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William Shakespeare's "Othello" can be read from a feminist perspective. A feminist analysis of the play Othello allows us to judge the different social values and status of women in the Elizabethan society. Othello serves as an example to demonstrate the expectations of the Elizabethan patriarchal society, the practice of privileges in patriarchal marriages, and the suppression and restriction of femininity. According to Elizabethan or Shakespeare's society built upon Renaissance beliefs, women were meant only to marry. As their single occupation, marriage held massive responsibilities of house management and child rearing. Additionally, women were expected to be silent, chaste, and obedient to their husbands, fathers, brothers, and all men in general. Patriarchal rule justified women's subordination as the natural order because women were thought to be physiologically and psychologically inferior to men.

As we go through Othello we find that the women characters are presented according to this expectation of the Elizabethan society.There are only three women in 'Othello': Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. The way that these women behave and conduct themselves is undeniably linked to the ideological expectations of Shakespeare's Elizabethan society and to the patriarchal Venetian society that he creates. These notes will explore some of the ways in which the female characters are presented in the play.

Following his hearing of Brabantio's complaint and Othello's defence, the Duke eventually grants permission for Desdemona to accompany Othello to Cyprus. Othello speaks to his ensign Iago, ironically describing him as a man of 'honesty and trust', informing the Duke that 'To his conveyance I assign my wife' (I.3.283). Desdemona, as Othello's wife, is treated as his possession: he implies that she is a commodity to be guarded and transported.This is, however, by no means peculiar to Othello: the first Senator, wishing Othello well, concludes by hoping that he will 'use Desdemona well' (I.3.288). The word 'use' seems to connote the phrase 'look after', but also supports the Venetian expectation of women - that they are to bow to the wills of their

husbands who may utilise them as they wish. Moreover, the function of women within marriage is also delineated by Othello's 'loving' words to Desdemona in Act II: 'Come, my dear love,/The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue' (II.3.8-9). Marriage is described as an act of 'purchase': a woman is bought by her husband, effectively as a favour, and is expected to fulfil his sexual desires in return for the privilege.

Iago's desire for revenge on Othello is, in part, dictated by his view of women as possessions. He believes that 'it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets/He's done my office' (I.3.381-2), suggesting that Othello has slept with his wife Emilia. It could be argued, however, that Iago exhibits little love for his wife, insulting her in public and ultimately killing her himself. It is simply the thought that 'the lusty Moor/hath leaped into my seat' (II.1.286-7) which drives him mad, the thought that Othello has used a possession that belongs to him. Compounding this theory is the fact that Iago refers to his wife metaphorically in these two instances: she is his 'office' and his 'seat'; she is objectified and deprived of her humanity.

Moreover, in revenge for Othello's supposed act, Iago wishes to be 'evened with him, wife for wife' (II.1.290). By sleeping with Desdemona, he believes that they will then be equal. The feelings of Desdemona and Emilia are completely disregarded in his plotting. The women are merely objects to be used in order to further his own desires. Although Iago is an extreme example, he nonetheless demonstrates, through his thinking, the fact that women, in both Elizabethan and Venetian society, are perceived as possessions, secondary to the lofty plans and desires of men.

Some modern feminist critics see Desdemona as a hideous embodiment of the downtrodden woman. Whether this is actually the case will be explored later in these notes. Suffice it to say, there is a large body of evidence to support this critical stance. Desdemona herself declares that 'I am obedient' (III.3.89), continuing to obey Othello's orders from the early 'happy' phase of their relationship through to the later stages of his jealous ravings. Even when he orders Desdemona to go to her bed towards the end of Act IV, she still replies with the submissive 'I will, my lord' (IV.3.9). In her final breath she still remains true to her husband, saying 'Commend me to my kind lord' (V.2.125) and providing Othello with an alibi that he does not use. She appears to have completely accepted her role as subordinate and obedientwife.

Arguably a much stronger character, Emilia also indicates that she is aware of her 'proper' role in society. When revealing Iago's plotting at the end of the play, she states that 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now' (V.2.195). Although going on to betray her husband, she still feels the need to explain why she is deviating from accepted behaviours. Bianca expresses a similar sentiment,consoling herself when Cassio spurns her by arguing that 'I must be circumstanced' (III.4.199): she feels compelled by the laws of society to be 'circumstanced' - to 'put up with it' - implying that she has no other choice.

Society weighs heavily on the shoulders of these women; they feel that they must support the men and defer to them, even if the actions of the men are questionable.Brabantio's opinions of women appear to represent Venetian ideology.Speaking of Desdemona before she erred, he describes her as 'perfection','Of spirit still and quiet' and 'A maiden never bold' (I.3.95-97).

By expressing these qualities of women in the masculine domain of the Venetian senate,Brabantio compounds and develops the traditional expectations of women in a patriarchal society. Moreover, when she marries Othello, going against his wishes and therefore the ideal mould of woman, he describes her as erring 'Against all rules of nature' (I.3.100). Venetian society presents its own social beliefs as immutable laws of nature. It is 'natural' for women to be feminine and to do as their husbands and fathers tell them. It is 'unnatural' for them to do anything else. This Venetian concept was also an Elizabethan and pre-Elizabethan belief, and was widely understood by Shakespeare's audiences.

Today, feminists argue that it is not 'natural' for women to be 'feminine', that history has tried to camouflage its social expectations of women as part of the laws of nature. The women of Othello, however, are pre-Feminism, and seem to only compound the ideological expectations of what it is to be a woman through their own behaviour.

This is not to say, however, that the women of the play fail to question men at all. As she talks to Desdemona at the end of Act IV, Emilia is fairly damming in her opinion of men. In a speech reminiscent of Shylock's 'Hath not a Jew eyes?', Emilia argues that women are physically no different to men:

Their wives have sense like them; they see and smell,

And have their palates both for sweet and sour

As husbands have' (IV.3.92-5)

She goes on to say that in addition to sharing some identical physicalities,they also suffer from the same 'affections,/Desires for sport, and frailty'(IV.3.100) as men. The only difference, Emilia implies, is that men are mentally weaker: it is 'frailty that thus errs' (IV.3.98). This links to her earlier description of the appetite of mankind, that 'They eat us hungerly [men], and when they are full,/They belch us' (III.4.101-2). Emilia suggests that men are brutish and simplistic, unable to control their desires with logical thought. It is perhaps ironic that the actions of Iago and Othello in this play confirm her arguments.

These opinions, however, are given to Desdemona in moments of privacy.Emilia does not express such opinions in the company of men. Ironically, it is Desdemona who exhibits some power in public, making powerful use of language when explaining to her father, in front of other Venetian senators, that her 'duty' (I.3.182) is now owed to Othello. It could be argued, however,that even in this instance, Desdemona still fails to assert herself: although she disagrees with her father, she couches this in terms of merely switching her 'duty' from father to husband. The issue of the 'duty' itself remains unquestioned. This is because it is so ideologically embedded that women do not seem to consider any other possibility, other than, as these notes have shown, in private conversation with one another.

This is not to say, however, that women in Othello do not exhibit any signs of wielding power. Othello, when talking of his wife, often seems pre-occupied with matters of the flesh. Bemoaning the fact that he did not know earlier of his wife's supposed infidelity, Othello argues that he would have been happier 'if the general camp,/Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,/So I had nothing known' (III.3.342-4). He appears to be obsessed with Desdemona's sexuality. On his way to murder his wife, he states that 'Thy bed, lust-stained, shall with lust's blood be spotted' (V.1.36). The repetition of the word 'lust', combined with the sexual associations of Desdemona's bed and the violent plosives and sibilants of this line, reflects and draws attention to Othello's preoccupation with sensual matters.

This preoccupation is partly driven by the fact that Desdemona wields so much sexual power over him. Even Cassio refers, jokingly, to Desdemona as 'our great Captain's Captain' (II.1.75), implying that she is the only individual capable of controlling and taming Othello. Desdemona uses this when attempting to persuade Othello to reinstate Cassio: she tells the latter that 'My lord shall never rest' (III.3.22) until she has changed his mind, an indication of the tenacity of the woman. Attempting to change his mind, Desdemona is not frightened to use her position and sexuality:

'Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul

What you would ask me that I should deny,

Or stand so mammering on?' (III.3.68-70)

In this instance, she refers to her own unquestioning desire to please Othello, implying that he cannot love her as she loves him if he is able to refuse her what she wants. Othello responds with the interestingly oxymoronic term of endearment 'Excellent wretch' (III.3.90), suggesting that he is aware that her manipulation of him is fairly 'wretched', yet finds it 'excellently' compelling.

Later in the play, however, Othello ceases to find Desdemona's sexual power so entertaining. Speaking to Iago about his planned murder of Desdemona, Othello is adamant that he will 'not expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again' (IV.1.203-5). As far is Othello is concerned, if he is tempted into conversation and interaction with his wife, then her overpowering sexuality will deter him from the right and inevitable course of action. Her considers her to be a sexual hazard, a strumpet intent on using her body to blind and deceive him. Male society, in addition to constructing women as second-rate citizens, also constructs their sexual allure as evil.

