Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you. Arise, I say! Iago uses racist slurs when he wakens Brabantio with the news that his daughter, Desdemona a white Venetian , has eloped with Othello an older, black man. When Iago says an "old black ram" Othello is "tupping" sleeping with Brabantio's "white ewe" Desdemona , he plays on Elizabethan notions that black men have an animal-like, hyper-sexuality.
History Snack: It's also important to note that, although Othello is probably a Christian, Iago calls him "the devil," playing on a sixteenth century idea that black men were evil and that the devil often took the shape and form of a black man. Check out what Reginald Scott had to say in his famous book, The Discovery of Witchcraft : "Bodin alloweth the divell the shape of a black moore, and as he saith, he used to appear to Mawd Cruse, Kate Darey, and Jon Harviller.
My house is not a grange. We've seen how Iago uses animal imagery in his racist diatribe against Othello, which is grounded in the idea that black men and women are inhuman.
Here, Brabantio objects to Iago's middle-of-the-night assertions that Desdemona has eloped by saying his house isn't a "grange" a farm or a farmhouse. Iago takes the opportunity to pun on the term "grange," as he claims that Desdemona is having sex with a "barbary horse" and, as a result, Brabantio will have relatives that "neigh to him. This isn't the first time Iago has implied that Othello's animal-like sexuality corrupts Desdemona. Compare this to 1. It is a judgment maimed and most imperfect That will confess perfection so could err Against all rules of nature, 1.
Desdemona's father argues that her love for Othello is unnatural, since, according to him, Desdemona would never fall for a black man who she "fear'd to look on. It seems that Iago has played Brabantio perfectly.
Iago knew that Brabantio was racist and, as previous passages demonstrate, he used Brabantio's attitude toward the idea of a mixed marriage in order to rile the man against Othello. Brabantio repeatedly insists that Othello must have "enchanted" Desdemona with "foul charms" and magic spells. Otherwise, he insists, Desdemona never would never have run "to the sooty bosom" of Othello 1. Not everyone in Venice shares Brabantio's views of Othello. The Senators and the Duke obviously admire Othello, who is a celebrated and honorable military leader.
Here, the Duke defends Othello against Brabantio's accusations that Othello used "magic" on Desdemona. On the one hand, we can read the Duke's assertion that Othello is virtuous and "fair" as a compliment. On the other hand, the Duke's words are also troubling because the compliment to Othello hinges on the idea that blackness has negative connotations.
Ultimately, the Duke implies that Othello is "fair" despite the fact that he is black. Refuting the Homoerotic Hanif Kureishi's "The Buddha Christianity versus Judaism in Shakes Shakespeare als Jurist in "Kaufm Shakespeare and Tragedy - Sammlung vo The Representation of Femininty in Sh Approaches to Race and Racism in J.
The existence of man in Renaissance p Yet in marrying Desdemona, Othello is seen by many influential Venetians as having gone too far. In the end, Othello can never hope to be anything other than an outsider in Venetian society; and once transferred to Cyprus, he easily falls prey to the machinations of Iago.
Interpretations of the play by various critics over the centuries have usually revealed much more about the critic, and the prejudices of his era, than about the play itself. But if the critical and performance traditions surrounding Othello have often reflected ugly prejudice, the play itself resists easy categorization.
Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Iago: a most sinister villain? Conclusion List of Works Cited 1. Having broken with his former personal dogmas, he takes the following vow: Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell, Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne To tyrannous hate!
Sign in to write a comment. Read the ebook. Shakespeare's Othello: "Raci Othello - a classical drama by Willia How are the relations between differe Forms and functions of the representa Othello - Sichtweisen des Character C Koloniale Mimikry in Shakespeares Oth Das Fremde in Shakespeares "Othe
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