Category Archives: Othello’s name

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Who is The Moor, The Barbary Horse, or The He?

The name of Shakespeare´s book it is Othello, therefore my question is why the first act they do not even mention the word Othello and they use ‘Moor’ or another adjectives to called him?

The first characters that appear are the lieutenant, Iago, and Roderigo. Both of them highly intervene in the play but none of them mention Othello´s name. As the paly it is called ‘‘Othello’’ you might think that the name that will be the most pronounced it will that one, but it is actually the less called or the one that no one says. And my question is why?

 

  •  He is referred as ‘‘he’’ or ‘‘him1-239x300’’ throughout the entire Act. This both pronouns are commonly and well use and above all they do not have a classist background or a racist layer behind it.
  •  However in other cases he is referred as ‘‘The thick lips’’ ( 1.1.72 ) making a reference to the typical protruding lips that a black person has. Not only he is discriminate it by this name.
  •  They also called him ‘‘Barbary Horse’’ (1.1.125) making from him an brown big animal far from the domestic area. How racist and intense is this nickname but at the same time how descriptive it is. Iago describe Othello to his girlfriend’s father, the Senator, as this bestial animal that has sexual appetite.
  •  The last nickname, and the most important one that Othello has is ‘‘The Moor’’(1.2.72), including in the main cover of the book as a complement of the title. It is the most important one because it does not only give us an idea of a black person it also gives as a religious and geographic idea of a Muslim African Black from Mauritania.


This names that he was given all are given with malice and they signify that he is dark skinned and African Black also we know that he is a men for the pronoun that they referred when they talk to him plus the title of the book. This is a way of keeping anonymous the name of the Othello and by analyzing the first act it gives a sense of mystery and how you can picture him in your mind just with reading the racist but in a sense comic names that Shakespeare use to refer to him.