Themes in Othello

Racism is an issue that affects so many people. It's a problem that has been around for what seems like forever. Whether its people being used as slaves or people being discriminated because of what they look like, it's always been around.

William Shakespeare brought attention to how big the issue was before in his play Othello. In the first act of the play the character Iago tries to turn people against Othello to get revenge, to do that he makes the fact that Othello is black, a very bad thing. "Your heart is burst; you have lost half your soul; even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe." (Iago, act 1, scene 1) He even calls him the devil, "Or else the devil will make a grandsire or you." Shakespeare made a lot of racial comments throughout the play and made sure that the audience knew that Othello was black and that nobody was really happy about it. Even when people are complementing the man, it is in a racist way. "If virtue no delighted beauty lack, your son-in-law is far more fair than black." (Duke, act 1, scene 3) Here the Duke is trying to say something nice about Othello by saying that he seems more fair skinned than he is black. Basically saying that even though his skin is that colour he's not like that or like other people with that same skin colour.

People say racism has gotten better since Shakespeare time and people are more open and accepting; that may be true but there is still a problem because it is still going on. Nowadays racial slurs, comments or even stereotypes have become normal and are things used in everyday language. Kids now are learning to think of it as a normal thing, that comments that people make are okay.   That's not a good thing, people with different skin colours may not used as slaves anymore or treated like a lower class but it doesn't mean that they have become fully equal to the white man. Racism may not be getting worse but it's not getting better.

I could never judge someone by their skin colour or be okay with people making comments about others, so it doesn't make sense to me how others can be so cruel and ignorant. Whether it's during Shakespeare time period, during our time period, in the past or even in the future, racism is an issue and we need to figure out how to stop it. It may not be as bad as before but it still needs to get a whole lot better.