Summary:
History's events continue how we read classic literature. William Shakespeare's "Othello," for example, can be read from a post-colonial era and from a feminist perspective. A post-colonial reading reveals the characters' racism and discriminatory attitudes that drive their actions. A feminist reading suggests the expectations of patriarchal society, the practice of privileges in patriarchal marriages, and the suppression and restriction of femininity.
In William Shakespeare's Othello, different interpretations give the text different meanings. From a post colonial perspective, the text presents a discourse, describing an attempt of assimilation of a black man into a white society by marrying a white woman but in the end is stripped from his white construct and is reduced back to the traditional role of "the Moor", revealing his "true" jealous and monstrous identity. From a feminist perspective, displays of male harsh mistreatment of women are stressed through the juxtaposition of the women's devotion to their male figure.
A post-colonial reading of the play contains expressions of racism and discriminatory attitudes through the use of imagery and negative colour connotations, which compel the characters' actions. These racial values and prejudices reflect the Elizabethan society's attitude towards blacks in Shakespeare's time and interracial.....
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