Women as 'whores' Othello's fear of Desdemona's sexuality erupts into slanderous abuse on a number of occasions. He refers to her as 'whore' (III.3.356), a 'subtle whore' (IV.2.20) and a 'cunning whore' (IV.2.88), in addition to multiple references to her as a 'strumpet'. Bianca is described by Iago as a 'housewife' (IV.1.95) and 'strumpet' (IV.1.97), although there is no evidence to suggest that she actually is a prostitute. When she reveals his part in the horrific events of Act V, Iago vents his fury upon Emilia, labelling her a 'villainous whore' (V.2.227).

Admonishing his wife for being a nag in Act II, Iago goes on to compound this stereotype by suggesting that all women are not as they appear. He seems to believe that all women are, essentially, 'wild-cats' (II.1.109) and 'housewives' (II.1.111). All three women of the play are accused of prostitution and inappropriate sexual conduct, yet it appears that none of them are guilty. As male society falls apart in Cyprus, its constituent members seen to vent their spleen and anger by labelling all of the female characters 'whore'. When things go wrong, it appears to be acceptable for men to blame the women.

What is the role of women?

The patriarchal Venetian society presented in Othello, moulded on the ideology of Elizabethan England, seems to put women firmly in their place. Men consider women to be possessions, who ought to remain submissive and meek at all times. The only power that women do seem to be able to wield - their sexual power - is considered to be an 'evil' which must be resisted by the men in society. Men seem free to be able to refer to women as 'whores' and get away with it. The language that Shakespeare gives to his female characters suggests that they have internalised society's expectations of them, and apart from in moments of private conversation, behave as men

expect, believing this to be 'natural'.

There is a suggestion, however, that women are beginning to question the validity of unchecked male authority. These notes have considered Emilia's seemingly feminist opinions, but it is Desdemona, who in conversation with Emilia, indicates that the tide may be finally turning:

'Nay, we must think men are not gods' (III.4.144) By definition, this suggests that Desdemona has certainly perceived men to be god-like figures in the past, but indicates that her experiences with Othello have taught her a lesson. It is a clear that the actions and language of Shakespeare's three female characters, although seemingly subservient, signify a tentative step towards an egalitarian society.

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The Role of Women in Othello: A Feminist Reading

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William Shakespeare's "Othello" can be read from a feminist perspective. A feminist analysis of the play Othello allows us to judge the different social values and status of women in the Elizabethan society. Othello serves as an example to demonstrate the expectations of the Elizabethan patriarchal society, the practice of privileges in patriarchal marriages, and the suppression and restriction of femininity.

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Half term tasks- read and make notes in your green book.  The extended reading is an option. Be ready to find evidence on how themes of misogyny and racism are developed in Othello.

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Half term tasks- read and make notes in your green book.  The extended reading is an option. Be ready to find evidence on how themes of misogyny and racism are developed in Othello.

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You also need to read Act 2 in detail and use No Fear Shakespeare to translate meaning if necessary.

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If virtue no delighted beauty lack, / Your son-in-law in far more fair than black.

Othello (1.3.285-86)

Black/white oppositions permeate Othello. Throughout the play, Shakespeare exploits a discourse of racial difference that by 1604 had become ingrained in the English psyche. From Iago's initial racial epithets at Brabantio's window ("old black ram," "barbary horse") to Emilia's cries of outrage in the final scene ("ignorant as dirt"), Shakespeare shows that the union of a white Venetian maiden and a black Moorish general is from at least one perspective emphatically unnatural. The union is of course a central fact of the play, and to some commentators, the spectacle of the pale-skinned woman caught in Othello's black arms has indeed seemed monstrous. ¹ Yet that spectacle is a major source of Othello's emotional power. From Shakespeare's day to the present, the sight has titillated and terrified predominantly white audiences.

The effect of Othello depends, in other words, on the essential fact of the hero's darkness, the visual signifier of his Otherness. To Shakespeare's original audience, this chromatic sign was probably dark black, although there were other signifiers as well. Roderigo describes the Moor as having "thick lips," a term many sixteenth-century explorers employed in their descriptions of Africans. ² But, as historian Winthrop Jordan notes, by the late sixteenth century, "Blackness became so generally associated with Africa that every African seemed a black man[,] ... the terms Moor and Negro used almost interchangeably." ³ "Moor" became, G. K. Hunter observes, "a word for 'people not like us,' so signalled by colour." ⁴ Richard Burbage's Othello was probably black. But in any production, whether he appears as a tawny Moor (as nineteenth-century actors preferred) or as a black man of African descent, Othello bears the visual signs of his Otherness, a difference that the play's language insists can never be eradicated.

Elizabethans were fascinated by travelers' accounts of foreign peoples, especially by tall tales of monstrous creatures, heathen customs, sexual orgies, and cannibalism. All were associated with blackness in the Elizabethan mind, a color that, in turn, suggested negation, dirt, sin and death. ⁵ From ancient and medieval lore, black meant the demonic. Thomas Wright's The Passions of the Minde also associates the color black (in any dark complexion) with sexuality;

The redde is wise,
The browne trustie,
The pale peevish,
The blacke lustie. 6

And as the accounts of exploration spread, blackness joined additional signs of Otherness-nakedness, savagery, and general depravity. ⁷

Renaissance commentators offered two possible explanations for the existence of skin color so different from their own. The quasi-scientific suggestion that blackness was nature's defense against intense tropical sun was quickly but not universally discredited when black men and women in northern climes produced equally black children. The second explanation relied on scriptural tradition and myth. Since George Best provides the most detailed account (and the one most frequently cited by modern commentators), I quote his Discourse from Hakluyt's Voyages at some length:

It manifestly and plainely appeareth by holy Scripture, that after the generali inundation and overflowing of the earth, there remained no moe men alive but Noe and his three sonnes, Sem, Cham, and Japhet, who onely were left to possesse and inhabite the whole face of the earth ... When Noe at the commandement of God had made the Arke and entred therein, and the floud-gates of heaven were opened, so that the whole face of the earth, every tree and mountaine was covered with abundance of water, hee straitely commaunded his sonnes and their wives, that they should with reverence and feare beholde the justice and mighty power of God, and that during the time of the floud while they remained in the Arke, they should use continencie, and abstaine from carnali copulation with their wives; and many other precepts hee gave unto them, and admonitions touching the justice of God, in revenging sinne, and his mercie in delivering them, who nothing deserved it. Which good instructions and exhortations notwithstanding his wicked sonne Cham disobeyed, and being perswaded that the first childe borne after the flood (by right and Lawe of nature) should inherite and possesse all the dominions of the earth, hee contrary to his fathers commandement while they were yet in the Arke, used company with his wife, and craftily went about thereby to dis-inherite the off-spring of his other two brethren: for the which wicked and detestable fact, as an example for contempt of Almightie God, and disobedience of parents, God would a sonne should bee borne whose name was Chus, who not onely it selfe, but all his posteritie after him should bee so blacke and lothsome, that it might remaine a spectacle of disobedience to all the worlde. And of this blacke and cursed Chus came all these blacke Moores which are in Africa. ⁸

Chus and his descendants thus bear the double curse of blackness as the punishment for copulation against the patriarch's express prohibition: Blackness signifies their unbridled lust and their inner spiritual state a "naturall infection of the blood." To the Elizabethan mind, black skin thus denoted extreme Otherness, with overlays of satanic propensity and sexual perversion. ⁹

Best's account mirrors but does not exactly parallel the version Shakespeare would have read in the Geneva Bible of 1560. In this narrative. Noah was found drunken one night,

vncouered in ye middes of his tent. And when Ham the father of Canaan sawe the nakedness of his father, he tolde his two brethren without. Then toke Shem and Japheth a garme[n]t, and put it vpon bothe their shulders and we[n]t backward, and couered the nakednes of their father with their faces backwarde; so thei sawe not their fathers nakednes. Then Noah awoke from his wine, and knewe what his yonger sonne had done vnto him. And said, Cursed be Canaan: a seruant of seruants shall he be vnto his brethren. He said moreover, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and let Cannan be his seruant. ¹⁰

Genesis 9:21-26

Here the punishment for violating a patriarchal taboo is not blackness but perpetual servitude; the damnable act is not copulation but viewing paternal privities, and the penalty is not in the skin but in slavery. In the Geneva version of Ham's fall, looking itself is perceived as voyeuristic and obscene. Like the sight of Othello's and Desdemona's bodies, it "poisons sight."

This account silently merged with Best's version of Ham's sin; blackness and perpetual servitude coalesced in the Elizabethan mind, a fusion justified by scriptural authority. And in either account, the original cause of the African's differentness was a sexual fall from grace. Blackness became a visual signifier of eternal sin. You could never, as the proverb reminds us, wash the Ethiopian white. ¹¹ Nor could you change his scripturally ordained status of perpetual servitude. Thus blackness and forbidden sex, blackness and heathenism, blackness and slavery-all were linked in the English mind from the earliest descriptions of African people.

