The Implications of Othello’s Blackness in Shakespeare’s Othello Racial tension is a recurring issue in many prominent pieces of literature, including William Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Othello’s skin is darker than the pale European skin that the rest of the characters in the play share, causing him to be judged based on his appearance. Othello struggles to overcome the obstacles that being black cause him in order to prove that his soul is pure white. In the end, Othello lets Iago get the best of him. The blackness inside of Othello overcomes him and coaxes him to make bad decisions and show that his soul might not be so pure after all.
Throughout the play, Othello is treated as an outsider. Most people respect Othello regardless of his blackness since he is a highly ranked general in the military, although he is never fully accepted by them. This is largely because “the African is considered ugly, lascivious, an unnatural mate for a European, a practitioner of forbidden arts, of a volatile, even savage nature, and clearly not as polished or as cultivated as Europeans of a similar class” (Adler 249-250). Othello becomes even more ostracized from society when he marries his white skinned wife, Desdemona. Brabantio and Othello were friends before he found out that Othello was marrying his daughter. Once he heard the news, he became enraged that she would marry someone of his race. This goes to show that, regardless of whether Othello comes from a royal family or is highly ranked in the military, some people cannot get past the fact that he is black. Iago is constantly making racial slurs and at one point tells Brabantio that “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe” (1.1.88-89). With these words, Iago compares Othello to a black sheep and portrays him as an evil person trying to steal the innocence and virginity of the white