Othello's Downfall From Iago and His Race

Othello, race and difference: Othello as the black 'other' The tragedy of the Moor Othello is that he becomes the man racist white society says he is by the end of the play. At the beginning of the story, the malicious Iago, who hates Othello for a variety of vague reasons (spanning from his failure to be promoted to his false contention that Othello cuckolded him), spurs Desdemona's father Brabantio into a rage by saying that "an old black ram/Is topping your white ewe" (1.1).

This language stresses a crude racist stereotype that the figure of Othello immediately undercuts. Othello explains how he wooed Desdemona with his stories. Desdemona defies her father, who cuts her off for her disobedience. Far from the crude man Iago portrays, Othello seems calm and measured. In his first scenes In fact, the Duke of Venice says: "If virtue no delighted beauty lack/, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black' (1.3). Othello is exalted as a great general as well as good and noble man.

However, Iago plants the seed of doubt in Othello's mind with only the smallest of pretexts that Desdemona has been unfaithful with Cassio, the man who Othello promoted rather than Iago. The gullibility of Othello has caused some readers to question Othello's intelligence. But early on in the play, Shakespeare underlines that although on the surface Othello seems accepted, he lives in a society where blackness is associated with evil and whiteness is associated with goodness.

When he weds Desdemona, he is very careful to stress that he thinks little of so-called 'animal' passions, saying, when he asks her to accompany him: "I therefore beg it not, / To please the palate of my appetite, / Nor to comply with heat -- the young affects / In me defunct -- and proper satisfaction" (1.3). Othello is self-conscious of both his age and his blackness, and Iago uses this to subtly play on the Moor's insecurities.

Although Othello has been praised and is clearly valued, the language of the Duke of Venice is significant -- to praise Othello, he calls him 'fair,' indicating that Othello is 'good' because he is white on the inside and black on the outside. The fundamental binary of black and white in society remains unchanged, Othello merely wins acceptance because he is willing to fight for whites and does not 'rock the boat' of white society.

Othello is so uncertain of his place that as soon as he doubts Desdemona's virginity, he is unable to focus on anything else: "O, now, for ever / Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!" (3.3). He also says that his "occupation" is gone, indicating that he is unable to perform as a soldier as well as a husband with the knowledge that Desdemona has been violated.

When Othello kills Desdemona, believing her to be unfaithful, he knows he is sacrificing everything he worked for but does not care because he believes his honor has been stained. Yet even when Othello murders Desdemona he is not acting the role of the brutal savage (although he is accused of being one by all of those around him) but only fulfilling an age-old code of white society that says a lack of chastity is the worst thing.