Stereotypes about blackness were reified in voyagers' accounts of what they saw in Africa. Nakedness bespoke depravity. A True and Large Discourse of the Voyage of the Whole Fleete of Ships records for example that "The people are blacke and goe naked, saiuing that they weare short coates of Seales skinne, and a peece of the same skinne about their members, they are tall of stature, flat nosed, swift in running, they will pick & steale, although you looke on them." ¹²

The Fardle of Facions reported that "The moste part of them, for that they lye so under the Sonne, go naked: couering their privities with sheepes tayles." Along with nakedness went lechery, for "It is the maner emong theim, for euery man to haue many wiues: and the felowship of their wiues, that other use in secret: they use in open sighte." ¹³ To wit, Ham's voyeuristic sin was seen to be regularly reenacted among his descendants. The explorers who watched the natives watching nakedness apparently did not recognize their own prurient interests.

Ethnocentric travel accounts frequently stressed the bestiality and brutishness of African customs, especially in light of what they assumed was the "civilitie" of their own European customs. An English translation of Philippo Pigafetta's description of the Congo notes cannibalism among the Anzichi:

For their enemies whom they take in the warres, they eate, and also their slaues, if they can haue a good market for them, they sell: or, if they cannot, then they deliuer them to the butchers to be cut in peeces, and so sold to be rosted or boyled. ¹⁴

Heathens by definition were lustful and brutish, Christians were not. Thus, Pigafetta reports, in the kingdom of Angola "euery man taketh as many wiues as hee listeth, and so they multiply infinitely: But they doe not vse to do in the kingdome of Congo which liueth after the manner of the Christians."¹⁵

Native customs were derided for their differentness and used as confirmation of the travelers' own prejudices. Pigafetta, for example, scorned the face markings common among the Agagi nation:

They doo vse to marke themselues aboue the lippe vpon their cheekes with certain lines which they make with Iron instruments and with fire ... [T]hose marks in their faces, it is a strange thing to behold them. For it is in deede a very dreadfull & deuillish sight. They are of bodie great, but deformed and liue like beastes in the fielde, and feede vpon mans flesh. ¹⁶

John Leo, best known as Leo Africanus and a source for Shakespeare's Othello, was able to differentiate among the peoples he described. Within his Geographical Historie of Africa, translated into English by John Pory and published in London (1600), are accounts of treacherous tawny peoples and virtuous blacks. Leo's comparatively enlightened viewpoint reflects his own origins as an African Moor, albeit one converted to Christianity and living in Italy. His travels and adventures, including temporary slavery, have struck some modern commentators as similar to Othello's. ¹⁷ In any event, Leo could describe people "of a black colour" who were also "people of a courteous and liberali disposition, and most friendly and bountifull vnto strangers." ¹⁸ Aware that Muslims had a variety of different cultures, Leo classified Africans not only by color but according to town and tribe. Some struck him as civilized, some as savage. Still, Leo accepted and purveyed the biblical explanation of blackness, claiming that "For all the Negros or blacke Moores take their descent from Chus, the sonne of Cham, who was the sonne of Noe."¹⁹ Leo's Description does not pursue the negative implications of this assertion, but to the informed Elizabethan reader they would have been clear. Thus, even in Leo's accounts of African people, signals were contradictory.

The texts described above were in print at the turn of the seventeenth century, available for the curious who could read. It is difficult to assess the attitudes of those who could not read, but we can examine the visual impressions that informed English Renaissance culture in general. There were blacks in England in the late sixteenth century. Their numbers were sufficiently substantial by 1601 for Elizabeth to license sea captain Caspar van Senden to transport all Negroes and blackamoors out of England. The royal proclamation seems to have followed up the Privy Council's attempt four years earlier to transport "such slaves" back to Spain and Portugal. ²⁰ Presumably the earlier effort had failed; Elizabeth deemed it necessary to add her authority to her council's.

Who were these blackmoors and why did Elizabeth seek to oust them from England? Her proclamation declares that they had been carried into England since the late troubles with Spain-presumably as part of the booty brought home from Spanish ships by Drake, Essex, and other privateers. These Africans were almost certainly slaves, perhaps en route to Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the New World before they were seized by the British. In England they probably continued as slaves or very long-term servants. In either case, they took employment away from needy English subjects. In Elizabeth's words, they "are fostered and powered here, to the great annoyance of her own liege people that which co[vet?] the relief which these people consume, as also for that the most of them are infidels hauing no understanding of Christ or his Gospel." People "possessed of any such blackamoors" (i.e., slave owners) were directed to relinquish them under threat of Her Majesty's displeasure. ²¹

Some members of Shakespeare's audience may have seen the emissaries from Barbary, led by the Moroccan Ambassador Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud, who visited London in late 1600. During their six-month stay, the Moroc-cans were regarded with mingled curiosity and contempt. Religious animosity spurred the disapproval of many English merchants and mariners, yet, observes Jack D'Amico, "Alongside mistrust and outright dislike of foreigners and infidels we find the grand, if somewhat fanciful, plans for a joint invasion of Spain." ²² Like Othello, the Moroccans were potential allies against a common enemy while remaining ineluctably different. Once the ambassadors departed, plans for a common military enterprise dissolved.

By the time Shakespeare began writing Othello, the embassy was a distant memory. Any familiarity most Londoners had with "blackamoors" probably came from slaves and servants, not from "men of royal siege."

By 1603 Londoners had also been exposed to "blackamoors" in public pageants and the theatre. In his study of the popular image of blacks in English Renaissance drama, Elliot H. Tokson observes that "dramatists were more often drawn to the figure of the black man than other writers." ²³ He suggests several reasons for this, including the visual impact of the actor's color. The audience, presumably composed of white English men and women and some foreigners, would necessarily view the black character to some extent as different, as Other, as object. And because their perceptions had been informed by negative associations with the color black and by lurid travellers' tales, their white gaze may have verged on voyeurism-a desire to see the black character in the context of illicit sex. Tokson contends that "there is hardly a black character created for the stage whose sexuality is not made an important aspect of his relationships with others." ²⁴ The character's blackness was itself equated with paganism and an exotic but forbidden sexuality. Blackness had shock value. And if the black male character were linked with a white female, the prurient gaze would be even more excited.

Othello's dramatic forebears are well known and have been thoroughly analyzed elsewhere. ²⁵ The three most notable figures, however-Muly Hamet, Aaron the Moor, and Eleazar-warrant attention here because they illustrate the kinds of choices Shakespeare had before him when he crafted Othello. Muly Hamet is a primitive ranter in the early revenge play, The Battle of Alcazar. The Chorus presents him in the play's opening lines:

Blacke in his looke, and bloudie in his deeds,
And in his shirt staind with a cloud of gore,
Presents himselfe with naked sword in hand,
Accompanied as now you may behold,
With deuils coted in the shapes of men. 26

Muly Hamet is frequently referred to as "the Negro Moor," his blackness associated with satanic evil. In a dumb show he murders his two younger brothers and his uncle. But despite frequent fits of braggadocio, Muly is a coward who can only succeed by stealth and deceit. As Eldred Jones notes, he "combines the grandiloquent extrovert and the subtle plotter." ²⁷ Muly is a Marlovian overreacher who on his deathbed curses the fatal star that governs his fall. But he also curses his Negro mother: "Curst maist thou be for such a cursed sonne." The curse, of course, is blackness.

In Titus Andronicus Aaron continues Muly Hamet's bombastic villainy, but unlike his predecessor, he is no coward. Jones argues that Aaron is individualized and humanized by his passionate defense of his child and that, in his complex intriguing, forerunner of Iago. ²⁸ Integral to Aaron's defiance of the white world around him is a sense of his own blackness. To Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius, Aaron exclaims:

Ye white-lim'd walls! Ye alehouse painted signs!
Coal-black is better than another hue,
In that it scorns to bear another hue;
For all the water in the ocean
Can never turn the swan's black legs to white,
Although she lave them hourly in the flood.
(4.2.98-103)

Aaron's paternal concern is also a form of black pride. "Aaron's only allegiance," contends D'Amico, "is to the image of himself seen in his son." Aaron is a father concerned for the future, his villainy mitigated by "the human capacity for survival and renewal." ²⁹ Nevertheless, blackness remains the sign of Aaron's largely unmotivated, satanic villainy. While the play's white characters commit grossly despicable acts, they seek vengeance for injuries to themselves or their families. Aaron does evil for evil's sake. His final lines glorify his villainy:

Even now I curse the day and yet I think,
Few come within the compass of my curse-
Wherein I did not some notorious ill ...
But I have done a thousand dreadful things,
As willingly as one would kill a fly,
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed,
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.
(5.1.125-44)

Aaron's vaunts may be a last defiant gesture at the white world that surrounds him. Though his motives are never clarified, he remains one of-if not the most-interesting characters in Shakespeare's play. Perhaps as Emily C. Bartels notes, his purposelessness makes his villainy all the more insidious. ³⁰ But to many in the white Elizabethan audience, Aaron's blackness would have seemed the immutable signifier of an inherited disposition to evil.

Like his predecessor Aaron, Eleazar of Lust's Dominion (ca. 1600) is a "striking combination of the Moor as man and as black devil," ³¹ who has an illicit sexual relationship with a white woman of higher social status, in this case the Spanish Queen Mother. Like Aaron, Eleazar uses this relationship to gain power. And like Muly Hamet, he is an overreacher in the Marlovian vein. In his first-act soliloquy, Eleazar exclaims:

Mischief erect thy throne and sit in state
Here, here upon this head; let fools fear fate.
Thus I defie my starrs, I care not I
How low I tumble down, so I mount high.

