Shakespeare and Social Constructions:
Using Young Adult Literature
and Popular Culture to Teach
Othello, the Moor of Venice
Introduction
The following chapter provides resources and suggestions for teaching Shakespeare’s
classic Othello with popular culture and young adult literature. The social issues explored in
Othello lend themselves to connections with their contemporary counterparts, manifested
throughout popular culture and continually explored in artistic representations. A responsible
exploration of Shakespeare, however, should balance contemporary connections, which make
the plays ever-relevant classics, with appropriate historical contextualization. Thus, each
resource featured will aim to bridge the cultures, recognizing both Elizabethan and modern
cultural views of the play.
Critical Focus: Social Constructions in Othello
The most prominent social issue in Othello, especially for a modern audience, is race.
Renaissance conceptions of race were, however, likely very different from those a modern
audience-member will bring to the play. In contemporary productions, Othello is often cast
as an African-American, but an Elizabethan audience may not have seen Othello as African.
In first performances, the title character would have been acted by the same stage player who
assumed the roles of Hamlet and Doctor Faustus, the famous Richard Burbage.
Unquestionably, however, Othello represents a cultural ‘other.’ The name, Othello, is itself
an invention of the playwright (2001 McDonald). Surrounding characters continually
comment on the general’s cultural difference to stereotype and demean him. Critics argue
and hypothesize about his possible race, but the fluid racial concepts of the Renaissance
make Othello’s racial or national origin nearly impossible to identify with certainty (2001
McDonald). Whether he would have been or was intended to be Black in our sense, that is, a
dark-skinned individual of probable African descent, is far less relevant than his status as
‘other.’ The controversy over Othello’s race, however, illustrates our modern compulsion to
relate identity to socially constructed categories like race and draws our attention to the
socially constructed nature of race itself. What is clear, however, is that social constructions
of Othello’s status as ‘other’ ascribe roles and innate personality traits to him. These
constructions are eventually internalized by the tragic hero in a terrible self-fulfilling
prophesy that some critics have labeled as confirmatory of the stereotypes themselves. Thus,
many critics have noted the possibility that the play’s message is racist. However, it is
possible to read the play’s final scene not as confirmation of the stereotypes to which Othello
arguably conforms, but as social criticism of the potential for such social constructions to
mould individual concepts of identity, influence behavior, and produce tragic results.
A second force shaping the action of Othello is Renaissance gender construction. The
Renaissance culture of female-mediated homosociality made female chastity and male
jealousy—especially the fear of cuckoldry—common topics in Renaissance drama. In
marriage, women were possessions exchanged in a social contract linking men. The
homosocial bonds established by marriage outweighed those between man and wife. As
well, and perhaps most importantly, a man’s honor was linked to his wife’s virtue.
Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, foregrounds this issue in a scenario with
striking parallels to the plot of Othello. In Much Ado About Nothing, the evil and
manipulative Don Jon exploits his society’s male paranoia to convince an esteemed soldier
that his betrothed is disloyal. Of course, in the comic action, some bumbling clowns stumble
on Don Jon’s plot, providing unlikely remediation and a happy ending. Even in this comedy,
however, the innocent woman whose purity is questioned, simply based on public suspicion,
must fake her own death and be symbolically reborn before marrying. A more disturbing
illustration of the system’s ramifications occurs in The Revenger’s Tragedy. In this
Renaissance drama, a woman who has been raped commits suicide because her honor has
been tarnished. Afterward, her husband and his friends applaud her noble decision. They
idealize her as a model of virtue with grandiloquent, poetic expressions of praise. Were she
to have lived, her husband would have been forced to continue in his marital duties—divorce
was not an option—of sharing his bed with a “spoiled” or “impure” woman. His own honor
would have been contaminated as a result. This culture that encouraged male paranoia of
infidelity and constructed subservient roles for women, treating them as adult children, feeds
the tragic action of Othello as much as issues of race do.
Within these social forces, the protagonists of Othello appear to be, at least in part,
victims of a climate in which they are marginalized: neither is a fully empowered member of
her or his society. At the very least, and however Iago’s role in the action is interpreted, the
socially constructed roles these characters accept and inhabit make them and their
relationship inherently vulnerable.
