Racism

There are few things that the human mind cannot stand, and one of them is self-contempt. It is one thing to hate another person, but to hate and despise oneself is equivalent to denying one's existence. Othello, in a fundamentally ethnocentric and racist society, finds himself confronted with the horrible reality of this self-contempt when there is cause to believe that Desdemona, whose loved had been the shield against his self-contempt, now betrays him too. Thus, Shakespeare's Othello is a psychoanalytic view of a self-loathing man and his doomed attempts to defend himself against a painful reality.

The society and culture in which Othello finds himself is one where racism and ethnocentrism prevailed and prejudices abounded. As Ania Loomba in "Sexuality and Racial DifferenceЃEcites G.K. Hunter, there was ЃE'a powerful and ancient tradition associating black-faced men with wickednessЃEwhich) came right up to Shakespeare's own day'"(166). She further explains that the association of blackness and wickedness had stemmed from a Bible-centered conception of the world "in which humanity was graded according to its geographical distance from Holy Land--hence black people were devilish because they existed outside both the physical and the conceptual realm of Christianity. Blacks became identified with the descendants of Ham, and their color a direct consequence of sexual accessЃElt;/SPAN>(166). In addition, a pre-sixteenth century version of the Oxford English Dictionary provided the definition of black as "deeply stained with dirtЃEhaving dark or deadly purpose, malignantЃELoomba 167). The Elizabethan society also fostered a "general cultural hostility to strangers,ЃEwhich stemmed from the growing presence of black people who posed an economic threat : "...the black presence was both perceived and constructed as a threat by the stateЃE166). Thus, Othello finds himself in a society and culture that are very much antagonistic to his success and which readily support any claims to put him down.

Even Othello, the respected general of the Venetian army, cannot escape the prejudices and hostility of the Venetian society. Brabantio first calls the reader's attention to such prejudices when he willingly accepts Iago's suggestion that Othello had lustfully stolen his daughter, Desdemona, from him: "This accident is not unlike my dreamЃE(I.1.141). His willing acceptance of Iago's suggestion reveals his "deep-seated fear and prejudiceЃEde Sousa 119) against Othello, this "thing as [him]--to fear, not to delightЃEI.2.87). Branbantio goes on to accuse Othello of using magic to enchant Desdemona, evoking the association of the primitive black man and his witchcraft: "She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted/ By spells and medicines bought of mountebanksЃE(I.3.74). So horrible is the fact that the Moor has stolen and corrupted his daughter, Branbantio claims, she might as well be dead.

Iago, too, reveals his prejudices about Othello. He assumes in Othello's sexual aggressiveness and his inborn savagery because he is black. Using the imagery of beasts, he describes to Brabantio what he thinks is going on between Othello and Desdemona: "I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backsЃEI.1.116). In addition, Iago compares Othello to an ass in speaking of his gullibility, or rather, stupidity: "The Moor is of a free and open nature,/That thinks men honest but that seem to be so,/And will as tenderly be led by the nose/As asses areЃEI.3.365). Iago's speech is filled with images that portray Othello as contemptible as possible--he calls him "an old black ramЃEI.1.89), "a Barbary horseЃEI.1.111), "a lascivious MoorЃEI.1.125), and "a lusty MoorЃEII.1.276). Yet, what makes Iago's attitude towards Othello interesting is the tension within him between his racist contempt of Othello and his jealousy that stems from his admiration of Othello's achievements. In this way, Iago's jealousy of Othello, the well-liked and respected general, and his contempt for Othello, the Moor, are in a vicious cycle: his contempt intensifies his jealousy, and his jealousy increases his contempt, and so on, until Iago is consumed entirely by jealousy and contempt.

Even Desdemona, who loves Othello against the wishes of her father, shows evidence of holding prejudices of her husband's culture. However, her prejudices are not negative and merely take the form of "ethnographical speculationЃEde Sousa 120). She simply wonders about Othello's cultural origin--a culture foreign and distant from hers. She tells Emilia, when talking about the sudden absence of jealousy in Othello: "Who? He? I think the sun where he was born/ Drew all such humors from himЃEIII.4.29-31) (de Sousa 121). Yet, the important point here is that even Desdemona sees Othello as "differentЃEand as a foreigner to her own culture. This ultimately gives Othello a reason to feel alienated, even though his "exoticnessЃEhad attracted her to him in the first place.

Amidst this prejudiced atmosphere of the Elizabethan society, Othello learns to "shift between a European and an alien identityЃElt;/SPAN>(de Sousa 113). On one hand, he is the Venetian general whose courage on battlefield had won him his position and who has learned to adopt the ways and mannerisms of the Venetian society. He is an "honorary whiteЃEnd a colonized subject existing on the terms of white Venetian gentleman and trying to internalize its ideologyЃE(Loomba 171). However, on the other hand, he cannot completely neglect his "otherness,ЃEfor his reputation in Venice depends on his military expertise cultivated by foreign experiences (De Sousa 124). Moreover, it had been his exotic stories of adventure that had originally fascinated Barbantio and that had won him the heart of Desdemona. His membership to the Venetian society, thus, rests on a precarious balance between his "onenessЃE(conformity to the Venetian society) and his "othernessЃEthat can play to both his advantage and disadvantage.

It is no surprise, then, that Othello's transition from the position as an "honorary whiteЃEand a valuable warrior to a complete outsider, "marginalized, outcast and alienated from [society] in every way, until he occupies his 'trueЃEposition as its otherЃELoomba 171) comes about rather easily. Branbantio readily accepts Iago's insinuation of Othello being a "strangerЃEand a threat to