othello act 1 scene 3 essay

Othello Act 1 Scene 3

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In the council chamber, the Duke and Senators discuss a forthcoming Turkish attack on Cyprus (a Mediterranean island then under Venetian rule).

Othello and Brabantio enter, and Brabantio accuses Othello of having “stol'n” and “corrupted” his daughter. Othello replies that the marriage is one of love and free consent. When summoned, Desdemona confirms this, and Brabantio gives in.

Othello is ordered to leave for Cyprus immediately. He asks that Desdemona be allowed to follow him there, promising that love will not interfere with business. Desdemona joins in this request, which is granted; Othello chooses Iago to escort Desdemona to him.

Iago tells Roderigo he is still plotting against Othello and urges him to come to Cyprus also, indicating that he will deliver gifts from Roderigo to Desdemona. Roderigo agrees. Afterward, Iago laughs at his “friend’s” gullibility and willingness to part with his money.

As his soliloquy continues, Iago repeats his intention to deceive and ruin Othello. He claims that Othello is rumored to have slept with his wife (Emilia), and that he will act as if it’s true whether it is or isn’t. Mocking Othello’s trusting nature, he reveals his plan to fool Othello into thinking that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio.

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

• 1. Othello (Characters of the Play)
• 2. Othello Act 1 Scene 1
• 3. Othello Act 1 Scene 2
• 4. Othello Act 1 Scene 3
• 5. Othello Act 2 Scene 1
• 6. Othello Act 2 Scene 2
• 7. Othello Act 2 Scene 3
• 8. Othello Act 3 Scene 1
• 9. Othello Act 3 Scene 2
• 10. Othello Act 3 Scene 3
• 11. Othello Act 3 Scene 4
• 12. Othello Act 4 Scene 1
• 13. Othello Act 4 Scene 2
• 14. Othello Act 4 Scene 3
• 15. Othello Act 5 Scene 1
• 16. Othello Act 5 Scene 2

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Modern Othello: Act 1, Scene 3

The council chamber was brightly lit and the Duke and his senators sat at a conference table.

The Duke indicated the pile of documents spread across the table. ‘There’s no consistency in this news that could give it any credit.’

One of the senators held up a letter. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.’

‘And mine a hundred and forty,’ said the Duke.

‘And mine, two hundred,’ said another senator. ‘And although they don’t agree, and where there are explanations they differ, they all confirm a Turkish fleet advancing on Cyprus.’

‘Yes, said the Duke. ‘It’s clear enough. Even though they disagree in the details the main message is worryingly clear.’

There was an urgent banging on the door. An officer opened it and announced another messenger from the fleet.

‘What news?’ said the Duke.

‘Signor Angelo sent me to report that the Turkish fleet is making for Rhodes,’ the messenger told them.

When the messenger had left the Duke looked round the table. ‘What do you make of this change?’ he said.

‘It’s impossible,’ one of the senators said. ‘It doesn’t make sense. It’s a bluff to mislead us. Consider the importance of Cyprus to the Turks and think about how much more it concerns the Turks than Rhodes does, and also how less well defended it is than Rhodes – in fact, it’s almost completely without defences. If you think about it, the Turks are not so stupid as to leave the more important target till later and go for the more difficult and perilous first, particularly when there’s nothing in it for them.’

‘No,’ the Duke said. ‘I’m sure they’re not going for Rhodes.’

The officer at the door announced another messenger who told them that the Ottoman fleet, sailing towards Rhodes, had been joined by another fleet.

‘I thought so,’ said the Duke. ‘How many do you think there are?’

‘Thirty,’ the messenger said. ‘And now they’re doubling back and quite openly sailing towards Cyprus.’

‘That’s it then,’ said the Duke. ‘It’s Cyprus. Where’s Marcus Luccicos? Isn’t he in town?’

‘He’s in Florence,’ one of the senators said.

‘Write from me. Tell him to come immediately.’

The door opened.

‘Here’s Brabantio and the valiant Moor,’ the senator said.

Brabantio and Othello came in, followed by Iago, Roderigo and the officers.

The Duke got up and escorted Othello to the table. ‘We have to send you urgently to deal with the enemy, the Ottomans. Ah, Brabantio, I didn’t see you. Welcome dear Signor. We missed your help and advice tonight.’

‘And I missed yours,’ said Brabantio. ‘Forgive me, your Grace. Neither state business nor my position as a senator has brought me here. Nor has the

present situation gripped me, because my own grief is of such an overwhelming nature that it engulfs everything else.’

‘Why?’ said the Duke. ‘What’s the matter?’

Brabantio thrust his head into his hands. ‘My daughter! Oh, my daughter!’

The Duke put an arm around him. ‘Dead?’

‘To me she is. She’s been abused, stolen from me and corrupted by spells and medicines bought from charlatans. Without witchcraft nature couldn’t have gone so wrong considering that she’s not stupid, blind or paralysed.’

‘Whoever has used these foul methods to influence your daughter and take her from you will be judged by you personally with whatever sentence seems right to you. Yes, even if he were my own son.’

‘I respectfully thank your Grace. Here is the man. This Moor who, now it seems, you’ve brought here on special state business.’

The senators muttered, expressing shock and regret.

The Duke sighed. ‘What do you have to say about this, Othello?’

Before Othello could answer Brabantio said: ‘There’s nothing he can say. It’s a fact.’

Othello stood up and the room went quiet.

