What are the contextual factors important to the study of 'Othello'?

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Laura Spandler

What are the contextual factors important to the study of ‘Othello’?

To Elizabethan society in the late 16th century Italy meant ‘crime rather than art, the devious head rather then the simple heart’. Italian women were seen as ‘very lewd and wicked’, with many thousands paying ‘monthly unto the pope for the sinful use of their bodies’, a quote from a Londoner around the time that Shakespeare wrote ‘Othello’. It had become very popular on 16th century English theatre to set plays in Italy. To the Elizabethans the culture of Italy would have seemed very different to their own, and with travel writing becoming very popular it is clear that the were interested to learn about countries other than their own. Therefore, by setting the play in Italy Shakespeare made sure it would be attractive to the audience.

In the 16th century Venice was a powerful city state built on the new wave of capitalism that had entered Europe. Venice was also the protector of Christianity against the Barbarians, or the Turks. Elizabethan views of Venice were that it was ‘a place full of tight political plots and loose women’, and it was believed that it was full of ‘Venetian Cortezans… at the least twenty thousand’. ‘Venice was also a byword for exotic vices and unbridled passions’, according to one writer. However it was also thought that Venetian society was far more law-abiding than that of Cyprus and so Shakespeare may have used this as a contrast.

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Cyprus is the setting for the most part of ‘Othello’, it was a Venetian outpost attacked by the Turks in 1570, and conquered the following year. Cyprus was seen as the isle of love in the 16th century, as it was said to be the birthplace of Venus, Love’s Goddess, it is therefore ironic that Shakespeare sends his lovers here to die. As mentioned above, Cyprus was far less stable than Venice at this time.

With ‘Othello’, Shakespeare extended the traditional view of black characters as stage villains or mindless exotics, used at times in his earlier plays. Elizabethans ...

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