Shakespeare’s Use of Racism

This post has been contributed by Kate Rothwell. For more on Desdemona, see our other student posts: ‘Desdemona and the Female Voice’, ‘Othello Sucks: A Different Perspective’ and ‘On Carney’s “Being Born A Girl”: Toni Morrison’s Desdemona’.

Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise! (Othello 1.1.88-89)

Racist slurs, fears of miscegenation, xenophobia – all integral parts of one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies.

Martin Orkin’s article ‘Othello and the “plain face” of racism’ seems to argue that the racist aspect of Othello is in fact a conscious choice made by Shakespeare. By giving Othello the richest language, and the noblest character, Shakespeare utilises and exploits the negative connotations of racism, in a time when it would not have been considered a social issue as such, if we consider that it is possible that many members of Shakespeare’s original audience would never even have seen a black person, portraying his villains as racist would barely even have been noticed.

Rather than arguing that Othello is a disgusting play, full of racism and bigotry, it is possible to interpret Shakespeare’s play as characterising his villains with racist cynicism, whilst Othello his hero remains both morally and intellectually superior. Whilst many of the articles I have read with regard to Othello seem to vilify this play, claiming it is integrally racist, I disagree. I think that we must recognise Shakespeare as having represented racism in the wholly negative way we feel is morally sound, and continue to read and perform Othello with this in mind.

The article I am referencing is interesting as I feel it addresses a position on Othello that seems to be continually ignored in modern analysis. It is fascinating that hundreds of years later we do not feel comfortable with racism in literature, and yet Shakespeare was able to wield it as a tool to add yet another layer to his morally reprehensible characters. I think that reading this play with this in mind makes for a far more interesting read than the more common interpretation we may have.

Works Cited

Orkin, Martin. ‘Othello and the “plain face” of Racism.’ Shakespeare Quarterly 38.2 (1987): 166-188. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2870559?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Cedric Watts. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 1992. Print.

Links

• Martin Orkin’s article.
• ‘Reanimating Desdemona in the Twenty-First Century.’