When confronted with his relationship to the Queen Mother, Eleazar boasts:

The Queen with me, with me, a Moore, a Devili,
A slave of Barbary, a dog; for so
Your silken Courtiers christen me, but father,
Although my flesh be tawny, in my veines
Runs blood as red, and royal as the best
And proud'st in Spain. 32

When he is finally ready to mount the Spanish throne, Eleazar emphasizes his military achievements:

Later in the play, Eleazar tries to disassociate color and character:

While the Duke of Venice's similar comments to Brabantio are true, here the white/black inversion is false. Eleazar is a self-proclaimed villain, his actions in accord with his audience's expectations.

In sum, black roles before Othello's composition in 1603-04 tended to confirm the reports of travelers like George Best. Black skin signified, in addition to visual ugliness, ³³ an ingrained moral infection, a taint in the blood often linked to sexual perversion and the desire to possess a white woman-her body, her status, her wealth, or her power. The subversive images of Muly Hamet, Aaron, and Eleazar must have fascinated yet frightened the Elizabethan audience. No wonder all three figures were killed or contained before the play's conclusion.

The threat of blackness outside the theatre was not so easily quelled. Elizabeth couldn't oust them; and as the seventeenth century progressed, the numbers grew. Increasingly containment came from the institutionalization of slavery. The English were well aware that the Portuguese had been bringing Africans to Europe since the late fifteenth century and to America since the early sixteenth. The English adventurer John Hawkins joined the slave trade himself during the 1560s. And as Winthrop Jordan observes, "By 1589 Negroes had become so preeminently 'slaves' that Richard Hakluyt gratuitously referred to five Africans brought temporarily to England as 'black slaves'; ... an equation had developed between African Negroes and slavery." ³⁴

When Europeans first encountered the West African slave trade, they found what was essentially a by-product of tribal warfare. Philippo Pigafetta remarked that the people of the Congo bring "thether with them slaues both of their own nation, & also out of Nubia."³⁵ Once Portuguese and Spanish traders began to collect slaves for shipment to America, the nature of slavery changed. The sporadic result of war was transformed into a giant economic enterprise. Pigafetta noted that in Angola

there is also a greater trafficke and Market for slaues ... then in any place els. For there are yearely bought by the Portingalles aboue fiue thousand head of Negroes, which afterwardes they conveigh away with them, and so sell them into diuers parts of the worlde. ³⁶

In Africa, the slave's status had been more neutral, his possibilities more fluid. Leo Africanus narrates the example of a Negro slave in the kingdom of Gaoga:

This slaue lying vpon a certaine night with his master that was a wealthie merchant, & considering that he was not far from his natiue countrey, slue his saide master, possessed his goods, and returned home: where haiuing bought a certaine number of horses, he began to inuade the people next adioning, and obtained for the most part the victorie: ... And by this means he tooke great numbers of captiues, whom he exchanged for horses that were brought out of Egypt: insomuch that at length (the number of his souldiers increasing) he was accounted by all men as soueraigne K. of Gaoga. ³⁷

This Negro warrior's captives were probably sold into slavery, but, as this narrative demonstrates, status within Africa was comparatively liminal. A courageous man like Othello could be captured in battle, sold into slavery, escape, and fight in triumph over his former owners. And as later chapters will indicate, this historical shift to a more rigid, exploitative system influenced future representations of Othello, most dramatically during the nineteenth century.

The Renaissance texts surveyed here have often been searched for clues to Shakespeare's conception of Othello. They yield no certain conclusions, of course, for the texts themselves are contradictory, combining savage images along with the exotic. Moreover, we can never be certain what Shakespeare retained, let alone read. And even if Shakespeare had only encountered Leo Africanus's book, for example, he might have created different representations from different portions of the text.

It is not surprising, then, that scholars have drawn conflicting conclusions from these materials. For the most part, they agree that the dominant discourse of Shakespeare's culture was ethnocentric in its assumptions about color and foreign customs. They disagree, however, as to what degree Shakespeare shared those assumptions and to what extent they informed his tragedy. In 1965 Eldred Jones concluded that "in the end Othello emerges, not as another manifestation of a type, but as a distinct individual who typified by his fall, not the weaknesses of Moors, but the weaknesses of human nature." ³⁸ Two years later G. K. Hunter advanced a similar theme in his seminal lecture on "Othello and colour prejudice." The characterization of Othello initially contradicts the stereotype of the black man, Hunter argued, but as the play progresses, Iago succeeds in "making the deeds of Othello at last fit in with the prejudice that his face at first excited." ³⁹ Winthrop Jordan wrote in the following year that Shakespeare did not necessarily accept his society' fears about miscegenaion, but that he exploited the theme of black/white sexuality to explode his society's beliefs, particularly "the notion that Negroes were peculiarly sexual men." ⁴⁰

Symptomatic of the 1960s new awareness of race, K. W. Evans contended that no analysis of Othello "can be ad-equate if it ignores the factor of race." Iago, he argued, "comes to personify the more virulent aspects of Venetian prejudice against Moors," while Othello reifies the legend of Moorish credulity with "his own superstitious fatalism." Evans concluded that Othello's blackness "is correlated with a character which spans the range from the primitive to the civilised, and in falling partially under Iago's spell Othello yields to those elements in man that oppose civilised order." ⁴¹

Tokson's 1982 survey of black men on the English Renaissance stage does not address Othello per se, but his conclusions are equally negative. "A black man," Tokson admitted, "could on rare occasions turn out to be a decent human being, but only if he reached a consciousness and an The acceptance of Christian ethics and white manners." ⁴² The framework in which he appeared remained unabashedly ethnocentric. Anthony Barthelemy's 1987 survey, Black Face Maligned Race, argued that the dramatist toyed with his culture's racial stereotypes, but "[h]owever successful Shakespear"s manipulation of the stereotype may be, Othello remains identifiable as a version of that type." As the play ends, Venetian hegemony continues, for "Shakespeare's black Moor never possesses the power or desire to subvert civic and natural order." ⁴³

Karen Newman was less harsh on Shakespeare in 1987. She contended that

Shakespeare was certainly subject to the racist, sexist, and colonialist discourses of his time, but by making the black Othello a hero, and by making Desdemona's love for Othello, and her transgression of her society's norms for women in choosing him, sympathetic, Shakespeare's play stands in a contestatory relation to the hegemonic ideologies of race and gender in early modern England. ⁴⁴

Michael Neill agreed in 1989, stating that though Othello does not directly oppose racism, the play nevertheless "illuminates the process by which such visceral superstitions were implanted in the very body of the culture that formed us." ⁴⁵ And as recently as 1990 Emily C. Bartels concluded that in Othello Shakespeare "invokes the stereotype of the Moor as a means of subverting it, of exposing its terms as strategic constructions of the self and not empirical depictions of the Other." ⁴⁶

D'Amico's 1991 analysis of the Moor in English Renaissance drama takes a similar stance. "In Othello," he asserts,

Shakespeare explored the tragic consequences of a cultural frame of reference that made the alien Moor something other than human. Working with the dual image of the noble, tawny Moor and the dark-complexioned devil, Shakespeare revealed how a man could be destroyed when he accepts a perspective that deprives him of his humanity ... Othello is debased by a role that he adopts. ⁴⁷

Note that this assortment of critics from varied backgrounds and perspectives agrees on one thing-the stereotype is there, deeply embedded in the text of Shakespeare's play. Their disagreement lies in the analysis of how Shakespeare's text exploits that stereotype. Obviously there is no single answer to this debate, but perhaps a close examination of Shakespeare's lines can illuminate how these contradictory conclusions came into being.

Despite Venice's need for Othello's military acumen, the Venetian outlook in Shakespeare's play is predominantly racist. ⁴⁸ Roderigo, the wealthy curled darling, refers to Othello as "the thick-lips" (1.1.65), and Iago's shouts below Brabantio's window stress the association between blackness and bestial sexuality:

an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe ... you'll have your daughter covered with a
Barbary
horse, you'll have your nephews neigh to you,
you'll
have coursers for cousins, and jennets for
germans.
(1.1.89-90, 111-13)

Roderigo describes the Moor as "lascivious," while Iago cries, "the devil will make a grandsire of you" (1.1.92). Iago's purpose, to arouse Brabantio's wrath, is achieved with verbal images of his daughter copulating unnaturally with a bestial creature, a satanic figure of vice and depravity.

Iago also perpetuates the myth of Moors having promiscuous sexual appetites: "These Moors are changeable in their wills" (1.3.336). Clearly Iago thinks of Othello as "an old black ram," who has probably seduced Emilia, which suggests (among other things) envy of powers he imagines to be greater than his own. At this point in the play, suggests G. K. Hunter, "[t]he sexual fear and dis-gust that lie behind so much racial prejudice are exposed for our derisive expectations to fasten upon them. And we are at this point bound to agree with these valuations, for no alternative view is revealed." ⁴⁹

Roderigo and Iago have reason to hate the Moor; the former is a rival for Desdemona's love, the latter believes he has been passed over for promotion. But until Act 1, scene 1, line 82 Brabantio has had no such motive, and his entertainment of Othello in his home might bespeak his openmindedness. Yet he too is prejudiced. Why else would he jump to the conclusion that Othello used witch-craft on his daughter? Only enchantment, he claims, could have made her

Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom,
Of such a thing as thou-to fear, not to delight.
(1.2.70-71)

Though Othello argues eloquently that this is not so, by the middle of the temptation scene he seems to believe it himself. When Iago suggests that Desdemona's decision to shun "many proposed matches of her own clime, complexion, and degree" indicated "a will most rank, / Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural" (3.3.231-35), Othello remains quiet.

