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Examples Of Racism In Othello

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Racism has been a lingering problem that stemmed in the old days. It continues to create barriers between people of color and other races in the present day. William Shakespeare’s Othello presents representations of racism throughout the whole play. Othello, the main character of the play, is a general in the Venetian army who is the only person of color. As the only color of person in the play with everyone else being white, Othello is called all sorts of racist names such as “Moor”. Like how it is with Othello, many people of color today are still frowned upon and treated unfairly by people of other races. Racism in Othello had a tremendous impact on Othello because he was judged only by the color of his skin. Racism around Othello affected …show more content…

Brabantio,who sees his daughter’s lust for Othello as odd, was amazed that she would “fall in love with what she fear’d to look on” (Shakespeare 1.1.98). He said that Othello must have used some type of magic to get Desdemona to fall in love with him (Shakespeare 1.2.62-81). If the color of Othello had not been a person of color, then his marriage with Desdemona would not have been a problem. Similar to Othello, many people of color today are feared and children of other races are taught by their parents or family members to stay away from them. If marriage had occurred, like what happened in Othello, it would be frowned upon by members of the family and most of the time, if not all the time, labeled as a disgrace to the family. This significantly shows that, to this day, people of color are still frowned upon by members of other colors in society and rejected from the family whenever there was interracial …show more content…

Iago was the real devil. Iago utilized Othello’s blackness to create a plan to bring Othello down. Iago literally regulated Othello throughout the play like a puppet. He used Othello’s race to get other characters to turn against Othello. The racism drove him crazy and Iago did not make it any easier. Iago suggested to Roderigo that Desdemona may have only been satisfying her curiosity by being with a black man. He says that Desdemona was getting bored with the sex from Othello and wanted something new (Shakespeare 2.1.226-227). She wanted someone more like herself, someone who was young and white, like Cassio (Shakespeare 2.1.228-230). Othello feared that this was true. When Iago told Othello that Desdemona was cheating on him with Cassio (Shakespeare 3.3.193-204), Othello had no choice but to believe it. Race influenced Othello’s mind in many ways, making him feel distinctive and disengaged from others. His race highlighted his differentness, made him feel more responsible, and accepts that Desdemona might be cheating on him. He starts to get more helpless against the plots of Iago as he later tries to manipulate him, and after that he is left to adapt to his issues alone in light of the fact that he has nobody that he can trust and express his feeling and emotions to. Similar to Othello, many people of color in

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