Here it is clear that the dominating force of the story was not based around race, but Iago’s hatred of Othello stemmed from other stimuli, such as his suggested love for Desdemona, or his hatred of Cassio. In the 2015 RSC production of Othello,the character of Iago was played by an actor of African origin. In fact, Shakespeare’s amicable portrayal of Othello may mark an underlying irony of him satirizing the Venetian opinion of the time, rather than a racist attempt at highlighting the disparities between black and white. Therefore, whilst a modern audience may perceive the play as ‘inevitably and inescapably racist’, that was not neccesarily Shakespeare’s original intent.
The meanings of blackness and whiteness change from culture to culture and with each generation. It is clear that race is not a stable category. Therefore, Shakespeare’s presentation of a ‘Moor’ suggests that he wanted to highlight this concept of difference, but the ambiguous portrayal of race leaves the discriminative intent of the play up for debate. There are even examples citing from Christian theology supporting the view that whiteness was a sign of purity and innocence, whilst black indicated sin. Black characters in Elizabethan drama were typically villainous and people associated ‘blackness’ with moral corruption. However, Othello can also be seen as a largely positive depiction of an interracial marriage, infected by the racist contextual world surrounding their relationship. Only Ivan Othello The Outsiders Persepolis Peter Pan The Poisonwood Bible Pride. Many believe the play to be, as Emma Smith confirms, ‘inevitably and inescapably racist’, and therefore reinforce negative racial stereotypes. PART B: Which quote from paragraph 4 best supports the answer to Part A.
Over the last 400 years, literary critics and actors have argued over the racial origins of Shakespeare’s Othello.
0 kommentar(er)
