Othello Analysis: A Cultural Approach
- Melchior Antoine
- 5 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Any analysis of Othello has to consider race. Othello is one of the more popular tragedies from Shakespeare, and tells the tragic tale of the Moorish general, who was duped into believing that his Venetian wife was cheating on him. The main character — Othello — is tricked by the villain Iago, whom he trusts as his right-hand man, into mistrusting his wife because he was a foreigner in the Venetian society in which the play is set. This calls for a cultural analysis of the play.
An Othello analysis has to tackle the following question: What was it about Othello’s conception of himself and role in Venetian society that made him so vulnerable to the plotting and mischief of Iago? The answer is related to his insecurity based on his older age, his race as a Black person, and his status as a foreigner in Venetian society. Here is Iago explaining the vices of Venetian women to Othello:
IAGO:
I know our country disposition well.
In Venice they do let God see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands. Their best
conscience
Is not to leave ’t undone, but keep ’t unknown.
OTHELLO: Dost thou say so? (Act 3, Scene 3)
Othello being a Moor is naturalized or adopted into Venetian society. This means that he is not native to Venetian society and is in no position to know about the secret knowledge of how Venetian women behave. As a result, he has to rely on the insider knowledge of Iago, the White Venetian native who was born and raised in that society.
And of course, there is the question of Othello’s race. There has been much needless controversy around Othello’s race, with most of it stemming from the fact that commenters have difficulty accepting that he was Black or of African ancestry. They instead argue in favor of him being Arab, North African, or a tawny Moor. The textual evidence in the play itself, and the definition and context of “Moor” as used by Shakespeare all point to Othello being Black. More than that, Shakespeare's purpose in the play required that Othello be nothing less than a Black African in contrast to the protagonist and villain of the play, Iago, the White Venetian.
1. The historical context of Othello
There has been much controversy on the race of Othello. The question is whether or not he was actually Black (or in the language of Shakespeare’s time, a Negro) or a “tawny Moor,” an expression for a light-skinned North African. The presence of Africans in Western Europe can be traced back to the occupation and colonization of Spain by the Moors, beginning with the invasion of Spain in 711 AD.
The controversy began early with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who said incredulously of the idea of Othello being Black. In his Othello analysis, he claims:
No doubt Desdemona saw Othello's visage in his mind; yet, as we are constituted, and most surely as an English audience was disposed in the beginning of the seventeenth century, it would be something monstrous to conceive this beautiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable negro.
Coleridge is cooly mocking the idea of Othello being a “veritable negro.” In his opinion, Shakespeare and the “English” of Shakespeare’s time (i.e., the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries) would not have tolerated the “monstrous” idea of a Venetian girl falling in love with a negro. This type of sentiment has informed much of the commentary that argues against Othello being Black.
People writing centuries after the play was written take current racist attitudes toward Blacks and project it back into the past. Coleridge was writing in the nineteenth century, when slavery was at its height in the British colonies. In short, he was simply expressing the racial animus toward Africans at the time.
Even when critics recognized that Othello was Black, they were nonetheless offended. For example, according to Edward Berry in his article “Othello’s Alienation”:
Charles Lamb's frank admission that although he could find Othello admirable in the reading he was only repelled by the figure of a "coal-black Moor" on stage; he concluded that the play should be read, not seen.
Othello’s race and dark skin is crucial for the objectives that Shakespeare was trying to achieve with the play. There is the obvious and deliberate irony in Othello being described as a “black devil” by several characters in the play, when the actual role of a demon or the stand-in for Lucifer is a White venetian — Iago.
Iago even goes as far as announcing himself as an agent of Lucifer in Act 1, Scene 1 with the phrase “I am not that I am,” and inversion of the Biblical phrase “I AM THAT I AM,” which represents God identifying himself to Moses as the champion and savior of Israel. The negation used in Iago’s phrasing makes it clear that he is in direct opposition to God.
By contrast, Othello is portrayed as the pure soul hanging in the balance to be ensnared by Iago. In that regard, Desdemona may be seen as symbolizing the purity and moral integrity of Othello. For a deeper discussion on the symbols and motifs in Othello, you can look at my previous article on the topic: Symbols & Motifs In Othello.
In any event, it would make no sense for Othello to be something other than obviously Black for Shakespeare to achieve his purpose of showing that evil is an inner matter of the soul and not of outward appearances. Othello being a tawny Moor or Mediterranean Arab or North African would not provoke such strong reactions in his fellow Venetian citizens. Othello was assimilated and would have dressed and carried himself like other Venetians.
The difference in appearances between Venetians, a Mediterranean population and “tawny” or light-skinned Moors would hardly be enough to warrant commenting on, especially if the latter is dressed and assimilated into Venetian culture.
In addition, as Philip Butcher has shown in his 1952 article “Othello’s Racial Identity,” the text itself has enough evidence to show that Shakespeare conceived Othello as a Black person. He also tackles the confusion related to the fact that the word Moor was used by Elizabethans to describe Blacks (or negroes), Arabs, Berbers, and Muslims in general.
Let’s look at the textual evidence in the play to prove Othello’s Blackness. Othello is variously described as:
“the thick-lips” (by Roderigo in Act 1, Scene 1);
“an old black ram” (by Iago in Act 1, Scene 2);
having a “sooty bosom” (by Brabantio in Act 1, Scene 2);
“far more fair than Black” (by the Duke of Venice in Act 1, Scene 3);
“black Othello” (by Iago speaking to Cassio in Act 2, Scene 3); and
“the blacker devil” (by Emilia in Act 5, Scene 2).
And of course, there is the question as to how Othello describes himself. There are two instances, both of which involve Othello’s insecurity as a Black person in Venice. In Act 3, Scene 3, he says, “I am Black” to internalize his suspicions that Desdemona is cuckolding him. In the same scene, he thinks of Desdemona as defiled for being unfaithful and describes her name as “now begrimed and black / As mine own face.”
