Many people believe that in Othello, by William Shakespeare, the main character, Othello, is depicted in a racist way by the author. This is not true in any way. Othello was labeled in a racist way by the villains of the play, or those who the audience is meant to hate. Then there's the characterization of Othello from Shakespeare; by this I mean that Shakespeare speaks of Othello directly through the characters that display a lack of bias, Desdemona, the Duke, etc. He's also put into a difficult situation at the end of the play in which the Othello's character really had no choice but perform the obvious. He is an honest and noble gentleman who is misrepresented because of his gullibility in the play. How could the author of a book depict the hero of this book in a racist way?.
Throughout the early parts of the play Othello was only referred to as "he", "The Moor", and "his Moorship" by Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio, the three "bad guys" of the play. They also exhibit their racism by using phrases like "thick lips" (1-1, line 71), "an old black ram is tupping your white ewe" (1-1, line 97), and "your daughter covered with a Barbary horse" (1-1, line 125). Obviously these are very racist expressions and they show that they are indeed "racist", but once again they"re "the bad guys" and the audience isn't suppose to agree with what they say. By having these three men describe Othello in such a way, Shakespeare is telling the audience "since these guys despise Othello so much, Othello is good, and anything they say about him is biased because their evil". This scene is not racist, it is, if anything, anti-racist.
In Othello, Shakespeare speaks of Othello through the people in the play with an unbiased point of view, Desdemona, the Duke, etc. This is true because of the fact that every person in the play, except Desdemona, the Duke, and a few minor characters, had a reason to speak of Othello in a biased way because of happenings during the play which occurred in direct confrontation between them and Othello.
