Explore the Ways Shakespeare Presents the Theme of Identity in 'othello'

Explore the ways Shakespeare presents the theme of identity in 'Othello'

At the start of the play, Othello is portrayed as a confident and important character. We learn that he is indeed a high level general for the army, and his battle tactics and experience in warfare are second to none. Although Othello commands respect within his ranks, and his soldiers respect him, Iago and Rodrigo clearly don't respect him, and this could be due to Othello's African American ethnicity, as in Elizabethan times England was quite racist. Iago and Rodrigo's attempt to entrap Othello shows us their lack of respect for him. He is also a 'Moor' - he is most probably from the north west of Africa. His actual ethnic origin is unclear but it is important that he is not white. It marks him out from the other characters, both as someone who is powerful but also as someone who is a stranger.Othello is a powerful person, he is put in charge of Cyprus by the government. When Brabantio confronts Othello in court, Othello remains calm and measured, even though if he is convicted he will most likely be executed. His calm and measuredness show his strength in character, and these are probably qualities that he is respected for in war. Othello is presented as a confident lover, not letting society dictate his relationships due to his skin colour. However, later in the play, Iago manages to get into Othello's head and convince him that Desdemona is cheating on him, because she doesn't respect him as he is black. At first Othello violently dismisses Iago, but he soon begins to doubt himself. He begins to become paranoid that maybe Iago is correct, and self doubt starts to eat away at Othello, putting him into a mentally unstable state. Othello becomes insanely jealous at the thought of Desdemona cheating on him with Cassio. This portrays Othello as a dominating and obsessive lover. Othello is portrayed as an outsider, described as a 'moor' and Iago starts to feed Othello's doubt on his racial inequalities. At the start of the play Othello and Desdemona or madly in love. Over the course of the play Othello's character changes greatly, this is represented by his use of flamboyant iambic pentameter at the beginning of the play, and how that changes to a darker straight prose. Throughout the play Desdemona's character goes pretty much unaltered. She stays loyal to her husband, and she