to fuel the racialist fires in both Brabantio and Roderigo screening that those racist positions were existing. This indicates to me that he has a pretty personal cognition of those feelings. With Brabantio, he uses the imagination of a black random-access memory tupping your white Ewe ( I.i.90 ) # 8211 ; non merely that Desdemona has run off with anyone, but with a BLACK anyone. And Iago, as usual, reduces the love affair and love in the state of affairs into blazing sexual footings. Roderigo maintains that Desdemona # 8217 ; s infatuation with Othello can non perchance last really long because it defies nature for her to be attracted to a adult male of Othello # 8217 ; s skin color. And Roderigo has his portion of racialist comments ( naming Othello the thick-lips , etc. ) . Even more, there is no grounds in the drama that Othello and Emilia have had an matter, yet Iago suspects it.But the attitudes and values of Elizabethan society are non merely revealed in how race is represented, but besides in how gender is represented. The manner the attitudes and values of Elizabethan England are represented through gender is based on the portraiture of adult females in the text.The three adult females in the text are Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. And together they construct a well rounded position of adult females in society. From Angel through realist to whore. The other manner adult females are portrayed is through the portraiture of them by other characters. The characters who offer the most noteworthy portraitures are Iago, Brabantio, and Emilia. Act II scene I shows Iago? s strongest positions on adult females. Iago makes generalizations of adult females, when he says? you are pictures out of doors, bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchens ; saints in your hurts, Satans being offended ; participants in your housewifery, and adulteresss in your beds. ? ( II.i.109-112 ) . He besides presents a common position of that epoch when he says? You rise to play, and travel to bed to work? . ( II.i.115 ) This presents the sixteenth-century position of adult females being held to be unstable, potentially or really unchaste, and morally frail. Their sexual desires were represented as unnatural appetencies. They were besides thought to be? unstable sexual animals, probably to bewray work forces? with? Appetites neer satisfied? . The history of the hankie besides suggests the power of female gender over work forces: ? That hankie Did an Egyptian to my female parent spring ; She was a smoothie, and could about read The ideas of people: she told her, while she kept it, # 8216 ; Twould do her good-humored and subdue my male parent Wholly to her love # 8230 ; . ? ( III. four. 55-60 ) . Brabantio who represents higher society? s positions of adult females has an idealized position of them. To him girls have to be subservient, and obedient, by doing her ain determinations in matrimony, Desdemona represents treachery in his eyes. To the people of Elizabethan times it would likely look that Desdemona undermines her place in society and alterations gender political relations by get marrieding without her male parent? s consent. Emilia is a dramatic contrast to Desdemona, and she is the lone character who seems to offer a different position of adult females. She herself is rather a strong character as a adult female as she is realistic, matter-of-fact, capable of bravery, loyal and ego giving. In act IV scene three she delivers a feminist address that inquiries society. ? But I do believe it is their hubbies mistakes if married womans do fall? ( IV.iii. 87 ) . She is a realist and accepts worlds by seeing their mistakes but still accepting them. She besides has a feminist position of work forces? They are all but tummies and we all but nutrient ; They eat us hungerly, and when they are full they belch us? ( III.iv. 108-110 ) . How society felt about adult females is shown by their influences on Othello # 8217 ; s behaviour and who he believes about Desdemona? s unfaithfulness. Othello believes Iago over Desdemona, who is his married woman. The adult females in this drama don # 8217 ; t seem to possess really much power, but in fact they have much more power and control than most people think. They hold the drama together like gum to paper. If Desdemona neer had the power to perpetrate criminal conversation so it would neer hold been thought of and Othello would neer hold fallen. Each of the adult females in the drama are abused by work forces and a victim of the green eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on ( III. three. 168-169 ) . Othello is a perfect illustration of where the adult females are made to look inferior to the work forces through the usage of stylistic techniques, secret plan, and usage of linguistic communication. But why is this so of import? It is of import because adult females in Othello brand up the anchor of the drama. Without them there to antagonize the work forces and generate intense feelings of love, hatred and jealousy, the drama could non and would non be. The supposed lower status of adult females follows from the fact that human societies have been dominated by work forces. This may non be so true now, but in Elizabethan times which is the? peculiar clip and topographic point? that the attitudes and values are revealed from it was particularly true. How these representations reflect the attitudes and values of Elizabethan society is through the manner that adult females are portrayed in the text as I have discussed earlier. In Elizabethan society there was a myth of adult females # 8217 ; s insatiate lecherousness and adult females were seen as rapacious monsters. It was thought that female gender was a menace to the patriarchal society, and must be safely contained. In the Encyclopaedia of World Mythology it says? Women in male eyes, are supposed to be contrary and cryptic animals, confusingly uniting all kinds of features, every bit mutable as chameleons, and yet someway vexingly in touch with world through intuition. ? Brabantio is a vehicle for society? s positions on gender and he shows how society at the clip of Othello would hold thought of adult females. In decision, values and attitudes of a peculiar clip and topographic point are revealed in Othello through the representation of race and gender. How these attitudes and values are revealed is through the the manner they are portrayed, the character building, the stylistic techniques, the linguistic communication, the content of address and the symbolism.