‘Most powerful, grave and revered signors,’ he began. ‘My very noble and good masters. It’s true that I have taken this old man’s daughter away. It’s true that I’ve married her. That’s the beginning and end of my offence. No more than that. I’m not a good speaker and not blessed with the soft words of diplomatic speech because, since the age of seven these arms have been employed in fighting wars. I can’t discuss any of the affairs of the world apart from those concerning feats of war, and so I won’t be able to help myself much by speaking on my own behalf. Nevertheless, with your patience I will deliver the plain, blunt story of the course of my love – what drugs, charms, magic I used for the crime I’m charged with, to win his daughter.’

Brabantio, unable to contain his frustration, interrupted. ‘A modest young girl. So calm and reserved that any act of hers made her blush. And she, in spite of her reticent nature, her age, her country, her history, everything, to fall in love with what she feared to look at! Such flawed judgment breaks all the laws of nature and forces us to look for evil practices to explain why it should happen. I’m therefore telling you again that he made her take a powerful drug or some such thing.’

‘Just to accuse him is not proof,’ said the Duke. ‘Without specific evidence, something more than suppositions and improbabilities that contradict modern times, he can’t be condemned.’

‘But you tell us, Othello,’ a senator said. ‘Did you poison this young girl’s feelings with devious and imposed practices? Or did it come about by the free and open ways appropriate between two people?’

‘I beg of you,’ said Othello, ‘send someone to the Sagittary for the lady and let her talk about me in front of her father. If she says anything that suggests I’m foul then don’t only take away your trust in me and the position I hold but even sentence me to death.’

The Duke gave instructions. ‘Bring Desdemona here.’

Othello nodded towards Iago. ‘Ensign, take them there,’ he said. ‘You know where it is.’

When Iago and some of the officers had left Othello continued.

‘And while we’re waiting, as sincerely as I admit the vices of my blood, I’ll tell you honestly how this beautiful lady fell in love with me and I with her.’

‘Tell us, Othello,’ said the Duke.

‘Her father liked me,’ said Othello. ‘He often invited me to his house, questioned me about my life – the battles, sieges, all the things that have happened to me. I told him everything, from my childhood to the present. I told him about the misfortunes, the accidents on water and land, of hairbreadth escapes from death, of being taken captive by the enemy and sold into slavery and of how I got away from that. I told him where I had travelled. He wanted to know about those vast caves and silent deserts, about the rough stony places, the rocks and mountains. That’s how it went. And of the cannibals that eat each other, and the Anthrapophagi, and men whose heads grow beneath their shoulders.

‘Desdemona loved listening too. Every now and then her household duties would drag her away but she came back as soon as she could and listened hungrily. Seeing that, one day I chose a convenient time to talk to her and she begged me to tell her the parts of the story that she had missed. I agreed, and found that she often wept when I spoke of some distressing episode in my youth. When I had told the full story she responded with a world of sighs. She exclaimed that it was a strange story, a very strange story, that it was sad, very sad. She wished that she hadn’t heard it, but she wished that she had been a man so that she could have had such adventures. She thanked me and told me that if I had a friend who loved her I should teach him how to tell my story and that would win her heart. On that hint I spoke out. She loved me for the dangers I had experienced and I loved her for pitying them. That is the only witchcraft I have used.’

The door was opened again and Desdemona stood there.

‘There she is,’ said Othello, as Iago led her forward to stand before the Duke. ‘Let her tell you.’

The Duke waved to Desdemona to be seated. He turned to Brabantio. ‘I think this story would win my daughter too,’ he said ‘Good Brabantio, why don’t you make the best of a bad job? Broken weapons are better than bare hands in battle.’

‘Please,’ said Brabantio, ‘listen to her. If she tells you that she takes half the blame for this then I’ll accept it.’ He drew his chair closer to Desdemona’s. ‘Come here, my darling,’ he said, taking her hand. ‘Can you see the person to whom you most owe obedience in this room?’

Desdemona gently removed her hand from his and stood up. ‘My noble father,’ she began. ‘I have a divided loyalty.’ Then she took his hand again. ‘I’m indebted to you for my life and education, and both my life and my education have taught me to respect you. I am still your daughter and I still have a duty to you.’ She turned and smiled at Othello and took his hand too. ‘But this is my husband,’ she said. ‘And just as my mother assumed a duty to you, putting you before her father, I have done the same, giving my duty to the Moor.’

‘God be with you then,’ said Brabantio. ‘I give up. If you don’t mind, Your Grace, let’s get on with state affairs.’ He wiped a tear from his cheek. ‘I’d rather adopt a child than have my own. Come here, Moor,’ he said. He placed Desdemona’s hand in Othello’s and spoke in a businesslike way. ‘I give you with all my heart that which if you didn’t have it already, I would with all my heart have kept from you.’ Then to Desdemona: ‘As for you, Precious, I’m really glad I don’t have any other children because this would have made me so strict that I would have immobilised them with wooden blocks on their legs.’ He sat down. ‘I’ve finished, my Lord.’

The Duke pulled himself up and drew a line under the matter with a final word, telling them that he agreed with Brabantio that as there was nothing anyone could do about it there was no point in bearing grudges: that would just make matters worse. To harbour grudges was the way to the destruction of one’s own life.

When he had finished Brabantio nodded. ‘I suggest, with respect, that we get on with the affairs of state.’

The Duke cleared his throat and looked around at the assembled senators. ‘The Turks, heavily armed, are making towards Cyprus. Othello, you have the best knowledge of the defences of Cyprus, and although we have a very effective man there, everyone knows that you’re more suitable. You must therefore accept that you have to interrupt your new condition with this more difficult and public expedition.’

Othello nodded his agreement. ‘The tyranny of habit, esteemed Senators, has made the hard and uncomfortable couch of war a soft bed for me. I acknowledge the prompt and natural liking I have for the hardness of war, and I accept this mission against the Ottomites. I ask, therefore, that you will offer my wife an appropriate place to live – some place that would suit her position.’

