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Insecurity In Othello

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In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, there is a double standard for race focused mainly on the main protagonists Othello and Desdemona. There is a drastic contrast between the way Othello is held with high esteem politically yet is ridiculed when brought into a romantic setting. The disdain that is brought upon Othello is one of the contributing factors for his spiral into a jealous rage and his own downfall. Perhaps one of the primary instances of a character presenting Othello as a negative character is when Brabantio discovers that Othello and Desdemona are married in Act I, Scene 3; it is his speech beginning with “a maiden never so bold…” that plants the seed of insecurity in Othello’s mind and reveals the true feelings of not just …show more content…

Othello not only served in the army but was a famous general despite his race, showing that there was nothing segregating him in that aspect. That entire mood shifts when Brabantio finds out about the secret marriage, wrenching Othello down from someone he bestowed trust in to someone beneath his status. In Brabantio’s speech renouncing the possibility that Desdemona could choose to love Othello in her right mind he accuses their relationship of being “against all rules of nature”, opening a broader concept regarding interracial relationships (Shakespeare I.iii.442). Brabantio takes a similar stance a few lines earlier in his impassioned speech when he emphasizes the way Desdemona chose Othello “in spite of nature, of years, of country, credit, everything” (Shakespeare I.iii.437-38). Not only does Brabantio mourn for the damage this union inflicts upon their reputation, but he also asserts that the possibility of their interracial relationship would be against the laws of nature, something completely different from the praise Othello received as a general. While Brabantio’s dramatization of his expectations for the marriage’s consequences does reveal his own viewpoint on the double standard of race, it also unknowingly reveals Desdemona’s stance as

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