![]() When the theme of hatred is at the centre of a Shakespeare play we see some very powerful drama, as hatred is a strong driving force in drama and serves to generate some strong action. Let us take Othello as a play in which hatred is at the centre of the drama. The conflict of the plot is driven by hatred: hatred is fuelled by racism and jealousy and by the end of the drama we are left with the impression of just how destructive it is. No matter how many times we may see the play we can never get to the bottom of why he hates Othello. Certainly, in his comments to others, he refers to Othello’s ethnicity. Some of the images in his language are designed to provoke the maximum racist response in the listener. When Othello retires to his lodgings with his white bride, Desdemona, Othello wakes her father with the cry, “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe.”īut it is not Othello’s race that is causing this hatred. He has done my office: I know not if ’t be true, Confiding in the audience he at one point, early on in the play, tells us:Īnd it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets Iago does not himself know why he hates Othello. ![]() The idea that Othello has slept with Iago’s wife, Emilia, is absurd. ![]() There is no suggestion of that anywhere and as one gets to know Emelia through the text, it’s clear that that isn’t a possibility. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |