Racism Through The Shakespeares Othello Play

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 was an amazing writer, poet and actor who portrays his skills in writing about these plays and becoming a famous writer. One of his most notable being “Othello, The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice,” which is written by himself who portrays a memorable character named Othello who portrays an army general in . He married Desdemona, a woman he truly loved and kept it a secret from people. He started to overcome things that the woman he loved, is betraying him and maybe in a secret relationship with someone else.

Then, after hearing these incidents by a so called friend who worships him, he kills Desdemona and soon he found out that he has been duped and listened to someone that was trying to get revenge on him from the beginning when he married that she was in fact faithful to him.

So, based on my knowledge and doing some research on this topic, people have made documentaries on Othello, and what I feel is that Othello is an African, and in these movies, they have White men playing the role making the whole controversial thing about racism.

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The performance that I chose to talk about is the 1981 “Othello, featuring William Marshall Version”. In 1981, producer Jonathan MillI had selected the performance of remaking “Othello” with actor William Marshall portraying the character “Othello” in the upcoming movie. Also, actor Anthony Hopkins who portrays as “Moor”, and actor Bob Hoskins who plays “Iago”. The character “Iago”, has a new performance in this documentary as someone who is less evil from the official play that Shakespeare wrote.

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Also, the character “Moor” causes simply for the enjoyment of the chaos itself.

The staging, everything was beautiful as it brings the meaning of the movie. But, some of the scenes were not what we expected. Like, “Moor” who was seen using some sort of delivery. And, Hoskins uses a thick accent, and Iago questioning Cassio about Bianca affair. I know because the technology was not so good back then, but some of the choreography was not there. I still enjoyed it as it reminded me what these has brought us in this world today.

The costumes that were used for this play were close to the ones that people used to where in ancient times. And, the scripts that they wrote were as I would say it could have been better. Because back then they didn’t have any good technology to edit the shots that would better the play, but this is how technology in this world is more advanced through years of improving on things like this.

The play has impacted so many cultures as it helped them express their feelings and be able to show what they believe in. Because, now, you see people from different religions/cultures performing in theater to encourage others to believe in what they want and to be free.

In conclusion, this play has everyone having mixed feelings about religions or cultures because some people think they made it racist having a white gentlemen playing a African American role. But, what I think is that it’s a great movie and motivated others to perform in theater. In the 1981 play, it provided more energy and the picture because I know in 1951 film was in black and white, so the quality was not that great. So, in the 1981 film it has more empathy to the film.

Reference

  1. Department of Afro-American Research Arts Culture. (2017, August 30). Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice (1981, starring William Marshall). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCdHpKXw_Tg
  2. Thebillshakespeareproject. (2016, January 08). Othello capsule review: 1981, BBC Collected Works, directed by Jonathan Miller [Hopkins/Hoskins]. Retrieved from https://thebillshakespeareproject.com/2016/01/othello-capsule-review-1981-bbc-collected-works-directed-by-jonathan-miller-hopkinshoskins/
Updated: Feb 13, 2024
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Racism Through The Shakespeares Othello Play. (2024, Feb 13). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/racism-through-the-shakespeares-othello-play-essay

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