Othello

The play Othello was written by William Shakespeare in the year 1603. The play discusses what happens when a true and pure love is corrupted and ends up riddled with jealousy from one of the components in the marriage. This is what happens to the couple Othello and Desdemona while they are in Cyprus. The evil and merciless Iago takes the honest and true couple of Othello and Desdemona and injects jealousy into their love until it is no longer a love but in fact a hate for each other. Through the representation of the protagonist, Othello, the text interrogates the power structures that are present in the Venetian society.

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Through the representation of the character Othello the hierarchy of power related to race is portrayed. In the Venetian society Othello the protagonist is degraded by the aristocrats, for example he is called an "old black ram" by Iago and "thick-lips" by Roderigo. He is also even degraded unintentionally by his wife, Desdemona, as when and everyone else is talking about another person they refer to that individual by their name but in the case of Othello he is referred to as "the Moor" this is very degrading as it dehumanises him and stops making him like everyone else an individual, but distinguishes him not as a independent, unique human but as part of a race- the Moorish race. Even though Othello is degraded, he has overcome this problem because of his superior skills as a general which are utilised by the army when the Duke sends him against the "enemy Ottoman" in Cyprus. Othello uses these skills in conjunction with his ability to articulate words so well, which is shown when he defends himself in his "Most potent, grave, and reverend seigniors" speech in which he defends himself against Brabantio because he married Desdemona. The viewer can see that if Othello did not have superior skills as a general in the military