‘At her father’s perhaps,’ said the Duke.

‘I don’t want that,’ said Brabantio.

‘Neither do I,’ said Othello.

‘Nor I,’ said Desdemona. ‘I don’t want to live there, where my father could be hurt by my presence. My gracious Duke, listen to my idea and see if you can agree to it.’

‘What do you want?’ said the Duke. ‘Tell me.’

‘I’ve shown the whole world that, in spite of the problems it’s caused, I love the Moor enough to live with him. My heart is his entirely. I became aware of Othello’s qualities and dedicated my soul and my future to him. So, dear Senators, if I were to be left behind while he goes to war, I would be deprived of all the things I love him for and it would be very hard for me to be without him. Let me go with him.’

‘Give her your permission,’ said Othello. ‘Heaven knows, I’m not asking because I want to satisfy my appetite, not at all for my own desires – those youthful things having faded, – but to be generous to her wishes. And heaven forbid that you should think that I would neglect this serious and important business if she were with me. No, when the light pleasures of love dull my professional faculties, when my mind is distracted by sexual dalliance, then it’s time for housewives to make a saucepan of my brain and for my reputation to be eroded.’

The Duke nodded his approval. ‘Decide between yourselves whether she should stay or go. But this business is urgent and we must move fast. You must leave tonight.’

‘Tonight?’ Desdemona was taken aback.

‘Yes, tonight.’

‘Of course,’ said Othello.

The Duke got up. ‘We’ll meet again at nine in the morning. Othello, leave an officer here and he’ll bring your orders to you, along with other matters of business that concern you.’

‘My ensign, my Lord,’ said Othello. ‘He’s honest and trustworthy. He can bring my wife and anything else your grace may want to send to me.’

‘So be it,’ said the Duke. ‘Good night to everyone. And Brabantio, if virtue is anything to go by, your son-in-law is far more fair than black.’

The senators wished Othello luck and one of them told him to take care of Desdemona. Brabantio stopped him as he was leaving. ‘Watch out for her, Moor, if you have eyes to see,’ he said. ‘She has deceived her father and may deceive you too.’

‘I would stake my life on her fidelity,’ Othello told him, and the two men parted as the Duke and senators left.

‘Honest Iago,’ said Othello. ‘I’m leaving my Desdemona in your care. Your wife can look after her. Bring them both to Cyprus in the best comfort you can manage. Come Desdemona, I’ve got just one hour to spend with you and to prepare. We must hurry.’

When they had gone Roderigo, who had watched everything with dismay, shook his head. ‘Iago?’

‘What, my dear friend?’

‘What do you think I should do?’

‘Go to bed and sleep, of course.’

‘I’m going to drown myself.’

Iago laughed. ‘You silly man. If you do that I’ll never respect you again!’

Roderigo slumped down and put his head in his hands. ‘It would be silly to live when life is such a torment,’ he said. ‘Death would be the best medicine right now.’

‘How wrong can you be?’ said Iago. I’ve lived for twenty-eight years and ever since the time I could tell the difference between a good and a bad act I’ve never met anyone who could properly value himself. I would rather be a baboon than a man who would drown himself for the love of a whore.’

‘What should I do then? I confess that it’s shameful to be so foolish but there’s nothing I can do about it.’

‘Rubbish! What we can do, how we are, is up to ourselves. Our bodies are our gardens and our wills are gardeners. If we plant nettles or sow lettuce, whether we cultivate hyssop or weed out thyme, plant all one kind of herb or dilute it with many kinds, let it become sterile or fertilise it with hard work, all this depends on what we want to do. If the balance of our lives didn’t have a weight of reason to set against those weights of sensuality, the blood and natural bad that we have in our natures would take us to the most preposterous depths. But we do have reason to cool our raging emotions, our carnal desires and our unbridled lusts, which I take this – that you call love – to be.’

Roderigo looked up at him pathetically and shook his head slowly. ‘It can’t be.’

Iago laughed and pulled him to his feet. ‘It’s nothing more than a lust of the blood and a self indulgence of your will. Come on, be a man. Drown yourself? Drown cats and puppies. I have declared myself your friend and I tell you that I’m committed to your cause. I could never advise you better than I do now. Put some money in your purse and follow these wars. Disguise yourself, get a false beard. Go on, put money in your purse. It’s impossible that Desdemona could continue her love for the Moor for long. Put money in your purse. Nor could he love her for long. It was begun badly and you will see a separation. But put money in your purse. These Moors are changeable. Fill your purse with money. The food that is now as delicious as carob cobs to him will soon be as bitter tasting as crab apples. She will soon want someone young. When she’s had enough of his body she will see her mistake. So put money in your purse. If you want to damn yourself do it in a more subtle way than drowning. Make as much money as you can. If a sanctimonious manner and a feeble vow between a barbarian and a vulnerable Venetian isn’t too hard for my intelligence and all the evil I can muster, you’ll enjoy her yet, so therefore make money. To hell with drowning yourself. It’s totally out of the question. You would be better off being hanged for realising your dream than being drowned and not having her.’

Roderigo’s hopefulness showed in his face. ‘If I depend on you will you do it for me?’

‘You can rely on me,’ said Iago. ‘Go and make money. I’ve often told you and I tell you again and again: I hate the Moor. My cause is deeply felt and yours has as much value. Let’s work together in our revenge against him. If you can cuckold him you’ll be getting pleasure and I’ll have some fun. There are a lot of things we can do, and which we will do. About turn. Go and get your money. We’ll talk again tomorrow. Good bye.’

‘Where will we meet in the morning?’

‘At my lodging.’

‘I’ll be there.’

‘Yes. Goodbye.’

