The Moor of Venice: Critically Analysing Othello Based on Race, Colour, Gender as the Social Constructor, and the Facilitator to Kill Desdemona

Abstract

After World War II, Shakespearean critics often found ‘race’ to be an incidental discourse in (c 0.1603). They were rooting for universal humanism and valour portrayed by the Moor of Venice, as their central point of evaluation. The paper would examine whether Othello’s race and his cultural inheritance acted as a facilitator to kill Desdemona or it was the code of conduct (validated by the societal prescriptions) expected of a man in fifteenth-century England, concerning Renaissance ideals. This will be intertwined with examining the notions of ownership and honour in the play and how the ‘motiveless malignity’ affected the ‘fate’ of a woman. Do the tragic incidents happen due to the orchestrated plan by the shoddy opportunist Iago or the tenets of anxiety were always instilled in the mind of Othello even before his marriage with Desdemona? Would the events be different if he did not bear the essence of cultural exclusivity, of being a Moor, in his mind? Would the situation still turn out the way it did if Desdemona was a Moor? The paper would raise these questions and try to find the role of race, gender, and colour by accumulating substantial evidence from the play.

Keywords

• race
• valour
• inter-personal conflicts