Othello – a Black Outcast in a White Venice

“Our ideology is intolerant...and peremptorily demands...the complete transformation of public life to its ideas.” This quote was said by Adolph Hitler; it describes how the ruling class in society can conform to the perspective of its people. In the play Othello, Shakespeare identifies the racial inequalities the main character experiences throughout the play and illuminates the viewpoint of other characters and how they feel about Othello’s appearance, features, and demeanor. The Venetian rulers and his wife, Desdemona, view Othello in a post-colonial, European perspective. He is relentlessly seen as Other, the Moor, and characterized as the Orient. Shakespeare portrays Othello’s character around the principles of essentialism and shows how his character is inferior yet exotically other from a post-colonial perspective.

Due to European ideals, Othello is a highly respected general in the Venetian army but viewed as an outsider in society. Othello was rarely referred to by name and viewed as a colonized African man in their eyes. Othello’s physical blackness caused the condemned judgments of the Duke and Brabantio. Brabantio regraded Othello as the Moor and accused him of witchcraft in order to have seduced his daughter. According to Shakespeare, “Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her! For I’ll refer me to all things of sense, if she in chains of magic were not bound, whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy, so opposite to marriage … of such a thing as thou — to fear, not to delight”. Brabantio never thought his youthful daughter would fall in love with an old black ram. Othello’s physical appearance did not make him ideally attractive in the post-colonial era, and his racial identity was far from the features of an ideal handsome European man. The thoughts of Brabantio were adjusted by Iago’s manipulation of Othello’s animal-like sexual stereotyping with Desdemona. Brabantio is not happy with the interracial love his daughter endowed into. The Duke viewed Othello as an honorable and well-respected general for his military achievements but still subjected Othello to racial slurs. In Act I of Shakespeare’s Othello, “… noble signior, if virtue no delighted beauty lack, your son-in-law is far more fair than black”. The Duke suggests that Othello’s race has a negative association, which suggest that because of his physical appearance, Othello is an exception to the ruling class in Venice due to his bravery on the battlefield. Othello is a black man in Venice being conformed to the stereotypes and ideals of the ruling class, and he is viewed as an outcast for being different and having looks that are considered to be inhumanly.

Othello is continuously being criticized for his identity and moor features. The constant burden of feeling like less of a man in the Venetian society is weighing in on him, and he is constantly perceived as a low-ranking subaltern compared to Desdemona in society. According to Edward Berry from Rice University, “Shakespeare's protagonist is not only richly complicated but individualized and set apart from Venetian society in almost every respect…”. Othello continues to be denounced as a man for falling in love with a white woman that is viewed as a Venetian goddess. “Honest Iago” begins to manipulate Othello into believing Desdemona will no longer love him after falling for a more handsome European man in Venice. Othello is mindlessly manipulated by Iago; this preys on Othello’s manhood for not being enough to satisfy his wife, Desdemona, because of his physical characteristics. Iago uses this opportunity to put suspicions into Othello’s head of Desdemona’s supposed infidelity with Cassio, an ideal bachelor according to European standards. Othello falls weak and becomes jealous due to Iago’s assumptions of Desdemona and Cassio’s supposed affair. Heinz Antor states that, “Othello is here constructed as an animal rather than a human, and the contrast between him as the “old black ram” and Desdemona, who is only marginally more flatteringly referred to as “your white ewe”. Due to Othello’s otherness in society; his race, ethnicity, cultural background, military experience, and physical appearance separate him from the Venetian men around him.

Furthermore, Othello internalized his personal insecurities and takes on the stereotype society viewed him as. Edward Berry also mentioned that, “Paradoxically, however, 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 himself”. Othello was driven to killing Desdemona based on social profiling. He was constantly conformed to the common ideals of the ruling class. Othello was viewed as a savage, violent black man who lashed out based on racial stereotyping. Othello began treating Desdemona as if she were less than anything of a high-class woman in society after allowing the jealously and anger to consume his thoughts. The Moor became heartless, cruel, savage, and wicked; allowing himself to mishandle Desdemona publicly. Othello allowed himself to reflect the man he portrayed on the battlefront; Othello turned into a “savage” killer. Othello proposed to poison Desdemona, but Iago proposes a different method: to strangle her. This method will racially stereotype Othello to irrationally behave the way society recognized him to be. Othello’s constant reminder that he would have never been considered an insider in their society played a tremendous role on his psychological state. Othello was considered to be an outcast in society for his appearance and demeanor, which subjected him to be conformed to many ideologies of the Venetian society, which lead Othello to take part in this tragedy.

All in all, Shakespeare’s play Othello centered around the subjects of jealousy, revenge, love, racial identity, and tragedy. Othello was a black male outcast in a white Venice, who was often subject to racial judgment and stereotyping. Othello’s character-centered around the ideals of essentialism and was subject to racial stereotyping because of his alterity. Through a European post-colonial lens, Othello is seen as inferior to the Venetian society and viewed as the Orient, Moor, and Other.

Works Cited

1. Antor, Heinz. 'Constructing Alterity: Race, Gender, and the Body in Shakespeare’s Othello.' Shakespearean Criticism, edited by Catherine C. DiMercurio, vol. 189, Gale, 2019, pp. 232-250. Literature Criticism Online, https://link-gale-com.db03.linccweb.org/apps/doc/TJWBPN859247800/GLS?u=lincclin_bwcc&sid=GLS&xid=7125d793. 
2. Berry, Edward. “Othello's Alienation.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 30, no. 2, 1990, pp. 315–333. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/450520.
3. Shakespeare, William. Othello, the Moor of Venice. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Writing, 11th ed., edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Longman, 2010, pp. 1248-1350.