Roderigo walked to the door and Iago called after him. ‘Roderigo!’

Roderigo turned. ‘What?’

‘No more talk of drowning, do you hear?’

‘I’ve changed my mind.’

‘Fine. Good bye. Put enough money in your purse.’

‘I’ll sell all my land,’ said Roderigo as he left.

Iago waited a moment and then began walking home. He smiled grimly. As usual he was getting money out of fools. As if he would lower himself to spend time with such a pathetic individual unless he was having some fun and getting money out of it as well. As he walked he felt his hatred of the Moor well up. And he had heard that the Moor had been with his wife Emilia. He didn’t know whether it was true but he would take that hint of suspicion as a fact. He stood in high regard with the General and that would help his purpose. He began to plan his revenge. Cassio was a good looking man. He thought about that. How could he get Cassio’s position of Lieutenant and get his revenge on the Moor at the same time? How?…How?… A strategy was developing in his mind. After a while, when they were settled in, be would make Othello think that Cassio was too familiar with Desdemona. Cassio was a handsome man with the charm and personality that could easily make women unfaithful. On the other hand the Moor had an open and trusting nature, thinking men are honest when they only seem to be so, and could be led by the nose as easily as a donkey.

Just as he got to his door he realised that he had his plan. It was born. He realised, too, that he had deliberately chosen evil.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Othello: Act 1, Scene 3 – Summary & Analysis

The action moves to the dukedom, where discussions are being held about Turkey’s intent to invade Cyprus. A sailor interrupts the meeting to reveal that the Turkish fleet are directed towards Rhodes, also part of Venetian territory, however a senator declares this is a ruse as Cyprus is the more valuable island; a second interrupting messenger confirms this to be the case, revealing that the Turks have aligned with another fleet and now move towards Cyprus. The group comprising of Brabanzio, Othello, Iago, Cassio, Roderigo and their officers then enter, with Brabanzio demanding that his case be prioritized as his daughter was stolen from him by witchcraft, emphasizing his despair by declaring that his grief ‘engluts and swallows other sorrows, and is still itself’. The duke initially sympathizes with him but appears disbelieving of the story when Othello’s supposed part in it is revealed; Othello reveals he has married Desdemond but she grew infatuated with him of her own accord, when she heard of his life stories (such as the ‘Anthropophagi’) which Brabanzio asked him to tell him their family home, which caused her to fall in love when he retold them in full to her. The duke declares that his own daughter would fall in love with Othello if she had the same experience and Desdemona then enters, confirming that she is most obedient to Othello (the duke asks who she is most obedient to), much to her father’s surprise, ‘My noble father… You are the lord of my duty,/ I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband’. After she declares that she willingly embraces the ‘violence’ of their love (an obvious foreshadowing of the turmoil to follow in Cyprus) and will now become loyal to her husband primarily, like her mother before her, Brabanzio accepts this and allows the meeting to return to the original focus.

The duke decides it best for Othello to travel to Cyprus and defend it from the imminent Turkish invasion, which Othello agrees to if his wife can accompany him, for their marriage has only just begun. While the duke is initially not agreeable, suggesting she stay with her father (which none of Desdemona, Othello or Brabanzio are agreeable to), he eventually concurs and declares she will stay with Iago until she can follow Othello to Cyprus. The meeting concludes and all depart except Iago and a downcast Roderigo, who now believes there is no hope for a relationship with Desdemona. Iago however mocks his desire to drown himself, telling him ‘Put but money in thy purse’ and to go to Cyprus, as he will take care of affairs there. Roderigo then departs, and the act concludes with Iago revealing through soliloquy that he hates Othello due to his belief that his commander slept with his wife Emilia and that he plans to steal Roderigo’s fortune, convince Othello that Cassio has slept with his wife and use his commander’s honest nature to bring about his downfall.

Deception: The attempt of the Turkish fleet symbolizes the widespread nature of deception in the world, and that it is not just confined to Iago. However, he still remains the most deceptive character, elaborating on his deception by revealing further parts of his plan to cheat people, such as stealing Roderigo’s money and causing the downfall of Cassio and Othello with the the lie of the former’s sexual relationship with Desdemona.

Honesty: It is highly significant that Iago is honest about his plan to Roderigo at the play’s beginning (and to us through soliloquy) as it indicates a heightened knowledge of the various events of the play. It is this awareness that thus allows him to manipulate and alter events so as to fabricate them in an advantageous way; no other character is as aware of proceedings and when Iago beings his alterations it will be impossible for others to recognize honesty and truth (which will allow his plan to progress), as no other has a comparative knowledge of the world and its current state.

Love: Du ring the discussion of Brabanzio’s case love is revealed to be affected by external variables. The senator suggests that Othello and Desdemona are not compatible due to their differing races, which indicates that nature is mistaken in their union. Desdemona has to come forward herself and declare allegiance to Othello for their marriage to be confirmed, while Othello reveals that his past played a part in the development of Desdemona’s love for him. This suggests that love is not independent but affected by the world of the play, which is confirmed when considering Iago’s meddling and Roderigo’s attempt to buy a relationship earlier in the act.

Order and chaos: The scene reveals that in Venice problematic situations, even of a personal nature, can be reconciled by the legal institutions of the city. However, the play is now departing to a new setting, where such forces are not present; this indicates that Iago’s force will only heighten as he moves to a place where he is not governed by law and order, and more significantly that others who are less composed than him (as shall be shown) are not either.

