Blackness in Elizabethan England was a colour associated with moral evil, decay and death, (all negative factors), and moors in the theatre were usually stereotyped villains. Othello is a black man in a white society because of his skin colour, it allows Iago to manipulate him later in the play Othello finds that Roderigo, Brabantio and Iago all stereotype him. This stereotype are about him and thinks that if he is with Desdemona it will change, as he is old, black and uncivilised, he then realises that if he is with Desdemona then the others may welcome him into the society more than they do at the moment.
Moors were enemies of Christianity they were known as the devils that do cruel things. Brabantio demonstrates well the prejudice when he regards Othello as a professional soldier; he is full of admiration and affection. However when Brabantio was forced to consider Othello as part of the family married to his daughter he blames Othello for practising witchcraft or using drugs. ‘Ah, to me she is abused, stolen from me and corrupted by spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; For nature so preposterously to err, Being not deficient, blind or lame of sense, sans witchcraft could not’ (1,3,60-64). Basically he is saying that Othello is abusing her, he has taken away his daughter and is having sex with her, by doing spells on her and making her take medicines, which he may have bought, from the quack doctors (black magic doctors). Brabantio emphasizes the strangeness of Desdemona’s behaviour, suggesting that she must be under the influence of drugs or witchcraft, and how it could stray from itself. So morally defective I think that this is prejudice because Brabantio is presuming that there is something wrong that is taking place behind closed doors. Also Brabantio does not know the truth and is judging what is going on, by the colour of Othello skin. This is a stereotype of ‘black people’ using black magic therefore as Brabantio knows this he now thinks that Othello is another black person using black magic.
Brabantio is also being prejudice because he is angry and showing hatred towards Othello as he had taken his daughter away from him ‘O thou foul thief. Where hast thou stowed my daughter’ he is saying that Othello has stolen his daughter and has hidden her. Here Shakespeare has presented us with a more enlightened view of race. Today, the attitudes of ‘racial mix’ have changed, as people had been more welcomed in a different society. For example today all ‘races’ are allowed legally to come to England.
The play presents several cultural stereotypes of black men as ugly, cruel, lustful and dangerous. Iago calls him an ‘old black ram’ (1,1,80 90) this implies that Othello is old, this could be age wise or it could be that he is too old for Desdemona. The reason iago called him ‘black’ was because of the colour of his skin and ‘ram’ because it was the language of sheep farmers also because a ram is black just like Othello. He says ‘an old black ram is tupping your white ewe’. The term tupping means that Othello (the old black ram) is having sex ‘copulating’ (again he uses the language of sheep farmers) animalistic emphasizes on lust rather than love. ‘Your’ is said to Brabantio the father of Desdemona. ‘The white ewe’ is Desdemona a ‘white’ Italian girl, because of her skin colour she is described as white also because it is the colour of purity. A clean, unspoilt, white girl is going to sleep with Othello. Desdemona is compared to a ‘white ewe’ a female sheep according to Iago, Desdemona’s comparison goes quite well. I think this is prejudice because Iago is judging Othello by his appearance and his race. Again if this statement were put in a polite way it would be not considered to be prejudice, like if he had not said ‘old’, ‘black’ and ‘white’. However I don’t think Iago could have stopped himself from being prejudice because he hates Othello, as he (Othello) had chosen another man, Cassio as his second-in-command (lieutenant) preferring him above Iago. However, Iago is a very different character from all the others in the play. As he is a friend to all- Othello’s trusted ‘ancient’, Roderigo’s ally, counsellor to the downcast Cassio, he is been most praised as ‘honest Iago’.
‘What a full fortune does the thick- lips owe’ these words are said by Roderigo to Othello. ‘What a full fortune’ Roderigo tries to say ‘ what good use does your thick lips have’. The term ‘thick lips’ is said to Othello because of the size of his lips, an insulting reference to the man whom Iago calls ‘the moor’- and an indication that he is Negroid. This scene of the play emphasizes Othello’s colour. This is prejudice because Othello is black; Roderigo is saying that all black people have thick lips. I don’t think that is always the case. If Roderigo had just said it to him in a way that it does not include his race then it would not have been a racial remark.
