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This essay is a postcolonial interpretation of Othello by William Shakespeare. It addresses the prompt: ‘Consider the extent to which characters are oppressed and constrained by society’s expectations in Othello.’ Make reference to at least two pieces of literary criticism in your response.
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The tragedy of Othello resides in the capitulation of the central protagonist, to a fate that is dictated by the Machiavellian puppeteer, Iago. Resisting the epitaph of the Moorish Othello, the General must exemplify the qualities of a civilized Venetian in order to counter inferential allusions to his inhumanity. Like Othello, Desdemona cannot be herself; limited definitions of femaleness relegate her to the status of idol or whore. Neither Desdemona nor Othello can be themselves and paradoxically it is in masquerading as ‘honest Iago’; the very antithesis of the thing that he is, that the malignant malcontent is able to capitalise on the prejudices of Venice, a world that becomes emblematic of the oppressive dictates of Elizabethan society circa 1603. Exposing these constraints, Shakespeare’s nuanced characterisation of the fated lovers reveals his allegiance to the marginalised and his criticism of normative values that are inconsistent in their application, and susceptible to manipulation. This position is one that is also acknowledged in ‘Racism, misogyny and motiveless malignity’, a ‘searing critique of racial and sexual injustice’. The focus on the ‘doomed mixed-race marriage’ presents the couple as ill-fated victims of ‘racial prejudice and sexual inequality. Examining the text through a post-colonial critique Schneider’s ‘A Mismanagement of Mirroring’ investigates the making of the ‘post-colonial subject’, deviating from the former paper in his analysis of the tragedy as a crisis of identity.
