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How would an Elizabethan audience have received the elopement of Desdemona with Othello and Brabantio's suspicion that witchcraft had been used on...

It is difficult to know exactly what an Elizabethan audience would have thought, but there would have been prejudices and fears about “Moors” like Othello. Perhaps racism would have made viewers initially side with Brabantio, who cannot comprehend why his daughter Desdemona would marry Othello “If she in chains of magic were not bound.”

The first scene of Othello refers to the protagonist as “the Moor” and features several of the most racist characters in the play. Roderigo and Iago plot against him and attempt to turn Brabantio against the man who eloped with Desdemona. However, when Othello actually appears, he speaks with confidence and calmness. It becomes apparent that he is well-respected, in spite of the previous racist remarks.


Othello and Desdemona explain “what drugs, what charms, / What conjuration and what mighty magic” made her fall in love with him. It would certainly be a stereotype that a foreigner like Othello would be superstitious, but Othello is Christian and does not use sorcery to win Desdemona. They both admit that they simply fell in love during visits to her and her father.


However, Othello does give Desdemona a handkerchief that he either imbues or pretends to imbue with supernatural significance. He says that an Egyptian “charmer” gave the item to his mother to keep his father in love with her. Still, Othello seems to be speaking symbolically rather than literally because at this point, he thinks that Desdemona has given away this token of their love to Cassio.


Ultimately, Othello both fulfills and dispels contemporary stereotypes about Africans and other foreigners. Unlike some racist myths, he is more interested in Desdemona spiritually than sexually, and he is not naturally jealous. He does not show any interest in magic until later, when he almost seems to call on evil spirits: “Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!” However, Othello does generally imitate stereotypes of Moorish warriors being brave, noble, and violent-tempered. It is possible Elizabethan audiences would have assumed Othello used magic and fell into other clichés, but they also might have been ignorant about these stereotypes or even more open-minded than we give them credit for.

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