At the play's finale, Emilia's outrage may-as Kent Cartwright has shown-vent the audience's own anger and, perhaps, its racism. ⁵⁰ When Othello reports that Desdemona's last words are a lie, Emilia cries

O, the more angel she
And you the blacker devil! ...
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain! ...
O gull! O dolt!
As ignorant as dirt!
(5.2.131-32, 156, 162-63)

Dirt, filth, blackness, and the devil-all are intertwined.

But while racism's voice is heard intermittently throughout the play, Othello denies the stereotype. Unlike Muly Hamet, Aaron, and Eleazar, he is not a manipulative scheming villain. Those characteristics appear instead in the white Venetian ensign, Iago. And other characters in the play speak well of the Moor. Desdemona praises Othello's virtue:

I saw Othello's visage in his mind
And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
(1.3.248-50)

On Cyprus Montano reports that "I have served him, and the man commands / Like a full soldier" (2.1.35-36). Iago admits in the midst of his hate

Lodovico also expresses the high regard Venice once had for its Moorish general:

Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all-in-all sufficient? Is this the nature
Whom passion could not shake? Whose solid
virtue
The shot of accident nor dart of chance
Could neither graze nor pierce?
(4.1.255-59)

As Cassio later remarks, the Othello rewarded by the Venetian Senate was "great of heart," a man respected for military prowess, courage, and steady character. And Othello's initial appearance in Act 1, scene 2-"Keep up your bright swords or the dew will rust them"-confirmed that judgment.

On the other hand, the Senate is proved wrong. Iago's and Roderigo's prejudices do become refied by the end of the play. Desdemona thinks that Othello "[i]s true of mind and made of no such baseness / As jealous creatures are." He could not be jealous because "the sun where he was born / Drew all such humours from him" (3.4.26-27). But we know that Othello is jealous, a fact that confirms Renaissance stereotypes about Moorish behavior-the sun was believed to create passionate furies, not dry them up.

Moors, in fact, were stereotyped as unusually jealous, as in Leo Africanus' oftcited comment:

For by reason of iealousie you may see them daily one to be the death and destruction of another, and that in such sauage and brutish manner, that on this case they will show no compassion at all. ⁵¹

When Othello claims that he wants to chop Desdemona into messes and tear her to pieces, he confirms his audience's expectations.

Leo Africanus also reports that Moors' "wits are but meane, and they are so credulous, that they will beleeve matters impossible, which are told them." ⁵² Iago reiterates this theme in his opening soliloquy:

To a certain extent, the temptation proves Africanus correct, for as many commentators have noted, Desdemona and Cassio could not have committed adultery in the brief time since Othello's marriage.

Othello's epileptic fit demonstrates his passionate nature but it also marks him as the member of an alien race. According to Leo Africanus, "This falling sicknes likewise possesseth the women of Barbarie, and of the land of Negros, who, to excuse it say that they are taken with a spirite." ⁵³

Another source of ambiguity in the play is the connection between blackness and slavery. Othello's narrative of his life to Desdemona includes stories

Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,
And with it all my travels' history.
(1.3.136-38)

These lines rush by in performance, but set against the context of the nascent English slave trade, they resonate with meaning. And even though Othello is ostensibly a "free" man in Venice, by terms of his mercenary contract, he remains the "servant" of the Venetian state, subject to its commands. His status, in short, is liminal. Yet the final irony of the play is that the white Iago is the one led in chains, the one called "damned slave," the one about to be tortured. Just as Iago turns out to be the white villain with the black heart, he also becomes the true slave while Othello asserts his freedom to choose his own death.

Shakespeare plays with us throughout Othello, exploiting stereotypes, arousing expectations, alternately fulfilling and frustrating our preconceptions. Othello's rhetoric, for example, is inherently ambiguous. On the one hand, the "Othello music" is a mark of the hero's greatness, ⁵⁴ but boastful language is also the mark of Othello's villainous predecessors Muly Hamet, Aaron, and Eleazar. Compare, for example, Othello's

to Eleazar's

Although my flesh be tawny, in my veines
Runs blood as red, and royal as the best
And proud'st in Spain.
(231-33)

Is this boasting? Or is it an exercise in black pride, an attempt at what Stephen Greenblatt calls "self-fashioning" that empowers the black caught in the grips of a white political system? ⁵⁵

The threads of this argument may recall Othello's own confusion in the temptation scene:

I think my wife be honest, and think she is not;
I think that thou art just, and think thou art not.
(3.3.385-86)

I think this play is racist, and I think it is not. But Othello's example shows me that if I insist on resolving the contradiction, I will forge only lies and distortion. As this exploration of texts has shown, the discourse of racial difference is inescapably embedded in the play just as it was embedded in Shakespeare's culture and our own. To be totally free of racism, one would have to invent a new language with no loaded words, no color discriminations, and no associations of blackness with evil, whiteness with good. White and black are opposed in the play's language-in what we hear-and in what we see during performance. When Shakespeare tackled Cinthio's tale of a Moor and his ancient, he had no choice but to use this discourse. Shakespeare, and we, are necessarily implicated in its tangled web.

The wonder of Othello is that Shakespeare was able to exploit the full complexity of that discourse, showing expectations gone topsy-turvy with a white villain opposed to a black man of heroic proportion. Even though the predominant typology of white over black is only temporarily subverted in fits and starts within the play, that subversion is itself an incredible artistic triumph.

As the performance history of Othello shows, Shakespeare's manipulation of white and black has never lost box-office appeal. The play has admittedly enjoyed varied interpretations and emphases through the centuries, with its racial themes muted in the Restoration and eighteenth century, accentuated in the twentieth. The confrontation it portrays between black and white continues to touch our deepest prejudices, fears, and hopes.
Notes
¹ Marvin Rosenberg's The Masks of Othello (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961) documents the nineteenth-century penchant for light-skinned Othellos, as does Ruth Cowhig's "Blacks in English Renaissance Drama and the Role of Shakespeare's Othello," The Black Presence in English Literature, ed. David Dabydeen (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985), pp. 1-25. For a more recent and theoretical discussion of the impact of Othello and Desdemona's union, see Karen Newman, "'And Wash the Ethiop White': Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello," in Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology, ed. Jean E. Howard and Marion F. O'Connor (New York: Methuen, 1987), pp. 143-62.

² See, for example, Leo Africanus' description of the kingdom of Casena, where "The inhabitants are extremely black, hauing great noses and blabber lips." Leo Africanus, The History and Description of Africa, ed. Robert Brown, trans. John Pory, 3 vols. (London: The Hakluyt Society), p. 830.

³ Winthrop Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA, 1968), p. 5.

⁴ G. K. Hunter, "Othello and Colour Prejudice," in his collection of essays, Dramatic Identities and Cultural Tradition: Studies in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1978), pp. 31-59; repr. from Proceedings of the British Academy, 53 (1967), 139-63. Quote from p. 41.

⁵ See Jordan's discussion in White Over Black, p. 4. More recently John R. Aubrey argues that Othello 's references to monstrosity reflect the late-sixteenth-century popular association of blacks with monsters. See his "Race and the Spectacle of the Monstrous in Othello," Clio, 22 (1993): 221-38.

⁶ Thomas Wright, The Passions of the Minde (London: Printed by Valentine Simmes for Walter Burre, 1604), p. 43.

⁷ For detailed accounts of medieval and Renaissance discussions of blackness, see Eldred Jones, Othello's Countrymen: The African in English Renaissance Drama (London: Oxford University Press, 1965); Hunter, " Othello and Colour Prejudice"; Elliot H. Tokson, The Popular Image of the Black Man in English Drama, 1550-1688 (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982); and Anthony Gerard Barthelemy, Black Face Maligned Race: The Representation of Blacks in English Drama from Shakespeare to Southerne (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987).

⁸ From Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1904), vol. VII, pp. 263-64.

⁹ As Kwame Anthony Appiah notes, during the Renaissance, both Moors and Jews were considered "unbelievers whose physical differences are signs (but not causes or effects) of their unbelief." Religious Otherness coalesces with physical differences in many contemporary texts, including Othello. See "Race," in Critical Terms for Literary Study, ed. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), pp. 274-87; see p. 277. In an essay too recent to be incorporated fully into this chapter, Arthur L. Little, Jr. argues that accounts such as George Best's provided Shakespeare with a "pre-text, what the audience knows before it comes to experience the play," in particular, "the essence of blackness as the savage and libidinous Other." See '"An Essence That's Not Seen': The Primal Scene of Racism in Othello" Shakespeare Quarterly, 44 (1993): 304-24.

¹⁰ The Geneva Bible: A Facsimile of the 1560 Edition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), pp. 4-5.

¹¹ Karen Newman rings the changes on this theme in "And Wash the Ethiop White."

