Student Essay on Othello Forum

Othello...

Keith Belt: Hello to all of you out there tonight, this is Theatre Today 98.7 FM and I am Keith Belt, your host. For the past month we have been bringing in students from the University of Babaganoosh to share their interpretations and knowledge of various Shakespeare plays. Tonight, Sarah Fairjones and Kasey Brutto have joined us to discuss Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello. Welcome both of you.

Sarah Fairjones: Hello everyone.

Kasey Brutto: Thank you Keith and hello.

Keith Belt: Othello is often seen as a racist play, why is this so"

Sarah Fairjones: Well, Othello is black and through out the play he is called behind his back "old black ram", "thick lips" and "the Moor." This clearly shows the intention of Shakespeare to use racism as part of his play.

Kasey Brutto: Making Othello black gives Shakespeare the ability to use plenty of visual imagery, remember this was written to be watched, not read. Maybe the idea of making Othello black was to give the audience a permanent reminder of Othello's social separation.

Keith Belt: But did Shakespeare want this to be a racist play? I think that Shakespeare intended to make Othello black to attack the stereotypical views of black, in making the lead character a virtuous black man he is defying the stereotype of the time.

Kasey Brutto: In today's world everyone is relating racism to many things, racism plays a large part in criticisms towards plays, books, movies, but what about other critical analysises such as feminist views? To me, there is a lot of feminism in this play.

Sarah Fairjones: I don't agree with you there, racism is seen in many books, plays, movies as racism was a big deal when they were written. Othello was written between 1600 -1605 and as Keith pointed out, there were strong views of racism in this time. Casting Othello as black was not the only racist part in the play, what about the fact that Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio were all alarmed when they discovered that Othello married a white women and Othello was accused of using witchcraft to gain Desdemona's heart. This clearly shows Shakespeare's ambitions to include the stereotypical outlook of whites against blacks.

Kasey Brutto: Othello was accused of using witchcraft to gain Desdemona's heart, there is nothing to say that that is racist! Othello was accused of using witchcraft to gain Desdemona's heart, not a white woman's heart! Othello is tagged with the concept that it is a racist play, but there is little racism shown compared to the feminist behaviour demonstrated. Shakespeare uses Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca to represent the different classes and different aspects of 'womanhood'. Desdemona is the high class and romantic idealist, Emilia was the working class, practical realist and Bianca was the lower class, sexual object. They also, are all defined through their respective males.

Keith Belt: But in this play the role of women in society was something that was being challenged. Shakespeare tries to shake some of the prejudices about women by using Emilia to be the one that discovers that Iago is the one behind everything.

Kasey Brutto: Yes, this is true, but when Emilia does realise what Iago has done and stands up for herself she is killed. Part of the reason also, that Emilia is the one who is first to realise what Iago has done is that she was his wife. She realises that she was being used. Which would have been hard to detect earlier on during the play as women are only seen as good wives if they please their hubbies, in fact during the play Emilia states "I am nothing but to please his fantasy." More feminist behaviour shown is the way that men use abusive terms to refer to women while women are polite in return. There are only three women in the play, and it is the men that hold all the positions in power.

Keith Belt: Okay, so Othello is both a racist and feminist play. What about....

Kasey Brutto: I still don't believe that racism plays a large enough part in this play to give it a racist classification.

Sarah Fairjones: Othello is black, and Othello's race has everything to do with the play as a whole. Othello's race is the single most important part of his character. Further, during the time this play was written having an African protagonist was unheard of.

Kasey Brutto: But Iago is the protagonist. Iago is the one that sets up the plan to bring down Cassio and Othello.

Keith Belt: Yes, although he does that, Iago is not the one that makes the most dramatic change. Othello changes his character the most, from a strong important general, at the beginning, to an evil character driven by jealousy, ending with him being full of regret when he realises that he has been manipulated.

Kasey Brutto: Iago is the one that causes the dramatic ending. He is the one that causes Othello to kill Desdemona.

Sarah Fairjones: That depends on what you consider the reasons that Othello killed Desdemona.

Keith Belt: In the Elizabethan era, adultery was viewed as one of the most terrible sins, worse even, than homicide. Some even considered adultery to include loving your spouse too ardently, or having too much pleasure during intercourse. In the play it is clear that Othello and Desdemona have experienced sexual joy in their marriage and one of the reasons Othello could have had for killing Desdemona, is because he accepts that her enjoyment of sex is sinful and punishable by death.

Kasey Brutto: Yes, but Iago is also responsible for Othello killing himself and Iago is responsible for turning Othello the faultless hero...

Sarah Fairjones: Faultless? Othello was jealous, insecure and violent. He couldn't even declare whom he suspects Desdemona had an affair with. Othello denies murder, then kills himself, which is a serious crime in Shakespearean times.

Keith Belt: Trust was Othello's only strength, and even his trust in Desdemona fails, and his trust becomes naivety.

Kasey Brutto: Yes, but it was Iago who manipulated Othello, causing him to fall from happiness to misery and catastrophe. Which is part of the reason that Othello is called a tragedy.

Sarah Fairjones: It is arguable though, if Othello is even a tragedy at all.

Kasey Brutto: What type of question is that? Of course Othello is a tragedy! It follows each one of Aristotle's assumptions about the nature of a tragedy.

Sarah Fairjones: But Othello has no tragic flaw! You can't call jealousy a tragic flaw! Everyone has a little jealousy in them somewhere.

Kasey Brutto: I don't call jealousy a tragic flaw, but I consider Othello's insecurity a tragic flaw.

Keith Belt: Othello holds onto his identity as a soldier, and it is his insecurity which allows Iago to manipulate him.

Kasey Brutto: Other tragic elements include all the victims being high standing in the community, the suffering affects many innocent people, not just the hero, Othello, and there is references to the supernatural with Othello being accused of committing witchcraft to gain Desdemona's love.

Keith Belt: Yes, well that was a nice wrap up of this topic as we are now out of time. Thank you to both of you, Kasey and Sarah, I hope to have you on our show again as you both presented interesting interpretations and ideas of the play Othello. To all you listeners, I hope you enjoyed our discussion this Wednesday night and I hope you tune in again next week when we have two new academics come in to have a chat about another one of Shakespeare's plays, Twelfth Night.