Iago And Roderigo's Enemies In Othello

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Megan Shaver Mr.Ainsworth AP English 11 14 December 2014 Throughout Act one of Othello by William Shakespeare, racism quickly becomes a very evident difficulty for the main character Othello. Othello's enemies such as Iago and Roderigo try to make him look bad anyway they can and one of the ways is to make offensive comments about his race. Due to Othello's race, many of his enemies in the novel find it easy to insult him using offensive racial slurs and even those who are with him cannot help but make comments about his race. Roderigo's love for Desesdemona and Iago's anger about not receiving the lieutenancy he wanted from Othello puts Othello in a terrible position. Though Othello intended no wrongdoing by marrying the woman he loved and giving the position…show more content…
In order to establish justice for Othello's offenses Iago and Roderigo went to Desesdemona's father to do their dirty work. While talking to Brabantio and trying to convince him of Othello's evils, they result to racist comments to show his unscrupulousness. Iago and Roderigo cannot think of any way to describe him badly, accept by referring to his color, "Even now, now, very now, and old black ram is tupping your white ewe" (Shakespeare, 13). They know that Othello has really done nothing wrong in marrying Desesdemona, but they are both very angry with him and try to make him look like the monster the best they can. By saying Othello is a black ram, they of course refer to his color, depicting him as a dark, strong sexual animal that has overpowered and taken the weak innocent Desesdemona. In submitting to using his color to show his wickedness, shows their lack of actual evidence against him. Having to make him seem like a monster by the stereotypical ideas of whites toward colored people and not by any real flaws in his character. When Brabantio is trying to explain why Desdemona
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