Racism in Shakespeares Othello Essay -- GCSE English Literature Cours

Racism in Othello      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Literary Remains is just one of the essays that presents an attack on Shakespeare for his lack of realism in the 'monstrous' depiction of a marriage between a 'beautiful Venetian girl,' and a 'veritable negro,' in Othello. He sees Shakespeare's transformation of a 'barbarous negro' into a respected soldier and nobleman of stature as 'ignorant', since at the time, 'negroes were not known except as slaves.' (Appendix) The extract seems to raise two questions - how central is the taboo of miscegeny to the play, and to what extent is Othello's reputation able to counter this prejudice?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is certainly not hard to conclude that Othello is probably Shakespeare's most controversial play. There is a clear theme of racism throughout, one which was firmly embedded in the Venetian society which rejects the marriage of Othello and Desdemona as erring, 'against all rules of nature,' [1.3.102] Nothing separates Othello from, 'the wealthy curled darlings of our nation,' [1.2.68] except skin-color - he matches or even exceeds them in reputation. At the start of the play, he appears confident that, OTHELLO: My parts, my title, and my perfect soul Shall manifest me rightly. Othello 1.2.31-2 when he is called in front of the court on charges of witchcraft, yet the malevolent Iago is able to call on Othello's deep-rooted insecurities about his race in order to play Othello and Desdemona against one another until their marriage fails. Essentially, Iago is a representative of the white race, a pre-Nazi figure who tries to inform the public of the impurity of Othello and Desdemona's marriage. He demonstrates how this miscegenation is threatening to the existing socia... ... that nothing could be made too marked for the senses of his audience, had practically sanctioned it, -- would this prove aught concerning his own intention as a poet for all ages? Can we imagine him so utterly ignorant as to make a barbarous negro plead royal birth, --at a time, too, when negroes were not known except as slaves? -- As for Iago's language to Brabantio, it implies merely that Othello was a Moor, that is, black .... No doubt Desdemona saw Othello's visage in his mind; yet, as we are constituted, and most surely as an English audience was disposed in the beginning of the seventeenth century, it would be something monstrous to conceive this beautiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable negro. It would argue a disproportionateness, a want of balance, in Desdemona, which Shakespeare does not appear to have in the least contemplated.'