¹² A True and Large Discourse of the Voyage of the Whole Fleete of Ships (London: Printed by Thomas Thorpe for William Aspley, 1603), p. 3.

¹³ The Fardle of Facions Conteining the Auncient Maners, Customes, and Lawes, of the Peoples Enhabiting the Two Partes of the Earth Called Affrike and Asie (London: Printed by John Kingstone and Henry Sutton, 1555), C3r and E8r.

¹⁴ A Report of the Kingdome of Congo, a Region of Africa. trans. Abraham Hartwell (London: Printed by John Wolfe, 1597), p. 36.

¹⁶ Ibid., pp. 204-05.

¹⁷ See Lois Whitney's "Did Shakespeare Know Leo Africanus?" Publications of the Modern Language Association, 37 (1922): 470-83, and Rosalind Johnson's "African Presence in Shakespearean Darama: Parallels Between Othello and the Historical Leo Africanus," African Presence in Early Europe (Journal of African Civilizations, 7 [1985]): 276-87.

¹⁸ Pory, trans., History and Description of Africa, p. 791.

¹⁹ Ibid., p. 130.

²⁰ Quoted from Tudor Royal Proclamations, ed. Paul L. Hughes and James F. Larkin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969), vol. III, p. 221n.

²¹ Ibid., pp. 221-22.

²² Jack D'Amico, The Moor in English Renaissance Drama (Tampa: University of Florida Press, 1991), p. 37.

²³ Tokson, Black Man in English Drama, p. 20.

²⁴ Ibid., p. 17. Little also describes the imagined scene of Othello and Desdemona coupling as the "sexual site and sight of the play's racial anxieties." See "An Essence That's Not Seen," 306.

²⁵ See Jones, Othello's Countrymen; Tokson, Black Man in English Drama; Barthelemy, Black Face Maligned Race; and D'Amico, The Moor, for full surveys of blacks on the Elizabethan stage.

²⁶ Cited from the Malone Society Edition, The Battle of Alcazar, ed. W. W. Greg (London: Chiswick Press, 1907). Quote from A2r.

²⁷ Jones, Othello's Countrymen, p. 43.

²⁸ Ibid., pp. 52-60.

²⁹ D'Amico, The Moor, pp. 143 and 145.

³⁰ Emily C. Bartels, "Making More of the Moor: Aaron, Othello, and Renaissance Refashionings of Race," Shakespeare Quarterly, 41 (1990): 433-54.

³² Lust's Dominion: or The Lascivious Queen, ed. J. Le Gay Brereton (Louvaine: Libraire Universitaire, 1931). Citations are from lines 260-63 and 227-34 respectively.

³³ Later in the seventeenth century, Bishop Joseph Hall was to describe the sight of a blackamoor as a man "whose hew showes him to bee farre from home, his very skin bewrayes his Climate; it is night in his face, whiles it is day in ours." See Occasional Meditations (London: Set by R. H., 1630), p. 93.

³⁴ Jordan, White Over Black, p. 60.

³⁵ Hartwell, trans., Report on the Congo, p. 35.

³⁷ Pory, trans., History and Description of Africa, p. 835.

³⁸ Jones, Othello's Countrymen, p. 87.

³⁹ Hunter, "Othello and Colour Prejudice," p. 55.

⁴⁰ Jordan, White Over Black, p. 38.

⁴¹ K. W. Evans, "The Racial Factor in Othello" Shakespeare Studies, 5 (1969): 124-40; quotes from 125, 127, 135, and 139.

⁴² Tokson, Black Man in English Drama, p. 135.

⁴³ Barthelemy, Black Face Maligned Race, p. 161.

⁴⁴ Newman, "And Wash the Ethiop White," p. 157.

⁴⁵ Michael Neill, "Unproper Beds: Race, Adultery, and the Hideous in Othello" Shakespeare Quarterly, 40 (1989): 383-412; quote from 412.

⁴⁶ Bartels, "Making More of the Moor," 447.

⁴⁸1 recognize that some would disagree with me. Edward Washington argues, for example, in an unpublished paper, "'At the Door of Truth': The Hollowness of Signs in Shakespeare's Othello," that Venice is more tolerant of others than Othello thinks it is. Martin Orkin also contends that the play's racist sentiment is "to an important degree confined to Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio." See "Othello and the 'Plain Face' of Racism," Shakespeare Quarterly, 38 (1987): 166-88; quote from 168. But Brabantio is a respected Senator and part of the power structure. I might add that Emilia also shows signs of color prejudice.

⁴⁹ Hunter, "Othello and Colour Prejudice," p. 45.

⁵⁰ See Kent Cartwright, "Audience Response and the Denouement of Othello," in Othello: New Perspectives, ed. Virginia Mason Vaughan and Kent Cartwright (Netwark: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991), pp. 161-76.

⁵¹ Pory, A Geographical Historie of Africa, p. 154.

⁵² Ibid., p. 185.

⁵³ Ibid., p. 182.

⁵⁴ G. Wilson Knight coined the term "Othello music" in The Wheel of Fire: Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeare's Sombre Tragedies (London: Humphrey Milford [Oxford University Press], 1930), pp. 107-31.

⁵⁵ See Stephen Greenblatt, "The Improvisation of Power," Renaissance Self-Fashioning from More to Shakespeare (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 222-54.

Source: "Racial Discourse: Black and White," in Othello: A Contextual History, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 51-70.

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If virtue no delighted beauty lack, / Your son-in-law in far more fair than black. Othello (1.3.285-86) Black/white oppositions permeate Othello. Throughout the play, Shakespeare exploits a discourse of racial difference that by 1604 had become ingrained in the English psyche.

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Racism, misogyny and 'motiveless malignity' in Othello

The causes of the tragedy of Othello are more complex and disturbing than they might at first appear, Kiernan Ryan contends.

A play for today

Anyone who doubts that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies were written from an imaginative standpoint far ahead of his time need only think of . The basic idea of the play is so well known that it's easy to forget the startling boldness of Shakespeare's decision to take Cinthio's brief tale of a doomed mixed-race marriage and transform it into a heart-breaking tragedy. In a country where few people outside London would ever have seen a black person, and centuries before the problems that fuel the tragedy became as ubiquitous and pressing as they are today, Shakespeare produced in Othello a searing critique of racial and sexual injustice, which is more powerful now in the 21st century than it could ever have been at the dawn of the 17th.

Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi, an Italian source for Othello and Measure for Measure

Shakespeare took the idea for Othello from a tale of doomed mixed-race marriage in Cinthio's De Gli Hecatommithi, 1565.

The tragic sequence of events is triggered by the elopement of Othello and Desdemona. The fact that they are obliged to elope makes the illicit nature of their relationship in the eyes of Venice immediately clear. But in their eyes and in Shakespeare's there's nothing illicit about their love, to which they regard themselves, and the play regards them, as fully entitled. Undeterred by the paternal wrath and widespread disapproval they are bound to incur, Othello and Desdemona act as if a black man from Africa and an upper-class white woman from Venice have every right to fall in love, marry and be left to live happily together. They act, in other words, as if they were already free citizens of a truly civilized future, instead of prisoners of a time when racial prejudice and sexual inequality are so ingrained that even their heroic hearts are tainted by them.

Draft proclamation on the expulsion of 'Negroes and Blackamoors', 1601

A draft proclamation of 1601 asked for the deportation of black people from England.

Usage terms Reproduced courtesy of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House

'Haply, for I am black'

As a result, Othello and Desdemona find unleashed upon them, in the shape of Iago, the venomous rage of a society whose foundations are rocked by the mere fact of their marriage. 'For if such actions may have passage free,' Brabantio warns the Venetian Senate, 'Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be' (1.2.98-9). Brabantio perceives at once that there's much more at stake in this interracial union than the violation of his honour as Desdemona's father. If we turn a blind eye to this outrage, Brabantio argues in effect, we're treating our inferiors as our equals, which means there's nothing to stop the subhuman underclass or the heathen outcasts of society taking our place and having power over us. Shakespeare makes it plain from the start that it's not just Iago the newly-weds are up against, but the status quo and a view of the world which Iago merely embodies in its most lethal form.

For it's not just Iago whose speech is infected with contempt for 'the Moor' (as he repeatedly refers to Othello), though the intensity of his loathing is unrivalled. 'Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe' (1.1.88-9), he cries to Brabantio in the opening scene. Roderigo derides Othello too as 'the thick-lips' (1.1.66), while Brabantio, in his public confrontation with Othello, finds it inconceivable that his daughter should desire to 'Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom / Of such a thing as thou' (1.2.70-1) without being drugged or bewitched. In a vain attempt to placate Brabantio, the Duke assures him that 'If virtue no delighted beauty lack, / Your son-in-law is far more fair than black' (1.3.289-90). So endemic to Venetian culture are such attitudes that Othello and Desdemona can't help absorbing them too: 'I saw Othello's visage in his mind' (1.3.252), Desdemona declares to the Senate, oblivious to the unintended insult that brave declaration implies. When Othello's faith in Desdemona's love for him begins to crumble, his complexion is the first thing he blames: 'Haply, for I am black, / And have not those soft parts of conversation / That chamberers have' (3.3.263-5). And he instinctively employs his own blackness as a metaphor for his wife's alleged depravity: 'Her name, that was as fresh / As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd and black / As mine own face' (3.3.386-8)

Painting of Ira Aldridge as Othello

This painting, A Moor by James Northcote (1826), shows Ira Alridge as Othello. He was 17 when he first played the role in 1825 - the first black actor to do so in Britain.