Fuel
Lyrics by Ani DiFranco
They were digging a new foundation in Manhattan,
and they discovered a slave cemetery there.
May their souls rest easy now that lynching is frowned upon,
and we’ve moved on to the electric chair.
And I wonder who’s gonna be president,
Tweedle Dumb or Tweedle Dumber?
And who’s gonna have the big blockbuster box-office this summer?
How 'bout we put up a wall between the houses and the highway,
and then you can go your way,
and I can go my way.
Except all the radios agree with all the TV's,
and all the magazines agree with all the radios,
and I keep hearing that same damn song everywhere I go.
Maybe I should put a bucket over my head
and a marshmallow in each ear
and stumble around for another dumb numb week
for another hum-drum hit song to appear.
People used to make records,
as in a record of an event:
the event of people playing music in a room.
Now everything is cross-marketing.
It's about sunglasses and shoes
or guns or drugs.
You choose.
We got it rehashed.
We got it half-assed.
We're digging up all the graves, and we're spitting on the past.
And we can choose between the colors of the lipstick on the whores
Cuz we know the difference
between the font of twenty percent more
and the font of teriyaki.
You tell me,
how does that make you feel?
You tell me what's real.
(continued next page)
And they say that alcoholics are always alcoholics,
even when they're dry as my lips for years,
even when they're stranded on a small desert island
with no place in two thousand miles to buy beer.
And I wonder, is he different?
Is he different?
Has he changed?
What he's about.
Or is he just a liar
with nothing to lie about.
Am I headed for the same brick wall?
Is there anything I can do about anything at all?
Except go back to that corner in Manhattan
and dig deeper, dig deeper this time.
Down beneath the impossible pain of our history,
beneath unknown bones,
beneath the bedrock of the mystery,
beneath the sewage system and the path train,
beneath the cobblestones and the water main,
beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals,
beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels,
beneath everything I can think of to think about,
beneath it all,
beneath all get out.
Beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel,
there’s a fire that's just waiting for fuel.
Social Constructions and “Fuel”
Ani DiFranco’s “Fuel” is a model popular culture expression of the theme,
“individual versus society.” In it, the speaker relates a bombardment of manipulative
consumer and popular culture aiming to shape her view of the world and of herself. She
struggles against these external influences, determined to maintain a sense of personal
identity and find the reality beyond the social constructions she views as misleading and
destructive. These lyrics can serve as an introduction to the concept of social constructions
as they appear in Othello: expectations to which the title character eventually succumbs.
Suggested Independent Activity: What does the speaker mean when she says, “You
tell me what’s real”? What does she mean by “real”? How is what she has described to this
point not real? What is the significance of the speaker wanting to shut out the latest hit song?
Why does she want to escape such influences? Do you think it is possible to do so? How is
this important to the meaning of the song? What does the speaker mean by “there’s a fire
that’s just waiting for fuel”? What does the song’s title mean to you?
Patriarch on a Vespa
Lyrics by Metric
Promiscuous makes an entrance
Her mouth is full of questions
Are we all brides to be
Are we all designed to be confined
Buy ourselves chastity belts and lock them
Organize our lives and lose the key
Our faces all resemble dying roses
From trying to fix it
When instead we should break it
We've got to break it before it breaks us
Fear of pretty houses and their porches
Fear of biological wristwatches
Fear of comparison shopping
Dogs on leashes behind fences barking
Pretty little pillows on floral couches
Until our faces all resemble dying roses
Stop trying to fix it
Patriarch on a Vespa
Runs a red and ends up
Crushed under the wheel
Gender Roles and “Patriarch on a Vespa”
Metric’s “Patriarch on a Vespa” rejects the repression of female sexuality among
other gender role prescriptions. The song can pair neatly with Emilia’s similar argument
delivered to Desdemona in Act 4, scene 3 and allow students to assess current gender roles,
expectations, and standards applied to women as they compare to those represented in
Othello.
Suggested Group Activity: Using Metric’s lyrics as a beginning, and having been
encouraged to agree or disagree with the songwriter’s point of view, students should discuss
and give examples of expectations and standards applied to men and women today along
gender lines. What types of behaviors and lifestyles are considered masculine or feminine?
