Shakespeare's play Othello, reveals the racial, and gender demarcations of this Jacobean play representing Elizabethan values through acceptance and rejection of racial and gender related stereotypes. We are shown how the author was careful in not setting the play in London, where the society and the audience of the time would have favoured misogynistic and racist values. The settings of Venice and Cyprus, at the time were thought of as more tolerant and international and hence, are chosen as the setting of this play. Within the action and settings, we clearly see how both racial prejudice and gender inequality have been represented in order to reflect the Jacobean audiences values and attitudes of the time.

The play commences in the powerful trading city of Venice. Venice is regarded as a place where all people rights, whether Moor, Jewish, Christian or Pagan, are safeguarded in law. It was a...