Usage terms © Bridgeman Art Library / Manchester Art Gallery

'the green-eyed monster'

The grounds of the tragedy can't be fully explained, however, by pointing to the deep-seated racism that poisons the Venetian view of Othello and even Othello's view of himself. The colour of Othello's skin is obviously a crucial factor in his downfall, because his visibly alien racial identity makes him and his bride far more vulnerable to the machinations of Iago than if he were an equally accomplished and indispensable white man. Their defiance of the Venetian taboo against such marriages locks them from the outset into a defensive posture, which predisposes Othello to the insecurity and doubt that grip him so swiftly at Iago's prompting. But Othello's vulnerability as a black outsider, who unconsciously shares the white perception of his blackness, is inseparable from his thraldom to a patriarchal concept of masculinity and a misogynistic concept of marriage that are just as endemic as racism in Venetian culture, and that play an equally crucial role in sealing both Desdemona's fate and his own.

Niccholes's Discourse of Marriage and Wiving

Niccholes' Discourse of Marriage and Wiving (1620) gives man-to-man advice about how to deal with women. It warns against putting your trust in friends or giving into 'idle jelousie'.

Thus sexual jealousy is shown to be the rule in Venice rather than an exceptional emotional disorder to which Othello is especially prone to succumb. Roderigo's infatuation with Desdemona makes him intensely jealous of both Othello and Cassio. The same emotion flares up in Bianca, when Cassio gives her Desdemona's handkerchief: 'You are jealous now', says Cassio, 'That this is from some mistress, some remembrance' (3.4.185-6). Above all, Iago himself betrays the same toxic disposition, when he fastens automatically on sexual jealousy as a pretext for provoking it in Othello and revenging himself on Cassio: 'I do suspect the lusty Moor / Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof / Doth (like a poisonous mineral), gnaw my inwards'; 'I fear Cassio with my night-cap too' (2.1.295-7, 307). Although none of them is as consumed by jealousy as Othello, all these characters fall prey like him to 'the green-eyed monster' (3.3.166) that stalks any society in which the sexual desire of one human being is regarded as the property of another.

As the handkerchief, the 'ocular proof' (3.3.360) of infidelity, passes from Othello to Desdemona to Emilia to Iago to Cassio to the courtesan Bianca, it links the three couples together to highlight what they have in common. It draws an implicit parallel between the despised kept woman Bianca and the respectable wives Desdemona and Emilia, revealing the true nature of the married woman's role by erasing the distinction between them. And it underscores the fact that Othello's proprietorial relationship with Desdemona as husband and wife is typical - that it's extraordinary only in the fatal consequences it leads to in this particular case, not in its essential character.

Friendship album of Moyses Walens

A blindfolded man is led into a bedroom by a courtesan, from Moyses Walen's friendship album, 1605-15.

Italian handkerchief

Fine linen Italian handkerchief, c. 1600. In this period, handkerchiefs were exchanged as lovers' gifts and displayed as fashion accessories.

Usage terms © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Held by© Victoria and Albert Museum

Iago: 'What you know, you know'

Othello's dread of cuckoldry and the misogyny that feeds it are perfectly in tune with the patriarchal culture of a city where his colour makes him feel like an alien, but where he's entirely at home as a man. The reason why Iago is so quickly and spectacularly successful in persuading Othello to swallow the vile tale he spins round Desdemona is that Othello is primed to believe it by the warped view of women and female sexuality that he shares not only with Iago but with other men. When Iago reminds Othello that Desdemona 'did deceive her father, marrying you' (3.3.206) as proof of her capacity to hoodwink her husband too, he's merely echoing the parting words with which Brabantio sought to sow the same seeds of suspicion in Othello's mind in Act 1: 'Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see; / She has deceived her father, and may thee' (1.3.292-3).

Iago differs from his fellow Venetians only in the ferocity with which he espouses their values and the deadly extremes to which he resorts to vindicate them. His devious stratagem works so well because it works by reflecting his victims' own beliefs, by confirming their suspicions and fulfilling their expectations. When Emilia begs him to deny that he duped Othello into murdering Desdemona, Iago replies: 'I told him what I thought, and told no more / Than what he found himself was apt and true' (5.2.176-7). And when Othello asks Cassio to 'demand that demi-devil / Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body', Iago brusquely interjects: 'Demand me nothing; what you know, you know' (5.2.301-3). In other words: 'Don't ask me why, ask yourselves, because you know as well as I do'.

Painting of 'Santiago the Moor-slayer'

15th-century Spanish painting of 'Santiago the Moor-slayer', mounted triumphantly on a white horse and trampling the heads of men beneath him.

Usage terms Altarpiece with St. James in the central panel. Chapel of the Alcazar of Segovia. Spain. / Photo © Tarker / Bridgeman Images

Much has been made of Iago's ostensibly 'motiveless malignity' ever since Coleridge coined his famous phrase 200 years ago. But there's surely no great mystery about what makes this villain tick. As Iago sees it, a black African has had the gall to court and marry a white Venetian beauty as if he were the equal of a man of her class and colour. And she has had the gall to prefer 'a lascivious Moor' (1.1.126) to her own kind and defiantly proclaim her love for this 'erring barbarian' (1.3.355-6) in public. As if being passed over for promotion by the Moor in favour of Cassio - in contempt of loyal service and the right of precedence, of 'old gradation' (1.1.37) - wasn't outrageous and insulting enough! Othello and Desdemona have made a mockery of the principles of social, sexual and racial hierarchy on which Iago's very identity and sense of self-worth depend. So he hatches a plot and tells a tale designed to put them in their place: to turn 'The divine Desdemona' (2.1.73) into the 'subtle whore' (4.2.21) he thinks every woman really is, and to turn the noble, eloquent Othello into a deranged wife-killer, who proves the racist's worst fears fully justified.

The really disturbing thing about Iago is not that he's an unfathomable psychopath, but that he's pathologically normal and theatrically irresistible. Although he initiates and engineers its catastrophe, Iago is not the fundamental or sole cause of the tragedy, which could plainly have erupted in a similar form for the same reasons without his intervention. To grasp that fact is to pluck out the heart of Iago's mystery, which is dispelled by the realisation that his malignity is not a monstrous deviation from the Venetian norm but its mirror image. The patriarchal, racist universe of Othello confronts in 'damned Iago', the 'inhuman dog' (5.1.62), not its demonic antithesis but its grotesque epitome.

Shakespeare has no intention of letting the audience off the hook either. Iago talks directly to us throughout the play and takes us into his confidence, assuming that we share his views, understand his reasoning and admire his ingenuity. Othello, in marked contrast, is kept at a distance from us by Shakespeare, who denies his tragic protagonist the profound rapport with the audience that Hamlet and Macbeth forge through their soliloquies. Iago exploits his devilish charisma and seductive intimacy with the audience to make us complicit with him, to implicate us in his hatred and entrapment of Othello, whether we like it or not. So when he retorts unfazed in his final speech 'Demand me nothing; what you know, you know', refusing point blank to explain his malevolence, we can be sure every word of that barbed line is addressed, disconcertingly, to us too.

Kiernan Ryan is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, an Emeritus Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. He is the author of Shakespeare (3rd edition, 2002), Shakespeare's Comedies (2009), Shakespeare's Universality: Here's Fine Revolution (2015) and the Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of King Lear (2015). His next book, Shakespearean Tragedy, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2020.

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racism misogny and motivelss malignity in othello

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Racism, misogyny and 'motiveless malignity' in Othello | The British Library

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The causes of the tragedy of Othello are more complex and disturbing than they might at first appear, Kiernan Ryan contends.

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You will be looking at context to Othello. Make sure you do the activities for your group and bring the answers to class.

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Week 1 Context- Group 4
Read the source and answer the questions.
1. Could class give you power in Venetian society? Give evidence.
2. Why was marriage desirable for women at this time?
3. Why does the writer of this essay feel that Othello is marginalised in the private and social domain? Give evidence.

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Read the source and answer the questions.
1. What were Seventeenth Century attitudes to race and how does Shakespeare portray them?
2. Why does the writer of this article feel that Shakespeare created racial tension?
3. Is his portrayal of Othello racist?

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Read the source and find answers to the questions
1. How did contemporary audiences view women?
2. How is Emilia a dominant woman? Find 2 reasons.
3. How is Desdemona shown to be powerful?

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A quick summary of the play can be found here.

Shakespeare was always wary of women and careful to give them respect, which is obvious when reading Othello. The society of Othello is strongly dominated by men who are the political and military leaders of their homeland. These men are expected to stay loyal to their reputations and to uphold the strong sense of character that earned them their positions in the first place. Women on the other hand, are thought of as weak second-class citizens or even defective males, who are in place for nothing more than to serve their men. The captivating thing about Othello is Shakespeare's upheaval of these expectations, demonstrating his malaise over the way gender relationships were so often represented. The monstrous actions and subsequent downfall of the men in Othello show how no one is above being corrupted and how men are not nearly as powerful as they seem. The resolve of the female characters demonstrates their capacities to do much more than simply serve. Furthermore, by the end of the play, I believe the men of Othello are not the ones who represent strength; instead, this title goes to the women.