How strictly are gender roles “enforced” in today’s society? That is, what are the
consequences of deviating from gender expectations? (Issues of sexuality may also be
discussed in this activity at the teacher’s discretion.)
Suggested Independent Activity: In a written response, students may compare these
lyrics with Emilia’s speech in Act 4, scene 3 (lines 84-103) to draw conclusions about the
similarities and differences in the two speakers’ arguments. A similar speech to Emilia’s is
given by Barabas in Marlowe’s, The Jew of Malta, and may also be a useful point of
comparison to highlight the ways in which minority groups and women were both viewed as
being less than human. After comparing Emilia’s speech to these lyrics, students may be
prompted to respond to this second comparison with Barabas’ famous speech (upon which
Emilia’s speech is likely modeled). Students may also address current racial prejudices and/
or those directed at Othello through this comparison.
Iago and Bill Cosby’s “Revenge”
The complex social forces and psychological motivations guiding Othello’s
protagonists are pronounced against the play’s legendary, inscrutable villain: the enigmatic
Iago. Especially because “Revenge Tragedy” was a popular sub-genre of Renaissance drama
with familiar conventions, Iago’s puzzling series of false rationales—more confounding as
confidential asides—lend him an unsettling mystique. By consciously toying with convention
and audience expectation, Iago’s dubious motivations also seem to highlight the very
psychological interiority they so artfully simulate.
To emphasize Iago’s paradoxical asides and their effect, a clear contrast can be
supplied using a parallel, scheming “revenger” in Bill Cosby’s appropriately titled stand-up
routine, “Revenge.” In this routine, young Cosby plots to take revenge on his neighbor,
Junior Barnes, by establishing trust in an absurdly elaborate and lengthy false friendship.
Just as Iago manipulates Othello and the other characters by demonstrating his
trustworthiness, Cosby insinuates himself into Junior Barnes’ confidence to strike the more
venomously when the time is right—with a perfect snowball.
Suggested Independent Activity: After listening to “Revenge,” students may be
asked to remember a time they wished for, attempted, or successfully enacted revenge. They
should then revisit the text of Iago’s asides to identify his motivation. When students have
successfully identified several stated motives, they should complete a compare/ contrast
Venn-diagram to explore parallels between the two “revengers” and their duplicitous
approaches. Students should use these notes to draw conclusions about the possible
significance of Iago’s unclear motives to the meaning of the play.
Symbolism and The Dark Knight
Another apt comparison to Othello’s vice-like villain could be drawn from more
recent popular culture: from the 2008 film, The Dark Knight. As Iago does, the Joker
character in this film provides several compelling explanations for his psychopathic behavior,
ranging from psychological to political (or anti-political—anarchic). Like a vice character
from a medieval morality play, however, the most likely explanation for the Joker’s actions
seems to be his pure delight in evil, his utter glee in chaos. In this sense, the Joker is more a
symbol than a “real” character. That is, like Iago, he is not, perhaps, a psychologically
developed, fully human character, but a personified abstraction in the morality play tradition:
evil incarnate. In Othello, Iago’s symbolic function could arguably serve a parallel to
irrational, blind hatred and fear of the ‘other’ and to the false rationales involved in the
process of “othering” itself.
Both texts are replete with symbolism. Aside from character parallels, The Dark
Knight shares Othello’s use of the highly symbolic dark / light and black / white binary. Yet
more useful to teaching Othello, the film even explains symbolic cultural associations with
dark and light through Bruce Wayne’s childhood experiences and his fear of the unknown.
The Dark Knight, therefore, would be extremely useful in introducing the socially
constructed nature of these symbols as they represent cultural difference in Othello.
Suggested Group Activity: After viewing portions of the mock news programs,
interviews, and entertainment journalism provided with The Dark Knight’s “Special
Features,” students should write and perform a media coverage scene to investigate Othello’s
implications. They may, for instance, stage news interviews with characters to get their
reactions and explanations of the tragic events, create a panel of celebrity experts to discuss
the Venetian popular reaction to Othello and Desdemona’s marriage and share gossip about
the wedding, or create a media response to any significant event in the play.
Concepts of the ‘Other’ and Copper Sun
Socially constructed, symbolic associations with color can be further explored
through comparisons to Sharon Draper’s award-winning young adult novel, Copper Sun.
