Posted by sonia attavar on September 10, 19101 at 04:51:06:

In Reply to: Othello as a black man. posted by Christian Spirito on July 04, 19100 at 14:34:12:

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: Before beginning this paper I looked to the internet to Shakesphere message boards to see what others thought regarding race and Othello. What I found in my quest for knowledge was many people have the wrong idea about Shakesphere. A large number of posts read along the lines that Shakesphere was racist for making Othello black and having him kill his wife. I think these people are missing the point behind the story. Yes of course Othello did in fact murder his wife yet the question has to be asked and that is why would such a noble individual commit such a horrible act.

: I find it hard to believe that even in this day and age, there is still "suprise" that a hero can be black. Othello's charecter was clearly at the beginning and slighty so at the end of the play, of great leadership and respectable qualities. I personally feel that Shakespeare probably had more respect for the black, than most other writers at the time, and probably now, but why is there such an issue out of him simply showing his honest respect for them in a tragic play? If one suggests that because of Othello's actions at the end of the play, that Shakespeare in some way did this on purpose, to make Othello look as though he was dim-witted, I certainly would argue agaisnt that.

: The concept of race was just beginning to be formulated around the time Shakespeare wrote. It really didn't begin to have any kind of real impact on people's minds in general until the concept was made "scientific" to justify slavery to those who needed to think of themselves as Christian in the 18th century. Slavery, alive and well in Shakespeare's day, was not a racialized concept. Even Aphra Behn who wrote 50 years after Shakespeare did not yet think of humanity as racialized, even though one of her works dealt specifically with the capturing of Africans and the selling of them into slavery in the West Indies.

: The play contains quite a few occurrences of the word "slave," but I feel the reader needs to avoid unwarranted umptions about that words significance. American students may ume that all slaves were black, but that wasn't true in Shakespeare's time. Slaves came in all colors. When Christians fought Moors, the Christians considered it their right to make slaves of all prisoners of war; the Moors had the same idea about the Christians. The Moors also conducted raids in which they enslaved non-Islamic Africans; Venetians made their slave raids in the Greek islands and bought blonde slaves on the coast of the Black Sea. Also, the word "slave" was a general term of contempt, used without any reference to actual slaves, as "clown" may now be used without any reference to circus performers. However, as discussed in cl many slaves during Shakesphere's time were black and in order to justify slavery to slave owners, owners were told that blacks had no sole so forcing them into slavery was okay. Shakesphere didn't just write a play for the mere enjoyment of an audience. Shakesphere always had a message that he wanted to illustrate within each play. As discussed in cl nobody in a Shakesphere plays dies for no reason. The main reason Shakesphere made Othello black in my opinion was to illustrate to the audience that we are all people no matter what the of our skin is. Shakesphere did a reversal of roles in Othello having the white Iago who normally would be considered the hero play a villian and Othello who was black play the role of a hero where as normally a black character would be ignorant and simple minded.

: In all honesty, I do feel that Shakespears respect for culture, is greater than I will ever be able to comprehend. It was obvious that when Shakespeare would introduce a coloured charecter, that there would be some controvisy with other charecters, but not now, hundreds of years later. Othello was a brave and valient soldier, up to, and even arguably during, the point of his decieved experiences with Iago. It was indeed Iago, who made not only Othello look like a fool, and not Othello himself. How would you react if you had all the evidence there, twisted of corse, but not knowing this, in front of you that the love of your life was having an affair, with some one else you loved? In my opinion, there is no hidden depth in Shakespeare using a black man as the hero, but if there is to be a debate over this point, then only to try to let shallow minded people know that there is no difference in the outside of a person, as it was indeed Iago, who had the dark side, not Othello.

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