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Black and white

Black and white. symbolism in Othello. Othello and Iago Ironic comparison and contrast Othello: black inside but white outside at the beginning Iago: white outside but black inside throughout the play Challenge the general ideas in Elizabethan society :

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Black and white

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  1. Black and white symbolism in Othello

  2. Othello and Iago • Ironic comparison and contrast • Othello: black inside but white outside at the beginning • Iago: white outside but black inside throughout the play • Challenge the general ideas in Elizabethan society : • - Black people are bad and white people are good. • - Black people are below white people.

  3. 2. Othello and Desdemona • The change from white into black • Othello: has changed himself from white (noble mind) into black (jealous mind) by the manipulation of Iago. • Desdemona: misunderstood by Othello that she has changed from white (innocence) into black (has an affair with Cassio), but indeed, she’s a pure lady throughout the play. • This conveys the ideas: • - The decline of a hero by being jealous. • Othello’s distrust of Desdemona

  4. 3. White handkerchief The white handkerchief is a symbolic of purity that Desdemona has. But Iago uses it in terms of blackness and evil to manipulate Othello to believe her wife has a so-called affair with Cassio. Iago metaphorically, soils the handkerchief.

  5. 4. Black and white animal Iago often refers to Othello as an animal with reductive and negative connotations. At the start of the play, when Iago describes Othello’s match with Desdemona to Brabantio, he uses crude animal imagery, “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe (I.I. 88-89)”, introducing the notion of light and dark, white and black, which will come in to contrast as the theme of racism is developed throughout the play. Iago offers another striking animal image when he chastises Brabantio for dismissing the two visitors (himself and Roderigo) as drunk, by calling Othello “a Barbary horse”. Iago is again promoting Othello as a dark, savage animal.

  6. 5. Light and darkness Many key scenes in the play are set at night. Desdemona runs away under the cover of darkness to marry Othello and she is killed by Othello at night time in the final act. Othello’s first entrance occurs at night, and in the final act, the murder of Desdemona. When Othello decides to kill Desdemona he says, the metaphor, “Put out the light, and then put out the light”. This foreshadows the death of Desdemona and Othello’s downfall from the light into darkness.

  7. 6. Heaven and hell Desdemona and Iago Heaven is normally thought of as a place surrounded with whiteness. In the play, Desdemona is represented as an angel and associated with heaven to the audience. It is not just because of her race and upper social class but more importantly, because of her purity and innocence. Helland the devil are often shown as black. Iago as a satanic figure who uses the evils of hell to corrupt Othello and send him to hell (for murder and suicide).

  8. THE END By. Diana & Mary

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