From the way the play begins, women seem like nothing more than affectionate wives and pawns in Iago's evil scheme. Emilia claims, "I nothing, but to please his fantasy," (Norton Ed., 2157) referring to Iago, as she snatches up Desdemona's handkerchief in order to give it to her husband. Such a line seems uncharacteristically submissive compared to the Emilia of later on, but it also shows her intriguing devotion to her husband who seems to care nothing for her. She does not trust Iago entirely though, as she tries to take the handkerchief back when Iago cannot explain why he wants it. Of course, the man is easily able to overpower his wife and he orders her to depart, which she does, leaving Iago to bask in satisfaction as his plan seems to fall into place. Little does he know, his wife knows him better than he gives her credit for, and he will have to answer to her in the end.

Desdemona's Sexual Power Over Her (Supposedly) Mighty Man

At this point in the play, the men are the dominant figures. Most of the attention has been given the power struggle between Iago and the rest, and the women are often brushed to the side. Yet, as Shakespeare delves deeper into Othello's tormented mind, it becomes clear that his wife has an incredible power over him. Some of the Moor's most raw and desperately tortured lines come out as he appears to become weakened by Iago's words. He states, "I had been happy if the general camp, / Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body, / So I had nothing known," (Norton Ed., 2158) as he grieves over the words Iago has poisoned him with about the supposed infidelity of his wife. These lines speak volumes about Othello's vulnerability to words as he blatantly admits that he would rather not be told that his wife is false because he cannot cope with the thought of her with someone else. The emotions are all the more striking because they are so relatable to those of us who understand jealousy and heartbreak.

When one is truly in love, it can be hard to think about anything else, and for a man to imagine his lover with another man can be as agonizing an ordeal as any in life. It therefore makes sense that Othello bids his life goodbye at this point by exclaiming, "Farewell the tranquil mind, farewell content, / Farewell the pluméd troops and the big wars / That makes ambition virtue!" (Norton Ed., 2158). If Desdemona is untrue, all of Othello's glory would be violently stripped away. Any future successes will only come at the expense of the loss of his wife, and he cannot cope with such dramatic failure. Such forfeiture of life by Othello indicates not only the power of Iago's words, but of Desdemona's body as well, which may be the most potent weapon of all.

Famous Handkerchief Scene featuring Ian McKellen and Willard White. The Portrayal of Manipulation and Emotional Destruction is Unrivaled

Emilia's Refusal to Submit and the Rise of Feminine Bravado

Iago's plan seems to work very well as he strategically poisons the minds of his fellow men. Yet, his gross underestimation of his wife is where his scheme unfurls. A very revealing passage is when Emilia bitterly states, "'Tis not a year or two shows us a man, / They are all but stomachs, and we all but food. / They eat us hungrily, and when they are full, / They belch us." Emilia's antipathy toward males contradicts any societal notions of female meekness. Her words are bold demonstrations against men who want nothing but to use women for their own pleasure, and they should strike a chord with any man who thinks he may take his lover for granted. Emilia is obviously not as willing to submit to men as other women may be, and for the first time she shows herself as a possible foe against the seemingly unstoppable Iago.

Emilia continues to defend the name of women as the play moves forward, and is characterized as anything but submissive in her conversations and actions. She becomes more distant from her husband and draws ever nearer to her true companion of Desdemona whose side she refuses to leave. In her most important speech of the play, Emilia at last calls men out as equals and expresses her unwillingness to be heartlessly cast aside. She states, "And have not we affections, / Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have? / Then let them use us well, else let them know / The ills we do, their ills instruct us so." (Norton Ed., 2179) Her bitter, uncompromising, and inspiring words here are surely Shakespeare's warning to men that they best take care of women. As Othello has already demonstrated, the love and affection of a female is an awful thing to lose. Emilia's cogent perspective signifies the death of male-dominated sex for sport. Yet even more so, it signifies the death of male domination in its entirety. By this point, it is clear from Othello's words that women can destroy men with nothing more than their sexuality and for a woman to share her willingness to harness this power is striking. This is the point where Shakespeare makes clear that the women of Othello are much more than "defective males," and that the men will have to pay for their mistakes in falsely judging these women.

By now, the characters with the most strength seem to be Emilia and Iago. Desdemona does not necessarily agree with Emilia's independent attitude, and Othello's mental state is weakening as he is "impregnated" by Iago's poisonous words. Only in the final act of the play is a climax reached and Shakespeare's conclusions regarding the power balance between men and women are fully elucidated. In the end, the women are victorious for several reasons.

Sexual Power Revisited

Othello's strength is shattered as he undermines the vows of his marriage because he cannot handle his emotions. He is played for a fool by Iago and allows his own self-conscious woes to cripple his better senses. In his suicide he admits his wrongs and his defeat. He valued the words of a man he considered his friend over those of his wife, and for such a mistake he is justly punished. Desdemona, although murdered, shows far greater strength than her husband. She shows phenomenal moral strength and honesty as she never sways from her vows of marriage or does anything to wrong her husband. When she is asked who killed her, Desdemona's final words are, "Nobody, I myself. Farewell. / Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell!" (Norton Ed., 2185). These words show her enduring moral strength in not vilifying Othello even when he deserves it most. She also seems unafraid to die and confident in the "kind lord" to take care of her in the after-life. Desdemona's actions in comparison to those of Othello make him seem like a pathetic excuse for a man. In this instance, the woman is no doubt the one who deserves respect.

Emilia's Fierce Murder and Martyrdom

When it comes to Iago and Emilia, victory for the female comes about in a different manner. After Desdemona is murdered, Emilia is hysterical and delivers her most emotionally forceful and penetrating lines of the play. She no longer feels compelled to submit in any way to her husband, and in fact, she daringly goes against his word in order to let the truth be told. As Iago tells her to shut up, Emilia retorts, "I will not charm my tongue. I am bound to speak. / My mistress lies murdered in her bed," and goes on to directly indict her husband by stating, "your reports have set the murder on." (Norton Ed., 2187). Such words could not possibly come from a woman as desperately loyal as Desdemona, but Emilia is a far different type of woman, and she understands when the time to harness her power is right. Her words are the reason for her husband's downfall. Without such an unrelenting speech from Emilia, justice against Iago could never be served, and even though Iago pitifully murders her, nothing is more suitable than for such a brutally honest barrage of words to destroy him in return. The poison of his lies is not undone with his arrest in the end, but Emilia's onslaught of truth easily overpowers any strength Iago may have still possessed. Emilia dies a martyr's death for women willing to stand up for themselves and show that they can be just as dangerous as men whereas Iago is left to suffer for the remainder of his days in shame.

How Did Shakespeare Really Feel?

Judging by his characterizations of Desdemona and Emilia in Othello, Shakespeare could have either had great admiration for women, a deep-seated fear of them, or just been confused altogether. In the very least, he gave them respect. Since it is known that Othello was revised with the specific intent of augmenting Emilia's role, it seems obvious that Shakespeare understood the strength of character women could possess. In reality, Shakespeare's wife was much older than he, and quite possibly a bit more sexually experienced at the time of their marriage. He had to cope with such a relationship and inevitably learn many lessons about how women operate. Although no man can ever fully understand the way a woman thinks, Shakespeare had an uncanny ability to portray his female characters in frighteningly believable ways.

I see Desdemona as woman's sexual superiority over men. She shows how a woman can put a spell on a man and drive him to madness by doing nothing than being pure and beautiful. Emilia is man's punishment should he ever take his woman for granted. She makes men pay for their abuses by channeling her natural feminine strength against her own evil husband. These two women are spectacular examples of the capabilities women have in terms of strength.

If Shakespeare intended to warn men against miscalculating the potential of women, then he succeeded in Othello. The play is an ode to the wonders of the female sex. It is a mysterious sex that can seem as harmless as the face of Desdemona, or as indomitable as the words of Emilia. In either case, it is clear that men are not the only ones who deserve to rule humanity, and in many cases, they do not rule at all. As witnessed in Othello, the powers of women can overwhelm a man's strongest intentions with ease. Through this work, Shakespeare warns us of this. Yet it is hard to tell whether this warning is for men to greet with reassurance or with fear. Women can be great allies, yet maybe far greater foes.

From your experiences, how do you feel about the portrayal or women in Othello?

Do you agree with an inherent power of women over men?

Are Shakespeare's views still relevant?

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Shakespeare's Attitude Toward Women in "Othello"

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A quick summary of the play can be found here. Shakespeare was always wary of women and careful to give them respect, which is obvious when reading Othello. The society of Othello is strongly dominated by men who are the political and military...

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Read the source and find answers to the questions
1. What did contemporary audiences think about dominant women?
2. What is Iago's notion of women's role?
3. What does Othello mean when he compares Desdemona to a hawk?

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Attitudes to women :: Life and Times :: Internet Shakespeare Editions

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The men in Othello have varying attitudes to women, from Othello, who idealizes Desdemona, to Iago, who sees love as "merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will" (1.3.337). Attitudes in Shakespeare's audience are likely to have been at least as varied.