Knee-jerk fear and distaste generated by physical difference is expressed in two cultural
contexts. Amari’s tribe is fearful of the men with “skin the color of goat’s milk” (4), and
Polly considers the physical features she notes in African slaves to be ugly precisely because
they are different, unfamiliar. In Othello, cultural stereotypes based on such differences
pervade the text, aligning the Moor with associations of barbarism, violence, and
unrestrained passion, among other caricatures. In Copper Sun, Polly also articulates a
fascination with the strange Amari upon first meeting her, inviting a parallel to Desdemona’s
fascination with Othello and his fantastic but terrible stories of foreign worlds. Taken
together, these parallel treatments of cultural difference in these texts can be used to illustrate
the paired constructions of ‘the other’ and the social process of ‘othering.’ The first examples
define ‘the demonic other,’ the view of culturally different groups as being barbaric, fearful,
and threatening. Desdemona and Polly’s fascination with ‘the exotic other,’ manifested in an
aestheticization or fetishization of cultural strangeness, may seem less demeaning to the
group in question than its demonic counterpart. In neither of these constructions, however, is
the ‘other’ seen to be fully human.
The interracial friendship between Amari and Polly in Copper Sun, however, serves
to deconstruct both socially constructed conceptions of the ‘other.’ Traumatic and brutal as
Amari’s treatment is, her experiences do not result in her internalization of socially
constructed roles, in large part due her friendship and common struggle toward freedom with
Polly. Amari’s experience provides a stark contrast to Othello’s internalization of his
society’s stereotypes for the Moor, which he accepts in subtle ways throughout the play until,
in his final speech, he identifies with them entirely. The rationale he delivers for his suicide
illustrates the widely studied psychological phenomenon of cultural dissonance experienced
by minority, especially immigrant, groups in their struggle to reconcile dual cultural
identities.
National Types and Humanizing Universals in Persepolis
Similar themes and parallels can be drawn from Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel,
Persepolis. Satrapi’s aim in the novel is to deconstruct conceptions of the ‘other,’ to
humanize Iranians who, in media discourse and the global imagination, have been reduced to
stereotypes like ‘terrorist’ and ‘Islamic fundamentalist.’ To demonstrate the absurdity of
these simplistic perceptions, she sets textbook history of the infamous Iranian Revolution and
the Iran-Iraq war against her universal childhood experiences and adolescent rebellions.
The theme of ‘othering’ in Persepolis can be used to update the concept for students
in a more contemporary setting. The novel contains frequent media critiques which can lead
to students’ exploration of current media representations as they impact perceptions of
national ‘types.’ As well, the latter half of the novel contains several examples of cultural
dissonance experienced by Satrapi’s character after encountering prejudice toward and
stereotypes of her native culture while living in Europe. Representations of false national
types, cultural stereotypes, and cultural dissonance can all provide useful comparisons to
highlight these concepts in Othello. Interrogations of cultural gender constructions also
appear prominently in Persepolis and can be used to explore the impact of Renaissance
gender roles on the action of Othello. Satrapi’s exploration of media constructions connects
all of these issues to contemporary culture.
Interracial Romance and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
The landmark contemporary representation of social resistance to interracial romance,
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, can similarly update issues explored in Othello for a modern
audience. In this film, which was controversial at the time of its release in 1967, an idealistic
young woman plans to marry a distinguished African-American doctor, and, based on her
liberal upbringing, does not anticipate meeting resistance to the idea from her progressiveminded parents. Her parents, however, while they do not object to the interracial relationship
themselves, do fear for the couple’s future in a prejudiced society. Aside from this parallel to
Othello, students may observe that both John Prentice and Othello are nearly super-human:
perfect, model men of prominent stature in the society.
Suggested Activity: (These issues may be explored in writing independently or in a
group discussion format.) Why is it important that both John Prentice and Othello hold
positions of esteem in their respective societies? How might the plot of either text change if
John Prentice were, for instance, a retail clerk? If Othello were an ordinary soldier?
Additional Resources
“Shakespeare—Well I never knew that!”
