"Your Son-in-Law is Far More Fair Than Black"

"The fabrication of an Africanist persona is reflexive; an extraordinary meditation on the self; a powerful exploration of the fears and desires that reside in the writerly conscious" (1011)

Othello: "Think, my lord?" By heaven, thou echo'st me
               As if there were some monster in thy thought
               Too hideous to be shown.  Thou dost mean something (56)

How big of a role did the color of Othello truly reflect Shakespeare as well as Iago?



            There are many arguments in the world of critics that argue why Iago would decide to try to destroy Othello, whether because of Othello's high station in the army or because of the suspected affair between Othello and Iago's wife, Emilia.  Some even go as far as to argue because of race, which seems to be the most probable, but what role does race truly have in this play?  In all honesty, I almost want to believe that Shakespeare wasn't making a "race" statement, but rather was playing on the idea of the color of roles.  Usually in written works, black means "bad", red means "passion", white means "pure", but in this play, the color roles are flipped.  A white male now becomes the villain whereas the reader/watcher is forced to pity the black male.  By playing on this color flip, it causes the audience to have to reconfigure their idea's on what means what.  But doesn't this also, either by mistake or on purpose, make a statement on race? Does the pity on the moor force the audience to make the audience reflect and question their own ideology?  I think this is what Shakespeare was going for, not the "hey feel bad for a different race" thought, but the "how does it feel to pity someone who is different from you?  Has your mind made conclusions you wouldn't thought you'd make?" idea, which makes him a complete genius.  By evoking those feelings from the audience, they now have to hold the mirror to themselves, exactly how I believe Iago was holding the mirror up to himself throughout the play.

          It is my belief that Iago was not trying to bring down Othello because of something Othello has done, on the contrary, I am one of those who believe that Iago was trying to bring Othello down because he saw what and who he wanted to be in Othello.  Othello achieved greatness by working his way up from slavery to becoming a general and marrying one of the purest and highly desired Desdemona because she loved him for his struggles.  But a question still remains: Does this also reflect Shakespeare in any way?  That is where I hit a road block, because it appears that Shakespeare did this color flip to shake the audience and hold a mirror to everyone, but as to whether that includes himself I cannot say.