The Alienation of the White-masked Moorin Othello

Abstract

Featuring the only black protagonist in William Shakespeare’s plays, Othello (1603) is distinct from any other Shakespearean tragedies. Called the “noble Moor” of Venice, Othello discovers a place for himself in the dominant white order as a general, winning recognition as a noble man. At the same time, however, he is dragged down to an ‘inferior’ status because of his ethnic identity as a “Moor.” He tries hard to assimilate in order to resolve this dilemma, but this effort distresses him and makes him feel alienated, both psychologically and socially. This agony of Othello can be explained through the framework of Frantz Fanon’s theories about alienation of black people, who suggests that the alienation of black people owes to two reasons: a racist society that supports various myths of blackness, and by black people themselves who accept these fabricated ideologies without properly questioning them. This article attempts to explain the pain of Othello by adapting Fanon’s framework, and suggest ways in which black alienation maybe confronted and overturned.