Shakespeare's England was not a very accepting society when it came to foreigners. Shakespeare, through the captivating play Othello, addresses and reflects these racist issues during the 1600s, while Good Will Hunting reveals the inherent human condition. Both texts highlight the fact that our fear of change, our fear of threats cause us to alienate outsiders. In Shakespeare's England, racially different people challenged the status quo and thus were seen as a threat that must be resisted. Shakespeare reflects this as Othello's and Desdemona's marriage, black man and white woman, is seen as “against all rules of nature” although it simply is just a change in tradition.
Shakespeare presents these through the complexity of the characters and the language and plot antitheses. Black and white is a binary opposition that Shakespeare develops throughout the play. The most obvious evidence of this is in the characters. Othello is characterized as a black man and it is this aspect of his persona that evokes the sense that Othello is an outsider. Desdemona is a privileged, white lady and it is this colouring that symbolises her innocence and angelic nature.
Influence on other writers III. Effect on language A. Inventing new words Abstract William Shakespeare was an author who greatly impacted literature as well as the English language. He did this by helping bring in the modernization of language. Not only that but Shakespeare also created new words and phrases as well as borrowing words from different langauges. Aguirre 3 William Shakespeare had a major influence on literature and the English language.
Therefore, the statement “Prejudice is the key theme of Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice’ “is indeed true, but to an extent. We see prejudice presented in various ways throughout ‘Merchant of Venice’. The way the Christians treat the Jews is prejudice – the Christians don’t care for the Jews, curse at them, call them dogs and spit at them, purely because of their different beliefs. We hear Shylock’s spiel about how they are the same, they just have different beliefs, saying “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
The parts of a blackface minstrel show was to present the black character as being stupid, as being laughable, as being a silly person. What was worse about this is that people loved it. It’s as if that is what people had though about blacks all along that makes it really racist. So when you have Rice’s characterization of blacks it almost reaffirms what typical America had been thinking all along. Then you have the Virginia Minstrels that developed other characters that were way more obnoxious than the character Rice had portrayed.
He proves his racist nature when he says to Brabantio, “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe.” (Act-1, Scene-1, 90-91) He also says that, “… your daughter and the Moore are now making the beast with two backs.” (Act-1 Scene-1, 117-118) Othello in Ashland didn’t do as good of a job portraying how Othello is in Shakespeare’s original play. He does go into fits of passion and rage, but also overdoes those fits. He screams and shakes more like he is having a seizure than a fit of passion. He also spits and drools which kills the seriousness of his role in the play. Othello does do a good job of portraying the lack of self confidence, and at the same time the arrogance that Othello has.
As a matter of fact, Othello is race because of his skin, lips, and secret marriage. Othello’s skin is being criticized. In this situation, Iago invents a new reason to hate Othello. Iago thinks about Othello’s skin. Since Othello is a Moor, his skin is dark.
I believe, however, that while Brabantio definitely dislikes Othello, many of the racist ideas are directly placed into his head by Iago, as many of the ideas in the play are. Iago constantly mentions Othello’s race, starting at the very beginning while telling Brabantio of Othello and Desdemona’s relationship – “Even now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe.” (1.1.97) Because of skin color being such a big deal, according to Iago at least, Brabantio does not want to believe that Desdemona could fall for someone who is so horribly dark-skinned, and that he must have used magic spells, charms and witchcraft to lure Desdemona into his arms. I believe that without the influence of Iago, Brabantio would
Javier Acosta Dr. Rutledge English 2521 Is King Claudius an immoral monster whoʼs every intention is to do evil? To answer this, the definition of someone bound on evil and someone who is a moral weakling would have to be very clearly defined as different audiences have different conceptions of each. Readers of Shakespeare have various examples on which to judge immoral monsters, such as Aaron the moor from Titus Adronicus who claims “If one good deed in all my life I did, I do repent it from my very soul” (V.iii.189-190) When Claudius is placed next to someone like him, we have to judge with different scales. Not to say that the kings crimes are not evil, for they surely are, but to say his attitude after the crimes have been committed are that of a man who wants to repent but can not seem to bring himself to do so. A man whoʼs twisted conscious haunts him by placing him in a state of paranoia, confusion, and weakness.
Even Emilia sinks to the level of insulting Othello based on the color of his skin. The character that most commonly makes racist remarks in Othello is Iago. It is very apparent that Iago uses racism as a scapegoat to hate and blame Othello. Societal racism takes its toll on its victims. The effect of racism on Othello is quite evident and is one of the main causes for his insecurity about his marriage.