Othello: As suggested earlier, Othello does have high standing in society, indicated by his being recognized before Brabanzio the Ventian senator when the group enter the court; this plays a part in the duke’s view on the matter, who is notably pleased to be addressed by Othello. The revelation of how Desdemona’s love formed also serves to illustrate Othello’s belief in the importance of one possessing a life-story, in particular one that is captivating; he emphasizes that it is the manner of his story that led to her infatuation with him. Of note is that we see the first flaw of Othello’s character, his self-consumed state, as he is intent of building up public perception of himself. His limited language is intentional, but cannot disguise his intent to present himself as a heroic and remind all of his prowess as a warrior. This however will prove problematic; while Iago will prosper due to his awareness of all that is happening around him, Othello will be disadvantaged in that he is only focused on himself and thus will react especially badly to unfavorably events, as he believes such are a direct attack on his character.

Desdemona: Her first appearance confirms Othello’s declaration in the scene previous that she married him of her own free will. She is independent and any previous allusions to her as young and naïve due to repeated references to her as Brabanzio’s daughter are immediately dispelled. There is a potential drawback however, as she indicates she holds a similar self-consumed character, for she says she ‘saw Othello’s visage in his mind’ and ‘I saw him as he sees himself’, indicating that she is not that aware of what is going on around her.

Iago: Iago’s remark to Roderigo that ‘Our bodies are our gardens’ confirms what has been said previous, that he has an excellent knowledge of the world around him. This quote reveals that when one possesses a vice or beneficial character trait it will grow, and such realisation of the human state not only indicates his growing control of proceedings when the action moves to Cyprus, but also why he has already been able to control Roderigo. It may be seen that Iago, despite his flaws, is a a foil to Othello in that he is concerned with and aware of the world around him, which the titular character should be if he is to avoid falling prey to Iago’s machiavellian plan.

The DUKE and Senators sitting at a table; Officers attending

There is no composition in these news That gives them credit.

Indeed, they are disproportion'd; My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.

And mine, a hundred and forty.

And mine, two hundred: But though they jump not on a just account,-- As in these cases, where the aim reports, 'Tis oft with difference--yet do they all confirm A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.

Nay, it is possible enough to judgment: I do not so secure me in the error, But the main article I do approve In fearful sense.

[Within] What, ho! what, ho! what, ho!

A messenger from the galleys. Enter a Sailor

Now, what's the business?

The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes; So was I bid report here to the state By Signior Angelo.

How say you by this change?

This cannot be, By no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant, To keep us in false gaze. When we consider The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk, And let ourselves again but understand, That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes, So may he with more facile question bear it, For that it stands not in such warlike brace, But altogether lacks the abilities That Rhodes is dress'd in: if we make thought of this, We must not think the Turk is so unskilful To leave that latest which concerns him first, Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain, To wake and wage a danger profitless.

Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes.

Here is more news. Enter a Messenger

The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes, Have there injointed them with an after fleet.

Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?

Of thirty sail: and now they do restem Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano, Your trusty and most valiant servitor, With his free duty recommends you thus, And prays you to believe him.

'Tis certain, then, for Cyprus. Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town?

He's now in Florence.

Write from us to him; post-post-haste dispatch.

Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor. Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers

Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you Against the general enemy Ottoman. To BRABANTIO I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior; We lack'd your counsel and your help tonight.

So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me; Neither my place nor aught I heard of business Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care Take hold on me, for my particular grief Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature That it engluts and swallows other sorrows And it is still itself.

Why, what's the matter?

My daughter! O, my daughter!

Ay, to me; She is abused, stol'n 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.

Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself And you of her, the bloody book of law You shall yourself read in the bitter letter After your own sense, yea, though our proper son Stood in your action.

Humbly I thank your grace. Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems, Your special mandate for the state-affairs Hath hither brought.

We are very sorry for't.

[To OTHELLO] What, in your own part, can you say to this?

Nothing, but this is so.

Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble and approved good masters, That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, It is most true; true, I have married her: The very head and front of my offending Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace: For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used Their dearest action in the tented field, And little of this great world can I speak, More than pertains to feats of broil and battle, And therefore little shall I grace my cause In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration and what mighty magic, For such proceeding I am charged withal, I won his daughter.

A maiden never bold; Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion Blush'd at herself; and she, in spite of nature, Of years, of country, credit, every thing, To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on! It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect That will confess perfection so could err Against all rules of nature, and must be driven To find out practises of cunning hell, Why this should be. I therefore vouch again That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood, Or with some dram conjured to this effect, He wrought upon her.

To vouch this, is no proof, Without more wider and more overt test Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods Of modern seeming do prefer against him.

But, Othello, speak: Did you by indirect and forced courses Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? Or came it by request and such fair question As soul to soul affordeth?

I do beseech you, Send for the lady to the Sagittary, And let her speak of me before her father: If you do find me foul in her report, The trust, the office I do hold of you, Not only take away, but let your sentence Even fall upon my life.

Fetch Desdemona hither.

Ancient, conduct them: you best know the place. Exeunt IAGO and Attendants And, till she come, as truly as to heaven I do confess the vices of my blood, So justly to your grave ears I'll present How I did thrive in this fair lady's love, And she in mine.

Say it, Othello.

Her father loved me; oft invited me; Still question'd me the story of my life, From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, That I have passed. I ran it through, even from my boyish days, To the very moment that he bade me tell it; Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, Of being taken by the insolent foe And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence And portance in my travels' history: Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven It was my hint to speak,--such was the process; And of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline: But still the house-affairs would draw her thence: Which ever as she could with haste dispatch, She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear Devour up my discourse: which I observing, Took once a pliant hour, and found good means To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart That I would all my pilgrimage dilate, Whereof by parcels she had something heard, But not intentively: I did consent, And often did beguile her of her tears, When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffer'd. My story being done, She gave me for my pains a world of sighs: She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange, 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful: She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me, And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, I should but teach him how to tell my story. And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake: She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd, And I loved her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have used: Here comes the lady; let her witness it. Enter DESDEMONA, IAGO, and Attendants

I think this tale would win my daughter too. Good Brabantio, Take up this mangled matter at the best: Men do their broken weapons rather use Than their bare hands.

