Othello and Internalized Racism in Shakespeare's Tragedy

Introduction: Race and Self in Venetian Society

William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is the only major drama of the great playwright in which race plays a central role. The title character begins the play a great and esteemed general, despite the fact that he is a member of an "othered," despised race against which some whites harbor deep prejudice. Othello's apparent nobleness, his military prowess, and his eloquence — despite his own protestations to the contrary — all win him respect. Yet by the end of the play, his enemy Iago exploits the Moor's insecurities and effectively tries to make Othello into the barbaric creature whites accuse him of being. This is why scholars have noted that "in Othello, the boundary between Self and Other is famously, and perilously, permeable. Othello's assimilationist efforts to claim a selfhood within the Venetian community leads, for him, to a fatal hybridity" (Marks 101).

Othello begins the play a confident author of his own narrative, able to woo Desdemona with his words and to command the respect of white men. He ends it entirely subsumed by the crude, devilish machinations of Iago. This collapse is rooted in the subconscious racism Othello has incorporated into his own sense of self — a racism that, once activated, he cannot resist. As a canonical Shakespearean tragedy, the play raises enduring questions about identity, race, and the power of narrative.

Iago's Racism and the Duke's Conditional Tolerance

At the beginning of Othello, Iago claims to hate the military commander Othello because the Moorish general denied him a promotion. Throughout the play, Iago offers various explanations for the terrible revenge he seeks, yet his hatred seems to run deeper than any single grievance. He is certainly capable of exploiting racial ugliness, as when he shouts to Desdemona's father: "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe" (I.1). Brabantio's furious response reveals that blatant racial prejudice exists within Venetian society. Yet the Duke of Venice's measured reply to Othello's supposed crime also implies that racism within Venice is more nuanced than Iago's language suggests.

Notably, the Duke does not claim that race is irrelevant. Rather, he insists that Othello's ability to tell wonderful stories and to command men effectively elevates him above his race: "If virtue no delighted beauty lack, / Your son-in-law is far more fair than black" (I.3). Blatant prejudice is thus unacceptable in the Duke's eyes — at least against a black man as distinguished as Othello — but this tolerance is explicitly conditional. Othello must "prove" himself in a way that white men of equivalent rank do not, and he cannot take his elevated status for granted.

Othello's Provisional Status and the Performance of Worth

Othello's acceptance into Venetian society is provisional, contingent on his constant demonstration of exceptionalism. For instance, he insists that "the young affects / In me defunct," distancing himself from any suggestion of sexual license, even while Michael Cassio is later shown dallying with prostitutes with comparatively little concern for his own reputation — though Cassio does worry that drinking to excess reflects badly on him (I.3). The double standard is clear: Othello must police his own behavior far more rigorously than his white counterparts.

The idea that a white woman might freely choose a black man is treated as shocking and transgressive, and so Othello must publicly demonstrate his worthiness. Although he claims, "Rude am I in my speech, / And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace," his subsequent account of how his eloquence won Desdemona directly contradicts this self-deprecation (I.3). Desdemona herself boldly defends the marriage before her father: "you are the lord of duty; / I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband," asserting that her loyalty to the Moor now supersedes her filial duty (I.3). Yet the very fact that Othello must be defended by his wife — in a society that regards women as inferior — underscores the precariousness of his social position.

Furthermore, as admirable and as apparently unprejudiced as the Duke of Venice may seem, Shakespeare makes it clear that his support for Othello is at least partly motivated by military necessity rather than pure altruism. This subtly reinforces Othello's sense that his acceptance is contingent — conditional on his conforming to certain norms. That contingency lies at the root of the facade he adopts regarding Desdemona's chastity, which becomes the critical plot point of the play. That Othello proves so credulous when Iago begins his campaign of insinuation is, given these tensions, not entirely surprising.

Conclusion: Hegemonic Culture and the Tragedy of the Other

Othello is locked in a world, despite his initial efforts to construct an alternative narrative, where black is bad and white is good. The play is melodramatic but possesses a profound psychological truth in the way it demonstrates that someone who is "other" can internalize the stereotypes of hegemonic culture. Of course, in the real world, violence in the context of interracial relationships has historically been directed against the participants rather than between them, as noted by Perry and Sutton in their review of the history of anti-miscegenation laws in the United States (2008). Although Shakespeare's Venice lacks such formal laws, the attitudes of its characters function as de facto anti-miscegenation restrictions, and Iago is their ultimate enforcer — even though his hatred of the Moor exceeds simple racial resentment and seems almost boundless in its scope and vehemence.

Ultimately, Othello is not merely a play about jealousy or even about race as an external social force. It is a tragedy about what happens when the oppressed absorb the ideology of their oppressors so thoroughly that they cannot perceive the bars of their own cage. Othello's fall is sealed not by Iago's cleverness alone but by Othello's own acceptance of the story Venetian society has always told about men like him.

Works Cited

Macaulay, Marcia. "When Chaos is Come Again: Narrative and Narrative Analysis in Othello." Style 39.3 (2005): 259, 276, 377, 379. ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.

Marks, Elise. "'Othello/me': Racial Drag and the Pleasures of Boundary-Crossing with Othello." Comparative Drama 35.1 (2001): 101–23. ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.

Perry, Barbara, and Mike Sutton. "Policing the Color Line: Violence against Those in Intimate Interracial Relationships." Race, Gender & Class 15.3 (2008): 240–61. ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Gayle Holste. New York: Barron's, 2002.

Smith, Shawn. "Love, Pity, and Deception in Othello." Papers on Language and Literature 44.1 (2008): 3–51. ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.