Othello: analysis and themes

Ethics

Shakespeare's Othello: A tragedy of race or character?

Perhaps no other Shakespearean play is more difficult for contemporary observers to appreciate in an unbiased fashion than the tragedy of Othello. "Readings that find seeds of racial prejudice in Othello's Venetian society are not necessarily wrong, but the subject is deeply complicated both by the competing and slippery meanings of race" and the degree to which race is seen as natural or as social construction, in Shakespeare's time vs. our own (Bartels 46). Our own contemporary obsession with race inevitably clouds our interpretations of Othello's character and the degree to which Shakespeare portrays him as a victim of a racist society, or as a character whose natural savageness eventually is revealed by events machinated by Iago.

Shakespeare is, as always, ambiguous, in the ways that he portrays all of his characters, black and white. But "critics impressed by the importance of Othello's Moorishness have tended to respond in two quite different ways" (Berry 315). For some, "Othello's negroid [sic] physiognomy is simply the emblem of a difference that reaches down to the deepest levels of personality. . . . [In other words] Othello is, in actual fact, what Iago says he is, a 'barbarian' while other critics "have argued that Shakespeare invokes the negative Elizabethan stereotypes of Africans only to discredit them," stressing the foolish racism of both Iago and Brabantio, especially in the early scenes of the play before the handkerchief plot begins to fall into place (Berry 316). These scenes draw a distinction between an "external appearance of devilishness and the inner reality" as Othello looks black but behaves nobly, while Iago looks honest but behaves devilishly (Berry 315-316).

In support of the latter thesis, the play does seem to suggest the idea that Othello is best defined as a tragic character, and a tragedy is said to be a play about a great man who becomes 'fallen.' Othello is clearly a formidable general, as admitted even by the white men of the play who are predisposed to be prejudiced against him because of his race. Othello points out that Brabantio invited him to his house, to speak with his daughter, and only invoked racist ideas after Desdemona married him. When Othello is accused of witchcraft in his wooing of the white Desdemona, his impassioned story of his life and how his words enabled him to win Desdemona's heart and hand brings forth this comment from the Duke of Venice: "I think this tale would win my daughter too" (I.3). When Othello begins to behave cruelly to Desdemona, this is seen as uncharacteristic, not just of him as a lover, but as a man: "Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate/Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature / Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue/The shot of accident, nor dart of chance, / Could neither graze nor pierce... / Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?" says Lodovico (4.1).

It is Iago who shows crude racism when he says: "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is topping your white ewe" (I.1). He says this to Brabantio, after explaining to the foolish, credulous Rodrigo that he is intent upon inciting violence against the Moor, not because he believes Othello to be an incompetent general, but because he hates Othello for not giving him a supposedly deserved promotion. Those who hate Othello, this suggests, do so out of spite, rather than any real problems that originate with Othello's race. Othello shows himself to be a level-headed and courageous general, going forth to fight once again for Venice, even on his wedding-night. Shakespeare's Moor is a great man, worthy of a tragedy, yet he is also a non-white alien who sinks to barbarism, who descends into what may be his 'natural' character in the eyes of most of the white residents of Venice.

The play's language regarding race seems as ambiguous about the central nature of Othello, as ambiguous as the play and Othello is about blackness itself. For example, there is ambiguity in the Duke of Venice's phrase: "I think this tale would win my daughter too" (I.3) which suggests an implied 'threat' to white women, should Othello be fully integrated into Venetian society. And of course, the final tragedy seems to suggest that Othello should not, as he strangles Desdemona to death. On one hand, Iago's racism and spite seal Othello's fate -- but on the other hand, there is a suggestion that his nature may predispose him to such violence and credulousness.

When realizing his folly, Othello, who told about his enslavement as a young man while wooing Desdemona, says he is enslaved once again, this time to the devil: "O cursed slave!/Whip me, ye devils,/From the possession of this heavenly sight!" (5.2). Othello also uses blackness to characterize evil, and goodness is portrayed as fair and light. But this does not necessarily support a racist reading of the play, the reading that Othello's true nature is coming forth. Rather, it shows that Othello is affected by racism, just as much as the other characters -- just like Brabantio who will accept a Moor as a guest, not a son-in-law, and just like Iago who can cunningly use Othello's race against the general he hates, even though his prejudices have more do to with personal vengeance than racism or a real disinterested critique of Othello's administrative style and capabilities. "Othello's 'Africanness' is crucial to his tragedy not because of what he is, innately or culturally, but because of how he is perceived, by others and by himself" (Berry 316). "Othello's blackness is not only a mark of his physical alienation but a symbol, to which every character in the play, himself included, must respond" (Berry 318).

However, one argument against this notion that the significance of Othello's blackness is due merely to its socially-constructed significance, not to its inherent evil as a signifier of the devil is Emilia's often unremitting racism, as seen after Desdemona's death when Emilia says "O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil!" (5.2). Emilia, as manifest in her dialogue with Desdemona, is quite cynical and realistic, as opposed to her mistress' denial of the evils that men can do. She is often correct, and often racist in her instincts. This would seem to validate Othello's inherent brutality. Yet, on the other hand, Emilia's perspective on the world is also, always, fundamentally incomplete -- it is her blindness that results in her unwitting complicity in her husband's plot to trick Iago.

Goodness and racism are not incompatible in the play -- perhaps the most racist character is, ironically, Othello himself. Desdemona becomes a "black weed" when she is seen as unfaithful, and by implication he himself is a black and polluting influence upon her purity (Alderman 135). Killing Desdemona, in such a reading, is a form of internalizing social racism, not savageness. Marrying a white woman unmasks social racism in the society he has embraced, as manifest in Brabantio's rhetoric. This is what truly drives Othello to madness. Iago merely "legitimizes and intensifies" Brabantio's racism as a tool, but Othello really believes in it (Adelman 126).