The British Broadcasting Company’s website provides a list of fun and educational
historical facts about Shakespeare on this section of their site. Included are biographical
facts, surprising facts about the Elizabethan theatre, and entertaining facts about what it
would have been like to live in Shakespeare’s day. This overview can be used to introduce
students to Renaissance culture and Elizabethan theatre.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/articles/2008/03/31/shakespeare_fun_facts_fe
ature.shtml
Othello Interactive Web Quizzes
This section of the Fun Trivia website provides five trivia quizzes on the play with
topics ranging from character trivia to quote identification. These short, interactive web
quizzes allow students to review significant events and ideas from the play in an entertaining
format.
http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/literature/shakespeare/othello.html
“Black Women and interracial dating.”
On this discussion page of The Washington Post’s website (posted February 25,
2010), author Karyn Folan answers questions and addresses issues related to interracial
dating based on research for her recently published book on the same subject, Don’t Bring
Home a White Boy. She provides expert social, psychological, and historical contexts for
prejudices and reactions to contemporary interracial relationships from all perspectives—she
notes and attempts to explain differences in attitudes toward interracial couples based on
gender as well.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ content/discussion/2010/02/25/
DI2010022502106.html
Suggested Questions for Class Discussion: How would the play be different if
Othello and Desdemona’s races were reversed? Would their relationship be more or
less socially acceptable? What does that tell us about both gender and racial
constructions?
“Shakespeare’s Colors: Race and Culture in Elizabethan England.”
In this 2002 web article, James Schultz explores Shakespeare’s cultural view of race
and suggests the significance of his racial representations in plays such as Othello and The
Tempest as they relate to the playwright’s views of colonialism.
http://www.odu.edu/ao/instadv/quest/Shakespeare.html
Conclusion
A full understanding of Shakespearean drama requires proper contextualization
within Renaissance culture. That is, we must understand how an Elizabethan audience would
have viewed the work and avoid reading Othello entirely through our modern social view of
race and gender issues. However, part of what makes plays like Othello “classics” is
precisely the continued relevance of the issues they contain to our modern experience. In
providing proper historical context, we recognize that in Elizabethan England, Othello was
popular culture just as the latest blockbuster film is for us today. Thus, to connect the play to
our continuing exploration of racial and gender issues in songs, films, and popular novels can
only bring us closer to the spirit in which Othello was written and first received. Our
understanding of these issues continues to evolve as we engage them through art, and
students should be made to understand the dialogic function such popular art plays in our
explorations of society and ourselves. The resources provided in this chapter aim to begin
such connections for students, but they are only a sampling of an array of possibilities. As
well, they are a snapshot of shifting cultural attitudes. Teachers reading, therefore, are
encouraged to explore the culture around them to find connections to the classics for their
students as they are continually produced and replaced. The best resource for popular culture
connections is likely students themselves. Ask students to bring their own popular culture
artifacts illustrating race and gender issues, and let the discussion begin.
Bibliography
Cosby, B. (1967). “Revenge.” Revenge. Warner Brothers Records. CD.
The Dark Knight. (2008). Dir. Christopher Nolan. Warner Brothers Pictures. DVD.
Difranco, A. (1995). “Fuel.” Little Plastic Castle. Righteous Babe Records. CD.
Draper, S. (2006). Copper Sun. New York: Simon Pulse.
Folan, K. (2010). “Black Women and interracial dating.” The Washington Post.com.
Retrieved 1 May 2010 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/discussion/2010/02/25/ DI2010022502106.html
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967). Dir. Stanley Kramer. Columbia Pictures. DVD.
Metric. (2005). “Patriarch on a Vespa.” Live it out. Last Gang Records. CD.
Othello Quizzes and Othello Trivia—Fun Trivia. (2006). Fun Trivia.com. Website.
Accessed 1 May 2010 from
http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/literature/shakespeare/othello.html
Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon.
Schultz, J. (2002). “Shakespeare’s Colors: Race and Culture in Elizabethan England.” Quest,
3.1. Retrieved 1 May 2010 from
http://www.odu.edu/ao/instadv/quest/Shakespeare.html
Shakespeare, W. (2001). Othello. Ed. Russ McDonald. New York: Penguin.
“Shakespeare—Well I never knew that!” (2008). BBC.co.uk. Website. Retrieved 1 May
2010 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/articles/2008/03/31/
shakespeare_fun_facts_feature.shtml