Othello: themes and characterization in Shakespeare's tragedy

Othello as a "Moor"

One term that is often disguised in the play but the reader finds out early is that Othello is a "Moor" or a black man in love with a white woman. This is scandalous for the time Shakespeare wrote the play, and it still shocking today, and yet Shakespeare does not make the love affair between Othello and Desdemona shocking, he just makes it tragic. The interpretation and even the play's events might have been different if Othello was not black, however. The difference in race between Othello and Desdemona does not seem to drive them apart, but because it is mentioned, it was clearly important. It shows the differences between Desdemona, a rich Italian, and Othello, a black, foreign Moor of a different religion and background. They were too different to ever really understand each other, and that is one reason Othello found it so easy not to trust Desdemona, and feel like she was betraying him.

There are many issues that this term raises. Of course, some of them have to do with relations between the races, and it seems they have not really changed that much from Shakespeare's time. The fact that Othello was a Moor was important to the story because he was of a different race, but also because he was from a different culture and religion. He was not Christian, and many people did not trust the Moors, but Shakespeare makes him a sympathetic character, but tragic and flawed. Is this because of his race? Perhaps. His race raises more issues in the play because he is black, and those issues would not be there if he was not. I don't know why Shakespeare wanted Othello to be a Moor, but it adds something to the play that makes me think about people, how they get along, and how there have always been differences between races and cultures. Sometimes it seems like we think all the differences between races and cultures are modern, but plays like "Othello" show they have always existed in some form or another. Othello is a tragic hero because he has faults, but Shakespeare does not use his race as one of his faults. He is jealous and does not trust the woman who loves him, and these are faults that could apply to anyone, regardless of race. His race adds depth to the play, but does not get in the way of the real message, that you have to trust the person who loves you, and jealousy is a poor emotion.