Racism+in+Othello

In Othello, race is an issue in much the way it would be today. Othello is an important general and so is revered and admired, but at the same time there is resentment because he is a Moor and resentment because he has married a white woman. This fact underlies much of the action of the play even when it is not mentioned directly, but race plays a divisive role just the same. Iago understands the nature of race and the way it affects others, including Othello himself, and he manipulates ideas of race in order to further his plot and also, as part of that effort, to affect how othello views and thinks about the world. Race affects the plot because it generates tension with certain of the townspeople, allows Iago to manipulate various people, and isolates Othello as the "other" in Venetian society. Race affects Othello's psychology in similar ways, making him feel isolated from others and emphasizing his "differentness" so that 1) he becomes more willing to believe that others see him as inferior, which in turn contributes to his willingness to believe that his wife would deceive him; 2) he becomes more vulnerable to the machinations of Iago as the latter tries to manipulate him; and 3) he is left to cope with his problems alone because he has no one he believes he can speak to about them. The sexual nature of much of the resentment many feel toward powerful black men like Othello is apparent in the way Iago uses racism as a goad to cause others to do his bidding.

By and large, the impact of race and gender on dramatic action in the play comes about early. These issues are important because they provide the catalyst for feeding Othello's jealousy and working the tragedy of the play. They intersect in the marriage of Othello and Desdemona, the destruction of which becomes Iago's mission. The destruction of the marriage is the mechanism of doubt and self-hatred that points toward Othello's own destruction. Specific references to race and gender occur principally in the first half of the play, which sets the stage for the tragedy, for the second half of the play shows the unraveling of action and of lives as an attribute of those issues. It is Iago's contempt for women in particular but a more generalized attitude toward women held by all the men of the play that is the touchstone of the gender issue. The issue of racial hatred, especially but not entirely on Iago's part, provides the extra element of tension in the action. Iago's manipulation of gender and race stereotypes has the effect of unleashing the violence that never far beneath the fear that is itself beneath skewed perceptions.

Iago suspects "the lusty Moor" of leaping into his seat; he will give him wife for wife (II.i). In other words, **Iago's own jealousy, which is in no small part racially based, predisposes him to destroying Othello. The fact that he has been overlooked in promotion by someone he despises because of his race has encouraged his anger, and the fact that he has an opportunity to destroy Othello's marriage to a white woman is an opportunity for a vicious version of poetic justice.** The cynical opportunism is all the more apparent for the reason that in any case Iago cares little for his wife's company, or for the company or temperament of women in general. And it is here, as Iago draws Roderigo into the next stage of opposing Othello by promising that Desdemona will turn to him eventually, that the gender-related issues surface prominently in the play. Roderigo as Desdemona's disappointed suitor has no stake in the gambit except to become her lover, but increasingly with the motive of deceiving Othello than possessing-Desdemona in an honorable state of marriage. Indeed, it seems the fate of Desdemona as a human being to be overlooked by the very men-father, husband, suitor, courtier--who love her.