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Shakespeare’s Outcasts

As a playwright, William Shakespeare was a man acutely aware of the various human experiences and emotions. His skill at developing characters and situations with which the audience could identify was superb. One of these characters of which his work shed light upon was that of the outcast. Many of his plays contain characters, often times important, that were shunned by the other characters for various reasons. By continually presenting the same themes throughout his work, Shakespeare makes the case for much needed social change, one of these being the forced isolation of certain people, whether it be because of a difference in race, religion, class, or even gender.

In this day and age, people tend to be more socially conscience about those sticky subjects as racism. The majority of society (or so it seems) has deemed it an unacceptable affront to another person. This way of thinking is extremely radical to the thoughts of people in the Elizabethan age though. Nobody would have given this discrimination a second thought, but upon review of certain authors and playwrights, we see the rays of enlightened thinking shine through. Shakespeare was one of these enlightened thinkers. His plays dealt with the intolerance of his society, and though this was simply seen as a normal attitude, Shakespeare subtly (or maybe just subconsciously) makes the point for a change in the societal mindset.

Shakespeare’s play Othello, The Moor of Venice in part deals with this issue of racism. Historically, Moors were Muslim Africans that settled down in Spain and northern Africa during the Middle Ages. When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella came into power however, they decided to convert all of Spain to Christianity beginning in 1492, thereby kicking all the Moors out. They eventually settled in the city-states of Italy such as Venice, Milan, and Florence, where their military prowess was recognized and utilized as commanders of mercenary armies. Though they held a vital place in the society, these Moors were never considered a part of the community or as equals, simply because of their ethnic difference. The play is set in this time period. The protagonist of this story happens to be a Moor, Othello. This by itself is a sign of Shakespeare’s enlightenment, as Moors were usually made to look as either villains or caricatures. Othello’s character though is presented as a noble hero, albeit one who makes a tragic mistake. As general of the Venetian army, Othello has earned the respect of much of the government and military leaders. His soldiers follow him faithfully, and he is a distinguished soldier. Regardless of all this, those same people that seem to respect him, in retrospect really don’t. His nobility only seems to reach his military standing. Outside of that he is just another Moor, a second class citizen. In the first scene of the play, the villain Iago is seen with Roderigo yelling up to Brabantio on his balcony. Roderigo is distraught at finding out that the subject of his lustful desires, Brabantio’s daughter Desdemona, is married to Othello, therefore they tell Brabantio, in a quite disgusting allusion, that a “black ram is tupping your white ewe”. Iago makes some pretty vile comparisons here between Othello and various beasts, insinuating that the general is nothing more than a base animal. The idea of his daughter in a relationship with a black man so disturbs the senator, that he raises a mob in the dead of the night to go find Othello and bring back his daughter. This mob is a particularly frightening thing as it seems to be a precursor to later American history and its horrifying lynch mobs. When Brabantio confronts Othello, he rants on about how his daughter could never have run away from her father to “the sooty bosom of such a thing as thou”. He is completely convinced that Othello has put some form of black magic on Desdemona and stolen her from him. Brabantio implies that any white man in Venice would have been a better choice than a black man. Ironically, he even tells Roderigo, who he had so vehemently denied access of Desdemona, that he would have preferred him over the Moor. Throughout the play we hear the citizens of Venice refer to Othello, at best, not by name but simply as “Moor”, and other times go so far as to refer to him as the “thick-lips” or even the devil. The idea of blackness as evil is pervasive throughout the play. In the midst of all this, though, Othello emerges as the heroic figure worthy of our admiration. When met with the mob, Othello bids his followers to sheathe their swords--an act reminiscent of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though he warns the council that he is not gifted with speech, he nonetheless speaks wonderfully as Robert F. Wilson Jr. says, “… despite his claim that he is “rude of speech, he regularly expresses his feelings in powerful poetic form. He obviously displayed that ability during his wooing of Desdemona…” (765). Desdemona does truly love him. She is the one character who completely sees past both his blackness and his age and loves him completely. Shakespeare’s coupling of a black man and a white woman in marriage is extremely progressive thinking and signifies that he was not against the idea of interracial relationships. He seems ahead of his time here, as he attempts to show the black man in a positive light, worthy of the approbation and acceptance of white society.

Another example of an outcast character is in his play The Merchant of Venice. Though there is considerable controversy regarding who the protagonist of this play is, Shylock does play an important role in this story (if not the most important role), despite the fact that he is a Jew. Although Shakespeare never lived in an England that had a single Jew, he was able to create one of the most prolific Jewish characters in English literature. Anti-Semitic feelings were always a part of society. Jews were always seen as outsiders in early England and were barred from many different professions. As a result, many Jews earned a living as usurers. Since Jewish lenders often times had to become their own debt collectors much resentment formed against them, and since usury was solely a Jewish practice, their religion became the focus of all that antipathy. Certainly Shylock falls into the stereotype of the greedy Jew, and Shakespeare meant to portray him in that way, as he most likely shared those same anti-Semitic views. However, this was not exactly how Shylock’s character turned out. Instead of simply staying the villain in the story, he becomes a sort of tragic hero as we see him lose everything that he had fought for. H.B. Charlton analyzes the playwright’s intentions as he says,

“The Shylock of whom the Elizabethan pit, and Shakespeare amongst them, made such hearty mockery, and the Shylock who wrings the withers of a modern audience are both in the play. The one is Shylock as he was meant to be, the other is Shylock as he became through Shakespeare’s unconscious dramatic instinct … Shakespeare the Elizabethan, the man of his day, addicted to the thoughts, the prejudices, and the passions of his fellows, felt like them a bitter hatred of the Jews … But only Shakespeare the artist could write it. Writing it, his creative genius shaped it at the direction of his creative imagination” (129).

Through his artistic side, Shakespeare creates a Jewish character that is flawed, human, and oppressed by the Christians around him. At the end of this play Shylock sheds the stereotype of the Jew and instead becomes a real human being. His call for equality in the eyes of his community has become one of the most famous lines in Shakespeare’s work, as he says,

“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that…” (MV 3.1.55-64)

Through this portrayal of a Jew living amongst hostile Christians, Shakespeare shows us the wrongness of judging another solely because of their faith.

In his portrayal of women we again see the progressive views of the playwright. Much of his work shows women living in their respective roles, owned by their husbands and fathers. This oppressive attitude towards women excludes them from the male dominated world. They are kept at bay until needed. In Othello we see Desdemona’s father refer to her as property when he gives her hand in marriage after hearing where her loyalty now lies. In The Merchant of Venice, Portia’s father has died but still has control over her life. She is not able to choose her lover, but rather is at the mercy of the boxes. Nonetheless, Shakespeare subtly inserts moments where a female becomes entirely independent. Though she must don a disguise to do it, Portia shows that she is just as capable as a man when she assumes the role of Balthasar and single-handedly stops Shylock in his thirst for vengeance.

Through his plays, Shakespeare shows us his many ideas and thoughts about the different aspects of society. It is by his work that we now know the man that is William Shakespeare today. The idea of the outcast character is vital to all of his plays, as there always seems to be a character that is excluded for various reasons, of which Shakespeare tries to prove are silly. By means of characters such as Othello, Shylock, Portia and others we see a basic humanness to them, showing that they are just like us and worthy of our respect. Shakespeare was way ahead of his time in disparaging the racist, sexist, and intolerant views of people. Through careful analysis of his work, there is much that can be learned about the author and his views on society.

Rate my essay(I am in English 12 AP in high school)?
very nice, it esablishes a clear theme, then explains it. one question: is it supposed to be that short?