Social issues

• It's important to understand the society Shakespeare was writing in and contemporary ideas about race and the word 'black'
• Queen Elizabeth is said to have complained about the number of black people living in England from around 1596
• According to Ogude, Shakespeare may have "shared some of the deep-seated fears of his contemporaries about black people.... Othello expresses as well as confirms the prejudices behind Elizabeth's decree banishing 'negars' from England"
• This motion, allowing the deportation of black people, was passed in 1601
• The word 'black'


  Carried particular connotations in Shakespeare's time that are shocking and appalling in a modern context
• According to Jordan, the pre-sixteenth century Oxford English Dictionary associated the word black with meanings such as 'deeply stained with dirt... having deadly purposes... horrible, wicked'
• Jordan said the word black was a "symbol of baseness and evil, a sign of danger and repulsion"
• The idea of 'blackness' in Othello is not just connected to physical skin colour; but also ideas of a dark/evil nature
• Some people see Othello as a racist play


  Because the black protagonist and the only black character, Othello, is portrayed as irrational, murderous, violent and gullible
• Some critics have highlighted that Othello's jealous and violent nature, as well as his very sexual nature (implied by Roderigo and Iago), adhere to sixteenth-century stereotypes about black men
• Racial slurs


  • Iago refers to Othello as the 'Moor'
  • Roderigo calls Othello 'thick lips'
• The term 'Moor' alludes to Othello's North African heritage and seems to be racially loaded
• Roderigo's insult 'thick lips' seems to mock Othello's physical appearance in a racially loaded way
• The fact that Shakespeare includes these racial slurs does not necessarily mean that the play is racist in its outlook
• Some people argue the very positive presentation of Othello (at least initially) as a great military leader, loving husband and eloquent speaker subverts any negative stereotypes about black people that Shakespeare's contemporaries may have subscribed to
• Othello is given enormous respect as a military leader and strategist
• Men under Othello, such as Montano, Cassio and Lodovico, admire and respect him
• The duke and senate of Venice also seem to admire him
• Most critics agree that Othello is characterised as an 'other' in his society
• Many characters, include Desdemona, repeatedly refer to Othello as "the Moor"
• The repetition and nature of this term highlight the fact that Othello is foreign and ethnically 'other' to other characters in the play
• England was very patriarchal in the Elizabethan era
• Women were expected to be obedient, silent and passive in the face of male authority
• Sermons held during this period promoted these values
• Marriage reinforced the patriarchy
• Fathers effectively married off their daughters when they wanted and to whom they wanted
• Husbands would then become the 'legal masters' of their wives
• This meant they could punish their wives as they chose, especially when it came to things like adultery
• Elizabeth I took the throne in 1558 (Othello was written in 1603)
• Elizabeth reigned for a long time and her tenure was very stable, even though many of Elizabeth's contemporaries doubted that a female monarch could lead as effectively as a male and she was constantly having to prove herself
• Elizabeth I: '"I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king."'
• Significantly, Elizabeth never married
• Some people believe that women were inspired by Elizabeth's strong example to try to gain greater freedoms in marriage and other aspects of life
• Indeed, marriage separations rose greatly from 1595-1620
• However, the idea of the 'shrew' woman (the very assertive and outspoken woman) also emerged in the literature of this time
• This type of woman beckoned the need for husbands to exert more control over their wives - reinforcing patriarchy
• Female sexuality is seen as threatening or emasculating in Othello
• Othello easily believes that Desdemona is being unfaithful and feels 'cuckolded' (which means being the husband of an unfaithful wife)
• This leads to his cruel and vicious treatment of Desdemona
• Iago speaks disdainfully of women and appears to have a misogynistic attitude