Exploring Themes of Race, Gender, and Betrayal in Shakespeare’s Othello

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Exploring Themes of Race, Gender, and Betrayal in Shakespeare’s Othello

Introduction

“Sometimes people hate you not because you did something wrong but because your better than them and they can’t beat your” (unknown). William Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest writer in the english language with 38 written plays and 154 sonnets and one of the best written plays of Shakespeare is Othello.

Body

The Theme of Race

The play is a about a tragical story of betrayal race and gender. The protagonist othello is the general in venetian army whose life soon is ruined by manipulative and deceitful antagonist Iago, whose plan at first is to get rid of cassio out of his lieutenant position. Soon Iago’s plan crossfires with other character such as Desdemona Othello’s wife and Roderigo who later on helps Iago with his plan. The End results of Iago’s scheme lead to a disastrous ending that surprises everyone. Though the play had its ways of telling the story, there was three directors that interpreted the play adopting them to fit in their time periods. The best film that adopted the play Othello with the points of themes and that sticked to the original script of the play that Shakespeare wanted to show was Stuart Bruges film Othello.

In the play Othello Shakespeare develops the theme of race by giving the protagonist Othello the heritage of an African American. Discriminations is shows in the play when Iago tries to anger Desdemona’s father Brabantio, telling him “an old black ram is tupping up your white ewe”. (Ⅰ• Ⅰ • 96- 97 ) This Demonstrates that for Othello being a black male he suggest that’s he’s abusing Desdemona and having her against her own will due said that she would never willingly marry a moor that would ruin her family’s name.

In the adaptation of Stuart Burge Othello the film was released 1965 meaning that the film didn’t have any colored actors. The director was actually the one that portray the Othello the film. Since the film didn’t have any colored character not even the protagonist, this demonstrates that Stuart did not correspond to the script of the play in which it did not follow the theme of race discrimination because the main character isn’t even black to be treated differently. This is why Stuart Burge adaptation of the play is better because even if the film was in black and white you could tell that the protagonist was a black male and it also showed discrimination toward him.

The Manipulation of Betrayal

The original play of Shakespeare takes place in venice during the 1600s. During this time period females lived in a society where there were strict social norms in which they had to follow due to that fact that they weren’t society’s main focus but men who were superior. In the play Desdemona is the wife of the general meaning that she had to be the role model of all females, which puts her in a position that she had to be perfect to fall in the place of being the wife of a general, but in order to fall in that category she has to be a submissive and faithful wife. If not she would be branded as a whore.

In the film “O” by Tim Blake Nelson, the director characters Desdemona as brave and fierce character that doesn’t follow any social norm. This makes the film unique because it changes the parts of the scripts that makes the play as a whole with the thematic topic of gender and how they are important. It also change because the film is adapted to modern time in which females now don’t follow any social statuses that defines them because they now feel that both gender roles are equal and male aren’t the superior ones in society. This justifies how Stuart Burge’s film is closer moderation of Shakespeare’s original script because in the film Desdemona focus on being Othello’s perfect wife that wouldn’t do adultery on and would do anything to make her husband happy.

Tragic Consequences and Character Flaws

In the original script of Shakespeare he attend to make the antagonist Iago as the villain that only wants what’s better for himself. Iago’s original plan was to get Cassio of his lieutenant position that he could have for his own. In order to go with his plan Iago and Roderigo help him get kicked out. In order for Iago to keep his position secured he made Othello believe that Cassio and Desdemona were having an affair so that Othello wouldn’t give Cassio his position back. For Iago being deceitful to everyone in the play his plan backfires when is wife Emilia later on finds out his plan and tells Othello too late when he kills Desdemona for being a whore.

When Othello finds out he then shuns Iago for his treachery which ends the play when Othello then commits suicide for his mistakes in believing Iago. In the film “O” Tim Blake is more resourceful when it comes to Othello characters as an easy person to convince which also makes him nice person even when it comes to facing the truth of Iago’s betrayal. This modernized adaptations of the script defeats the purpose of Othello being the moor that everyone fears of. In this case it doesn’t make the film the best one to alter shakespeare’s original text of Othello making Stuart Burge the best.

Conclusion

In the play Othello the protagonist Othello’s major downfall was jumping into conclusion while having Iago feed him false information that leads to his and his wife’s death. Things could’ve ended differently in the play if Othello wouldn’t have been so blinded of jealousy and if Iago wouldn’t have had hunger of wanting power. The timing of the play and colorism in the play with betrayal and jealousy all ties up onto the major plots that leads to having a tragic ending to all characters. Though all interpretation of the original text tried to alter the play into the film the only one that tried to stick with the theme and texts of the play was Stuart Blake that adopted the play with most of the original text while also trying to model the characters as they were in the original play.

References

“Othello” by William Shakespeare
“Othello: A Norton Critical Edition” edited by Edward Pechter
“Othello: A Critical Reader” edited by Susan Snyder”Othello: New Critical Essays” edited by Philip C. Kolin
“Othello: Language and Writing” by R.A. Foakes
“Othello: A Guide to the Play” by Joan Lord Hall”Blackness and Sexualities in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries” by Ian Smith