2. What does Shakespeare mean by the term “Moor”?
The ethnicity of Othello has been complicated by the use of the word Moor. A Moor could variously mean Black, Muslim, or a light-skinned Berber from North Africa. Some commentators frequently draw a distinction between a Moorish ethnicity restricted to North Africa and a Black (or Negro) ethnicity restricted to so called Sub-Saharan Africa. In that regard, North Africa is seen as being part of the Orient, making Othello “Oriental.”
However, such clear-cut decisions aren’t entirely accurate considering the complicated history of these regions. Black Africans were likely present in North Africa throughout history.
And in the case of Andalusia Spain, which accounted for much of the Moorish presence in Medieval Europe, there were rather close economic and political ties between Islamic Spain, North Africa, and “Black” Africa. The Black Africa in question would be the region of Western Sudan. This would be a region in West Africa made up of the Southern Sahara and the Sahel.
According to Ray A. Kea in his article “Expansions And Contractions: World-Historical Change And The Western Sudan World-System,” ties between West Africa, North Africa, and Moorish Spain at their closest during the Almoravid Movement — the last Islamic polity to rule over Moorish Spain. This closeness is explained by the close alliance between the West African kingdom of Takrur and the Almoravids, which included having their African Takrur allies as part of their military forces.
In addition, we can also compare how Shakespeare uses the word “Moor” in other plays with Moorish characters or references to such characters, such as Titus Andronicus and The Merchant of Venice. The Moor, Aaron in Titus Andronicus, is described variously as “black,’ “coal-black,” and “raven-colored.” There is no doubt that he is a Black African. In The Merchant of Venice, Lorenzo, in a repartee with Launcelot the clown, who attempts to mock his elopement with his Jewish wife Jessica, responds with:
I shall answer that better to the commonwealth than you can the getting up of the negro’s belly: The Moor is with child by you, Launcelot. (Act 3, Scene 5)
Here, Shakespeare is using the word Moor interchangeably with negro. It is noteworthy that The Merchant of Venice is also set in Venice, like Othello. We can conclude that Shakespeare’s conception of a Moor in Venice would correspond to what we would recognize as a Black African.
Get help from a professional human editor |
3. The racial alienation of Othello
An analysis of Othello cannot be complete without considering the role of race. As mentioned earlier, the reaction to Othello’s elopement with Desdemona is entirely understandable if we accept the fact that he is a Black African. Brabantio has him as a frequent guest to his house. In addition, Othello is a man of royal lineage and high standing in Venetian society. Yet Brabantio, after learning of the elopement, accuses Othello of witchcraft as it is unlikely that his daughter:
Would ever have, t' incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou—to fear, not to delight. (Act 1, Scene 2)
Othello in the first act of the play displays supreme confidence in his honor and status in Venetian society. He has even been accused of being boastful and egotistical by some critics. For example, after hearing of Brabantio’s disapproval of his marriage to his daughter, he says:
Let him do his spite.
My services which I have done the signiory
Shall out-tongue his complaints . . .
… I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege, and my demerits
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached.
However, such assertions belie Othello’s deeply rooted insecurity as a Black person in Venetian society. These insecurities will later be used by Iago Michael Neil argues in his 1989 article entitled “Unproper Beds: Race, Adultery, and the Hideous in Othello,” that the threat of miscegenation is what is responsible for the strong negative reactions to Othello’s and Desdemona’s union from characters like Roderigo, Brabantio, and the characters in general.
This is reflected in the last scene of the play where Lodoviko asks to hide or cover the bodies of the slain Desdemona and Othello: “The object poisons sight; / Let it be hid.” The object in question would be the realization of the worst fears of miscegenation come to realization.
One of the worst examples of the racist yet hidden animus that Othello faces is from Emilia. After discovering that Desdemona has been killed, she describes Othello as “the Blacker devil” for it. Before this, Emilia came across as a decent character who betrayed no kind of racist feelings or language toward Othello. However, at that moment, she reveals that Othello has always been a devil in her eyes, and is now even a blacker one after his crime.
Othello is not immune to this racial hostility. Despite the pride that he displays, he suffers acutely from a sense of alienation due to his race, and he internalizes it to his detriment. This is why Iago’s conspiracy works so well on him. This is also why, despite the confidence that he displays, he has to elope with Desdemona, as opposed to asking her father for her hand in marriage. We have already seen how he describes Desdemona's virtue as “now begrimed and black / As mine own face" when she believes that she has lost her virtue.
This racial alienation is borne from Othello’s rootlessness and the hidden racial hostility, which he feels even if it is not obvious. It creates an internal conflict and division within Othello, where “his service to the state” and assimilation make him a Venetian of high standing charged with protecting Venice, whereas his Blackness makes him a threat to the values of that state. This is reflected in the final scene of the play, where, in a speech before his suicide, he casts himself both as “a turbaned Turk” who threatens a citizen of Venice and the Venetian Moor who kills the threatening Turk.
References
Berry, E. (1990). Othello's Alienation. Studies In English Literature, 1500-1900, 30(2), 315–333.
Berry, R. (1972). Pattern in Othello. Shakespeare Quarterly, 23(1), 3–19.
Butcher, P. (1952). Othello's Racial Identity. Shakespeare Quarterly, 3(3), 243–247.
Kea, R. A. (2004). Expansions and contractions: World-historical change and the Western Sudan world-system. Journal of World-Systems Research, 10, 723–816.
Neill, M. (1989). Unproper beds: Race, adultery, and the hideous in Othello. Shakespeare Quarterly, 40(4), 383–412.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, August 21). Othello Analysis: A Cultural Approach. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/othello-analysis |
