I have six copies of Shakespeare’s Othello on our house’s library shelves, two from Signet Classics, one from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and three in anthologies (two copies of Necessary Shakespeare and one copy of The Riverside Shakespeare).
You wrote, "and I’ve internalized the message that my job as a woman is to make others feel comfortable."
I think I missed that lesson. :)
I agree about misinformation or lack of credible information or letting insecurities rule us... I think it's also about how completely, and utterly, downright stupid people can be.
Though I'm unsure how Shakespeare would have written that... perhaps:
Methinks it speaks as well to the boundless folly of mankind, how prodigious in its scope and most lamentable in its display.
This is moving and very perceptive. Iago used to be accused of ´motiveless malignity’, which always surprised me because he tells his motivation clearly. He says of Othello « He has a daily beauty in his life/ Which makes me ugly. » Bang. There it is. Btw, we need to remember that a Moor was not a Black man but a Moroccan (probably) who worked for the Venetian Republic. Lovely post!
Also, there’s a fascinating online resource about Black figures in British and European Art, 1500-1650: https://www.iamhistory.co.uk/home/black-tudors-in-art. It also looks like the Penshurst Boys painting (1626) will be at the National Portrait Gallery this fall.
True that a Moor did not necessarily mean Black in the way we generally use the term today, but the play describes Othello as “black.” It’s not just Iago and Emilia and the Duke who call him that. Othello even calls himself “black”: “Haply, for I am black / and have not those soft parts of conversation” (3.3.304-305). I think he’s talking about his physical appearance since just after he discusses his age “for I am declined / Into the vale of years” (306-307). Later in that same scene he compares the goddess Diana’s face to his own, saying it is “black / as mine own face” (442-443).
You wrote, "and I’ve internalized the message that my job as a woman is to make others feel comfortable."
I think I missed that lesson. :)
I agree about misinformation or lack of credible information or letting insecurities rule us... I think it's also about how completely, and utterly, downright stupid people can be.
Though I'm unsure how Shakespeare would have written that... perhaps:
Methinks it speaks as well to the boundless folly of mankind, how prodigious in its scope and most lamentable in its display.
This is moving and very perceptive. Iago used to be accused of ´motiveless malignity’, which always surprised me because he tells his motivation clearly. He says of Othello « He has a daily beauty in his life/ Which makes me ugly. » Bang. There it is. Btw, we need to remember that a Moor was not a Black man but a Moroccan (probably) who worked for the Venetian Republic. Lovely post!
Also, there’s a fascinating online resource about Black figures in British and European Art, 1500-1650: https://www.iamhistory.co.uk/home/black-tudors-in-art. It also looks like the Penshurst Boys painting (1626) will be at the National Portrait Gallery this fall.
True that a Moor did not necessarily mean Black in the way we generally use the term today, but the play describes Othello as “black.” It’s not just Iago and Emilia and the Duke who call him that. Othello even calls himself “black”: “Haply, for I am black / and have not those soft parts of conversation” (3.3.304-305). I think he’s talking about his physical appearance since just after he discusses his age “for I am declined / Into the vale of years” (306-307). Later in that same scene he compares the goddess Diana’s face to his own, saying it is “black / as mine own face” (442-443).