I pray you, hear her speak: If she confess that she was half the wooer, Destruction on my head, if my bad blame Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress: Do you perceive in all this noble company Where most you owe obedience?

My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty: To you I am bound for life and education; My life and education both do learn me How to respect you; you are the lord of duty; I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband, And so much duty as my mother show'd To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor my lord.

God be wi' you! I have done. Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs: I had rather to adopt a child than get it. Come hither, Moor: I here do give thee that with all my heart Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel, I am glad at soul I have no other child: For thy escape would teach me tyranny, To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.

Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence, Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers Into your favour. When remedies are past, the griefs are ended By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended. To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on. What cannot be preserved when fortune takes Patience her injury a mockery makes. The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile; We lose it not, so long as we can smile. He bears the sentence well that nothing bears But the free comfort which from thence he hears, But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow. These sentences, to sugar, or to gall, Being strong on both sides, are equivocal: But words are words; I never yet did hear That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear. I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state.

The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you; and though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition.

The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnise A natural and prompt alacrity I find in hardness, and do undertake These present wars against the Ottomites. Most humbly therefore bending to your state, I crave fit disposition for my wife. Due reference of place and exhibition, With such accommodation and besort As levels with her breeding.

If you please, Be't at her father's.

I'll not have it so.

Nor I; I would not there reside, To put my father in impatient thoughts By being in his eye. Most gracious duke, To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear; And let me find a charter in your voice, To assist my simpleness.

What would You, Desdemona?

That I did love the Moor to live with him, My downright violence and storm of fortunes May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued Even to the very quality of my lord: I saw Othello's visage in his mind, And to his honour and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, A moth of peace, and he go to the war, The rites for which I love him are bereft me, And I a heavy interim shall support By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

Let her have your voices. Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not, To please the palate of my appetite, Nor to comply with heat--the young affects In me defunct--and proper satisfaction. But to be free and bounteous to her mind: And heaven defend your good souls, that you think I will your serious and great business scant For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid seal with wanton dullness My speculative and officed instruments, That my disports corrupt and taint my business, Let housewives make a skillet of my helm, And all indign and base adversities Make head against my estimation!

Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay or going: the affair cries haste, And speed must answer it.

You must away to-night.

With all my heart.

At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again. Othello, leave some officer behind, And he shall our commission bring to you; With such things else of quality and respect As doth import you.

So please your grace, my ancient; A man he is of honest and trust: To his conveyance I assign my wife, With what else needful your good grace shall think To be sent after me.

Let it be so. Good night to every one. To BRABANTIO And, noble signior, If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

Adieu, brave Moor, use Desdemona well.

Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: She has deceived her father, and may thee. Exeunt DUKE OF VENICE, Senators, Officers, & c

My life upon her faith! Honest Iago, My Desdemona must I leave to thee: I prithee, let thy wife attend on her: And bring them after in the best advantage. Come, Desdemona: I have but an hour Of love, of worldly matters and direction, To spend with thee: we must obey the time. Exeunt OTHELLO and DESDEMONA

What say'st thou, noble heart?

What will I do, thinkest thou?

Why, go to bed, and sleep.

I will incontinently drown myself.

If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why, thou silly gentleman!

It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.

O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years; and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions: but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that you call love to be a sect or scion.

It cannot be.

It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor,-- put money in thy purse,--nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration:--put but money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in their wills: fill thy purse with money:--the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth: when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice: she must have change, she must: therefore put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian not too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than to be drowned and go without her.

Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?

Thou art sure of me:--go, make money:--I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered. Traverse! go, provide thy money. We will have more of this to-morrow. Adieu.

Where shall we meet i' the morning?

At my lodging.

I'll be with thee betimes.

Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?

What say you?

No more of drowning, do you hear?

I am changed: I'll go sell all my land. Exit

William Shakespeare

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Study Help Essay Questions

1. Describe the course of Iago's deception of Othello, showing which incidents were planned and which were opportunistic. Does Iago succeed by skill or by luck?

2. Discuss how age, social position, and race impact the relationship between Othello and Desdemona.

3. A tragedy concerns the fall of a great man due to some flaw in his character. What is Othello's flaw, and explain how he is truly a tragic hero.

4. What are possible motives for Iago's hatred of Othello? Consider both the motives he states and the motives implied in his speech and behavior.

5. In addition to exposing the prejudices of Venetians, discuss how the play also exposes the prejudices of the audience.

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In Venice, at the start of Othello , the soldier Iago announces his hatred for his commander, Othello, a Moor. Othello has promoted Cassio, not Iago, to be his lieutenant.

Iago crudely informs Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, that Othello and Desdemona have eloped. Before the Venetian Senate, Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching Desdemona. The Senators wish to send Othello to Cyprus, which is under threat from Turkey. They bring Desdemona before them. She tells of her love for Othello, and the marriage stands. The Senate agrees to let her join Othello in Cyprus.

In Cyprus, Iago continues to plot against Othello and Cassio. He lures Cassio into a drunken fight, for which Cassio loses his new rank; Cassio, at Iago’s urging, then begs Desdemona to intervene. Iago uses this and other ploys—misinterpreted conversations, insinuations, and a lost handkerchief—to convince Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are lovers. Othello goes mad with jealousy and later smothers Desdemona on their marriage bed, only to learn of Iago’s treachery. He then kills himself.

