Race

Race

Quote	Act/Scene	Analysis
“An old black ram / is tupping your white ewe” (Iago)	Act 1 Scene 1	Animal imagery; juxtaposition of “black” and “white” and pejorative (racist) language
“You’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse, you’ll have your neighbours neigh to you.” (Iago)	Act 1 Scene 1	Implies that Desdemona’s union with Othello is the equivalent of bestiality
“More fair than black” (Duke of Venice)	Act 1 Scene 3	Dichotomises fair/goodness in opposition to “black”
“Thou has enchanted her” and “Chains of magic” (Brabantio)	Act 1 Scene 2	Motif of dark magic links to contextual racial prejudice
“Haply for I am black, And have not those soft parts of conversation” (Othello)	Act 3 Scene 3	Othello’s self-identification and internalised racism
“As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black As mine own face.” (Othello)	Act 3 Scene 3	Allusion to Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt, fertility, and childbirth – elements of nature that Iago has corrupted
“O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!” (Emilia)	Act 5 Scene 2	Posits that it was Othello’s actions that made him a “devil” as opposed to his race

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