Racism in Othello: Reassessing Shakespeare's Legacy

William Shakespeare was considered uneducated because he did not go to university, he was disliked by his own society and was treated as an inferior. Critics criticized him for his great work that student such as me study. Nowadays almost every piece of work is inspired by Shakespeare’s work, his work still remains timeless throughout the decades. He also changed the English language and created new words such as “accommodation, birthplace, admirable, and coldhearted”.

The idea of love in his work was realistic and non-conventional.

What I did not know is that he included the topic of racism in his work. It seems strange for a white male living in the 15th century to do so, or so I thought. After taking Othello’s lecture I thought that he used black and white to contradict the racial prejudice, or the mind of a racist. I was wrong in fact, everything I grew to believe about Shakespeare is completely wrong. I am once again back to hating Shakespeare’s guts.

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The play Othello and The Taming of the Shrew still haunts me as a person, it disturbs me as a feminist and an anti-racist. In my opinion, Othello more than any play is problematic in both the conventions and traditions in literally and theatrical. Shakespeare suggest that people of color behave as they do because of their ethnicity and race. When Iago says “These Moors are changeable in their wills” (Shakespeare, Othello ) and then continues to demonstrate that.

What does Shakespeare know about black culture? Did he know any black people? Did he bother to educate himself on that matter? I highly doubt it.

Perhaps he was a racist, not by intention, but by effect; however, the play could still be called racist. The changes he bothered to make and the racist assumptions he had all point to one thing, and that is Shakespeare was without a doubt a racist who was influenced by racists such as Seneca.

Othello becomes an obsessive murderous killer because his wife is unfaithful, and I wonder what does that say about men of color? Are they prone to violence and irrationality? Was Shakespeare trying to prove a point? That is what I started to ask myself as I watched Othello. Other black characters in Shakespeare’s plays such as Aaron in Titus Andronicus who was portrayed as an evil villain. To suggest that a character behaves as it does because of its ethnicity is the definition of racism. Othello’s soliloquies do not reveal anything about him, he is not allowed to develop the same kind of relationship with the audience as Iago does. Othello is a victim, if Iago is the cause Othello is the effect.

I have lost all my respect for Shakespeare’s works, and I cannot wait for the day where I do not have to study his work again. If I could I would erase everything I ever read or learned by his work, but for now I will have to endure Shakespeare’s work.