In William Shakespeare’s Othello, racism is seen as a stereotypical aspect towards Moor; Iago is one character that uses Othello’s race as an infrastructure to build up his plan. Othello, the main character is affected by his race as a Moor. The term Moor described a person who was inhuman. Even though Othello has a high position as the General of the Venetian Army his race is the reason why he gets looked down upon. As a general, Othello is seen as someone who has power but as a Moor he is given no respect.
To the contemporary reader, Othello is frequently marginalised by references to him as “the Moor”, and at a baser level, by direct colour references in a derogatory way: “an old black ram is tupping your white ewe…… or else the devil will make a grandsire of you”(Iago, Act 1, i, 88), and his race being related to unnatural things (“..and must be driven to find out practices of cunning hell….” Brabantio, I,ii,102). Even the Duke’s reference to colour, intended as a complement to the character of Othello, reinforces the stigmatism of race: “you son-in-law is far more fair than black” (I, iii, 22), again implying that “blacks” are of a lower
Racism: Othello and LWT Film One of the main overarching themes in both Shakespeare’s original play of Othello and the LWT modern film appropriation is of racial discrimination. During the Elizabethan era, which is the context that the original play is set in, black people were considered to be alien to white society and were thought to be driven by passions and emotions instead of reason and intellect as white people were thought to be. They were believed to be imbalanced and dangerous and were hence labeled second-class citizens. Othello is a moor and is therefore an exceptional example of the discrimination black people received during this era, however is an unusual instance due to his high rank in the army. Throughout the play, animal imagery such as “an old ram”, “Barbary horse” and “beast with two backs” is used to describe Othello, which portray the racist attitudes held by society of the time and highlights the belief that black people were animalistic and therefore acted on emotions, lacking rational thought, like animals.
The main concern and issue in TKAM is the concept of prejudice. In the text, prejudice is represented mainly through the racial inequality in the town of Maycomb . In the text, we see Atticus' belief in treating and respecting everyone as an individual contrasted with a number of other wold views. The aspect of racism is shown when the people of Maycomb accept the testimony of an obviously corrupt white man. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”.
In one confrontation involving Ras, Clifton, and the narrator, the Exhorter has many places where either his grammar is off or the words are spelled wrong for emphasis, “Come in with us, mahn. We build a glorious movement of black people/Taking their money is shit, mahn. Money without dignity- That’s bahd shit!” (371). The unnecessary presence of h’s in specific words only adds to the vision that Ellison makes. By including Ras in this fashion, he creates a stereotype view of the Black Race.
However John Agard comes across in a sarcastic method and Tatamkhulu clearly shows his anger and opinion in an angry mood. Both Tatamkhulu Afrika and John Agard portray racist attitudes as an unlawful punishment because of only their ethnic group. Both Poems are autobiographical so both authors have had their own experience meaning that the anger shown is very descriptive. John Agard uses irony and satire “excuse me, standing on one leg” to show emphasis and ridicules the social stigmata towards half-caste. Afrika uses his poem to illustrate the diverse conditions of two social cultures within his society (“but we know where we belong”).
Conrad’s use of ambiguity fascinated critics and readers as he used obscurity to dramatize Marlow’s perceptions of the horrors he encounters. Other critics say that Heart of Darkness broke many narrative conventions. Renowned Nigerian author and preeminent scholar on African culture, Chinua Achebe and English novelist, short story writer, essayist, and librettist E.M. Forster had different views on Conrad’s writing. Both men criticized Conrad as being racist and discriminatory for his use of words such as “nigger.” Conrad uses such words throughout the entire novella, even stating, “Strings of dusty niggers with splay feet arrived and departed” (26). To many critics of the novella, the implementation of such words should not have been introduced into this story.
Additionally Roderigo’s description as “the thicklips” provides us with further evidence of Othello’s ethnicity. For these reasons it can be argued that in Shakespeare’s choice of placing him central to the story he is seeking to distance the hero from the audience. Additionally it can be said that attitudes at the times towards inter racial marriages were attached with a great amount of stigma. This is evident in Brabantios reaction upon learning of Othello’s and Desdemona marriage he is angry and unbelieving that his
Some people may argue that “The Merchant of Venice” is too distressing and too sad to go see at the theatre. Shylock basically wants Antonio killed. It deals with prejudice and loss and the loss of identity. On the other hand, “the Merchant of Venice” is more than ever relevant, teaches us a lot and is thus more than ever worth seeing. First of all, “The Merchant of Venice” is not a complete tragedy.
Clued in from Christy Desmet author of "Racism, Misogyny, and the 'Othello' Myth: Inter-racial Couples from Shakespeare to Spike Lee”, Desmet claims that it holds the reason as to why Desdemona cheated on Othello, that it was because as Desmet says, “Othello's blackness must rub off on her”. Agreeing with Desmet, author of “Celia R. Daileader. Racism, Misogyny, and the Othello Myth” states that this theme of a white women wanting to be with a black man is the sign of darkness