Who is responsible for the death of Desdemona?

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Who is responsible for the death of Desdemona?

Shakespeare’s play ‘Othello’ was written in the middle of his writing career. Shakespeare was well known and highly respected; he was loved by the public for the way he wrote his plays. Financially he was better off than most people and would have had an easier life.

The time in which Othello was written, was at the start of the 1600’s. The play Othello had originally come from an Italian author called Cinthio Geraldi, which was translated by a French researcher. The way, in which Shakespeare and Geraldi wrote in different styles, you could say Shakespeare ‘spiced it up’ when he changed the play. This being at the time of Elizabethan/ Jacobean England, which was a widely racist culture. A majority of Elizabethan England, prosecuted the minority of the ethnic race that was their and also disliked the moors. Often in Elizabethan/ Jacobean times they would not have black actors and instead ‘black up’ white actors. The queen Elizabeth I expressed signs of discomfort at the numbers of ‘negars and blackamoors, which are crept in to the realm’. This showing how racist everyone was for instance thee queen of the country.

At this time of present Shakespeare had done something drastic and put a black character at the centre of his work, however Shakespeare was determined to make this work and confront the audience to how they would view a black man at the centre of the play, by doing this he would have had to make the play dramatic by adding different types of characters and going into great detail by making things spectacular.

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Shakespeare knew in attempt to make this successful he had to expect certain things from his characters. The woman would have been vulnerable, sex objects and practical realist. The duke would have been superior and powerful. Othello would be honoured and proud to be a loyal general in the army. Othello offers much of these qualities, as he is a loyal servant to the duke in defending his country and leads from the front. Even though many things distract him from his main job to keep the country successful, he handles things reasonably well.

In Shakespeare’s days the ...

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