Othello

Othello is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. The play tells the story of a powerful general of the Venetian army, Othello, whose life and marriage are ruined by a conniving, deceitful, and envious soldier, Iago.

Othello is possibly the most famous literary exploration of the warping powers of jealousy and suspicion. At the same time, it’s among the earliest literary works dealing with race and racism. Othello, undeniably heroic even if ultimately flawed, is the most prominent black protagonist in early Western literature. He is defined by his race and faces constant racism from other characters. Yet Shakespeare, writing in the early seventeenth century, never makes Othello into a stereotype. Othello’s marriage to Desdemona, a privileged white woman, first defies, and then ultimately succumbs to, the taboo on interracial relationships between blacks and whites.

The play’s performance history has also been marked by racism. To see a real black man and a white woman kiss onstage was so unacceptable that even in early twentieth century America, Othello had to be played by a white man in blackface. When Paul Robeson, a black American and the son of a slave, played Othello on Broadway in the 1940s, the performances electrified a still segregated nation.

There’s a lot to care about in Othello. Here we want to talk about the issues of identity that Shakespeare illuminates, because we’re all trying to find our identity. This play, written 400 years ago in another country, still resonates like a steel guitar today. And that’s why it’s such an awesome play. Let’s discuss.

So this identity thing is tricky. It is both public and private, social and internal. Raise your hand if you think about your “reputation” more than three times a week. Raise your hand if you wonder about what others think about you. Raise your hand if your inner life (your thoughts, dreams, fears, anxieties) isn’t quite what your outside life is (the way other people perceive you).

Othello got into trouble because he cared too much about what others thought, he felt too fully the ping of being an outsider because of his race and origins. But how do we not care what people think about us? How do we stay true to our inner life while making sense of the definitions and perceptions that society spins around us?