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What Shakespeare can teach us about racism

Associate Professor of English, Trinity College

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David S. Brown receives funding from Mellon Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies.

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William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy “ Othello ” is often the first play that comes to mind when people think of Shakespeare and race . And if not “Othello,” then folks usually name “ The Merchant of Venice ,” “ Antony and Cleopatra ,” “ The Tempest ,” or his first – and bloodiest – tragedy, “ Titus Andronicus ,” my favorite Shakespeare play.

Among Shakespeare scholars, those five works are known as his traditionally understood “race plays” and include characters who are Black like Othello, Jewish like Shylock, Indigenous like Caliban, or Black African like Cleopatra.

But what did Shakespeare have to say about race in plays such as “ Hamlet ” and “ Macbeth ,” where Black characters do not have a dominant role, for example?

As Shakespeare scholars who study race know, all of his plays address race in some way. How could they not?

After all, every human being has a racial identity, much like every living human being breathes. Said another way, every character Shakespeare breathed life into has a racial identity, from Hamlet to Hippolyta .

The playwright wrote about many key subjects during the late 15th and early 16th centuries that are relevant today, including gender, addiction, sexuality, mental health, social psychology, sexual violence , antisemitism, sexism and, of course, race .

In my book “ Shakespeare’s White Others ,” I explore the intraracial divisions that Shakespeare illustrates in all his plays.

Here are four things to know about Shakespeare and race.

1. No one should fear Shakespeare

For a long time, I was afraid of Shakespeare. I am not the only one.

In his 1964 essay “ Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare ,” James Baldwin detailed his initial resistance. Like many people today, Baldwin wrote that he, too, was “a victim of that loveless education which causes so many schoolboys to detest Shakespeare.”

A major part of Baldwin’s loathing of Shakespeare had nothing to do with the English writer specifically, but rather the white elitism that surrounded his work and literature.

But as Baldwin eventually realized, Shakespeare was not the “ author of his oppression .”

Just as Shakespeare didn’t create misogyny and sexism, he didn’t create race and racism. Rather, he observed the complex realities of the world around him, and through his plays he articulated an underlying hope for a more just world.

2. Shakespeare’s work reveals social injustice

“ Titus Andronicus ” featured the playwright’s first Black character, Aaron. In that play, written near the end of the 16th century, the white Roman empress, Tamora, cheats on her white emperor husband, Saturninus, with Aaron. When Tamora eventually gives birth to a baby, it’s clear Tamora’s baby daddy isn’t Saturninus.

Consequently, the white characters who know about the infant’s real father urge Aaron to kill his newborn Black son. But Aaron refuses. He opts instead to fiercely protect his beloved child.

Amid all the drama that occurs around the child’s existence, Shakespeare momentarily offers a beautiful defense of Blackness in the play’s fourth act.

“Is black so base a hue?” Aaron initially asks before challenging the cultural norm. “Coal-black is better than another hue, in that it scorns to bear another hue.”

In other words, at least to Aaron, being Black was beautiful, Blackness exuded strength.

Such words about the Black identity are not uttered elsewhere in Shakespeare’s plays – not even by the more popular Othello .

3. The power of whiteness

In plays such as “ Hamlet ,” “Macbeth” and “ Romeo and Juliet ,” race still figures in the drama even when there are no dominant Black characters.

Shakespeare does this by illustrating the formation and maintenance of the white identity. In a sense, Shakespeare details the nuances of race through his characters’ racial similarities, thus making racial whiteness very visible.

In Shakespeare’s time, much like our present moment, the presumed superiority of whiteness meant social status was negotiated by everyone based on the dominant culture’s standards.

In several of his plays, for instance, the playwright uses “white hands” as noble symbols of purity and white superiority. He also called attention to his character’s race by describing them as “white” or “fair.”

Shakespeare also used black as a metaphor for being tainted.

One such moment occurs in the comedy “ Much Ado About Nothing .”

A young white woman, Hero, is falsely accused of cheating on her fiancé. On their wedding day, Hero’s groom, Claudio, charges her with being unfaithful. Claudio and Hero’s father, Leonato, then shame Hero for being allegedly unchaste, a no-no for 16th-century English women who were legally their father’s and then their husband’s property.

With Hero’s sexual purity allegedly tainted, her father describes her as having “fallen into a pit of ink.”

Sex before marriage violated the male-dominated culture’s expectations for unwed white women.

Thus, in that play, Hero momentarily represents an “inked” white woman – or a symbolic reflection of the stereotyped, hypersexual Black woman.

4. The future of scholarship on Shakespeare and race

Today, scholars are publishing new insights on the social, cultural and political issues of Shakespeare’s time and our own. In fact, there are dozens of scholars and theater practitioners devoting their professional lives to exploring race in Shakespeare’s literature and time period.

In his 2000 book “ Shakespeare Jungle Fever: National-Imperial Re-Visions of Race, Rape, and Sacrifice ,” UCLA English professor Arthur L. Little Jr. explored British imperialism, racialized whiteness and the sexual myths about Black men.

In 2020, playwright Anchuli Felicia King wrote “ Keene ,” a satirical riff on “Othello” that offers a modern-day critique on whiteness. In “Keene,” Kai, a Japanese musicologist, and Tyler, a Black Ph.D. student, meet at a Shakespeare conference where they are the only two people of color at the elite white gathering. While Tyler is focused on writing his thesis, Kai is focused on Tyler. A romance ensues, only to see Tyler – much like Othello before him – betrayed by his closet white confidant, Ian.

In 2019, British actress Adjoa Andoh directed Shakespeare’s “ Richard II ” with a cast of all women of color – a production that she called “a thought experiment into the universality of humanity.”

