Shakespeare's Racial Bias Essay

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Shakespeare's Racial Bias Essay

"In the old age black was not counted fair, Or if it were it bore not beauty's name;"

-lines 1-2 of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 127

The first two lines of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 127 accurately portray the Elizabethan attitude towards black people. Though England in the Elizabethan era may have overall been a flourishing nation, there was great tension between the black people and the white people. Shakespeare's play Othello takes place in England at that time. The prejudices held by some of the major characters in Othello epitomize Elizabethan racism, and could also provide evidence about Shakespeare's own biased racial paradigms.

"Because we come to do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse, you'll have your nephews neigh to you, you'll have coursers for cousins and jennets for germans. (Shakespeare act 1 sc. 1, lines 123-127)" In this sentence, Iago, the villain of the play, likens Othello to a mere horse from Barbary, a region of Africa. He is informing Brabantio, in a most obscene manner, that his daughter has married the Moor. Brabantio's initial reaction is to infer that Othello has used some sort of magic to enchant his daughter, because, in his opinion, she would clearly not love such a foul creature as the Moor (Shakespeare act 1 sc. 2, lines 80-90). Iago's intentions in telling Brabantio of Othello and Desdemona's relationship were to cause Brabantio to get angry at Othello, because Iago was dissatisfied at not being made Othello's lieutenant. Brabantio's reaction allows the reader to understand two very important points: Brabantio is very racist, and Iago is very clever because he used Brabantio's easily-provoked racism to make him jump to conclusions right away about Othello. If Brabantio owned no biased feelings toward
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