There is a scene between Desi and Odin in which Odin refers to himself as a ‘nigger’. In the film, Odin, who represents Othello’s character, is a black, star basketball player, and he is dating Desi, the dean’s white daughter, who represents Desdemona’s character. Otherness is used a lot more in the film O than in the play Othello. The explicit racial reference made by Iago is crude and this reiterates the racial segregation created by the human race. Again, Shakespeare creates that barrier between purity and corruption. Iago’s Quote “an old black ram, is tupping your white ewe”. Furthermore, Shakespeare’s usage of animal like imagery is a clear interpretation of the seclusion that Shakespeare tries to impose. “What a full fortune does the thick lip owe?” Rodrigo purposely attacks Othello’s physical appearance to create a set of differing factors that the audience become aware off, hence conjuring the theme of Otherness. Additionally, Shakespeare uses the technique of Imagery to convey how Othello is portrayed as an outsider. Shakespeare humourlessly defines ‘fair’ by the social norm of the 16th century, whilst claiming ‘lascivious’ when referring to Othello in order to directly correlate Othello with corruption and impurity. The deliberate use of ‘fair’ when referring to Desdemona is used as a device that constantly remind the responds of the contrast between Desdemona’s pure white soul and Othello’s Dark completion. “Your fair daughter, transported, to the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor”. The concept of Race and Otherness is immediately identified through Rodrigo’s implications, even before Othello enters the play. ‘The Moor’ was a title given to individuals with a dark completion this individual was usually from Muslim decent, from North Africa. Shakespeare constantly clarifies throughout the entire poem the social status of Othello, as he is numerously referred to as ‘the Moor’. The theme of Race and Otherness is significantly explored in the Shakespearean Tragedy Othello.
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