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What Shakespeare can teach us about racism

William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy “ Othello ” is often the first play that comes to mind when people think of Shakespeare and race . And if not “Othello,” then folks usually name “ The Merchant of Venice ,” “ Antony and Cleopatra ,” “ The Tempest ,” or his first – and bloodiest – tragedy, “ Titus Andronicus ,” my favorite Shakespeare play.

Among Shakespeare scholars, those five works are known as his traditionally understood “race plays” and include characters who are Black like Othello, Jewish like Shylock, Indigenous like Caliban, or Black African like Cleopatra.

But what did Shakespeare have to say about race in plays such as “ Hamlet ” and “ Macbeth ,” where Black characters do not have a dominant role, for example?

As Shakespeare scholars who study race know, all of his plays address race in some way. How could they not?

After all, every human being has a racial identity, much like every living human being breathes. Said another way, every character Shakespeare breathed life into has a racial identity, from Hamlet to Hippolyta .

The playwright wrote about many key subjects during the late 15th and early 16th centuries that are relevant today, including gender, addiction, sexuality, mental health, social psychology, sexual violence , antisemitism, sexism and, of course, race .

In my book “ Shakespeare’s White Others ,” I explore the intraracial divisions that Shakespeare illustrates in all his plays.

Here are four things to know about Shakespeare and race.

1. No one should fear Shakespeare

For a long time, I was afraid of Shakespeare. I am not the only one.

In his 1964 essay “ Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare ,” James Baldwin detailed his initial resistance. Like many people today, Baldwin wrote that he, too, was “a victim of that loveless education which causes so many schoolboys to detest Shakespeare.”

A major part of Baldwin’s loathing of Shakespeare had nothing to do with the English writer specifically, but rather the white elitism that surrounded his work and literature.

But as Baldwin eventually realized, Shakespeare was not the “ author of his oppression .”

Just as Shakespeare didn’t create misogyny and sexism, he didn’t create race and racism. Rather, he observed the complex realities of the world around him, and through his plays he articulated an underlying hope for a more just world.

2. Shakespeare’s work reveals social injustice

“ Titus Andronicus ” featured the playwright’s first Black character, Aaron. In that play, written near the end of the 16th century, the white Roman empress, Tamora, cheats on her white emperor husband, Saturninus, with Aaron. When Tamora eventually gives birth to a baby, it’s clear Tamora’s baby daddy isn’t Saturninus.

Consequently, the white characters who know about the infant’s real father urge Aaron to kill his newborn Black son. But Aaron refuses. He opts instead to fiercely protect his beloved child.

Amid all the drama that occurs around the child’s existence, Shakespeare momentarily offers a beautiful defense of Blackness in the play’s fourth act.

“Is black so base a hue?” Aaron initially asks before challenging the cultural norm. “Coal-black is better than another hue, in that it scorns to bear another hue.”

In other words, at least to Aaron, being Black was beautiful, Blackness exuded strength.

Such words about the Black identity are not uttered elsewhere in Shakespeare’s plays – not even by the more popular Othello .

3. The power of whiteness

In plays such as “ Hamlet ,” “Macbeth” and “ Romeo and Juliet ,” race still figures in the drama even when there are no dominant Black characters.

Shakespeare does this by illustrating the formation and maintenance of the white identity. In a sense, Shakespeare details the nuances of race through his characters’ racial similarities, thus making racial whiteness very visible.

In Shakespeare’s time, much like our present moment, the presumed superiority of whiteness meant social status was negotiated by everyone based on the dominant culture’s standards.

In several of his plays, for instance, the playwright uses “white hands” as noble symbols of purity and white superiority. He also called attention to his character’s race by describing them as “white” or “fair.”

Shakespeare also used black as a metaphor for being tainted.

One such moment occurs in the comedy “ Much Ado About Nothing .”

A young white woman, Hero, is falsely accused of cheating on her fiancé. On their wedding day, Hero’s groom, Claudio, charges her with being unfaithful. Claudio and Hero’s father, Leonato, then shame Hero for being allegedly unchaste, a no-no for 16th-century English women who were legally their father’s and then their husband’s property.

With Hero’s sexual purity allegedly tainted, her father describes her as having “fallen into a pit of ink.”

Sex before marriage violated the male-dominated culture’s expectations for unwed white women.

Thus, in that play, Hero momentarily represents an “inked” white woman – or a symbolic reflection of the stereotyped, hypersexual Black woman.

4. The future of scholarship on Shakespeare and race

Today, scholars are publishing new insights on the social, cultural and political issues of Shakespeare’s time and our own. In fact, there are dozens of scholars and theater practitioners devoting their professional lives to exploring race in Shakespeare’s literature and time period.

In his 2000 book “ Shakespeare Jungle Fever: National-Imperial Re-Visions of Race, Rape, and Sacrifice ,” UCLA English professor Arthur L. Little Jr. explored British imperialism, racialized whiteness and the sexual myths about Black men.

In 2020, playwright Anchuli Felicia King wrote “ Keene ,” a satirical riff on “Othello” that offers a modern-day critique on whiteness. In “Keene,” Kai, a Japanese musicologist, and Tyler, a Black Ph.D. student, meet at a Shakespeare conference where they are the only two people of color at the elite white gathering. While Tyler is focused on writing his thesis, Kai is focused on Tyler. A romance ensues, only to see Tyler – much like Othello before him – betrayed by his closet white confidant, Ian.

In 2019, British actress Adjoa Andoh directed Shakespeare’s “ Richard II ” with a cast of all women of color – a production that she called “a thought experiment into the universality of humanity.”

This article is republished from The Conversation , a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: David Sterling Brown , Trinity College

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David S. Brown receives funding from Mellon Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies.