Shakespeare's+Moor


 * Shakespeare’s Moor**

One theme consistently reemployed throughout Shakespeare’s plays is that of the Other. The Other is usually characterized as a character that is somehow separated, stigmatized, or noted as being different from the mainstream ideal. Shakespeare used several methods to employ this convention of the Other: race such as that of Shylock and Othello, nationality as in Iachimo, bastardy such as the characters Don John and Edmund, social status such as that belonging to Iago, and deformity, for example, Richard III. Not every Other is characterized as evil, but nonetheless depicted as being somehow different or separated from society.

Othello, the Prince of Morocco, is of distinctly African, or Moorish heritage. Whether these persons were of Negro, Berber, Spanish, or Arab descent is definitely in question. The use of the term Moor also is of importance. The origin of the word Moor comes from the word mauri. Mauri refers to the Berbers who lived in the Roman province of Mauritania, in North Africa.

Why is the Moor prevalent during Shakespeare’s time? What was the importance of or the sources for this new Other in English literature? Shakespeare uses the Moor as being characterized in several ways and used for varied dramatic purposes. Moors were characterized in Elizabethan England as being alternately or even simultaneously noble or monstrous, civil or savage. Being a different race meant, primarily, being an Other, non-English, as well as non-Christian. The convention of Christian art to represent Satan or other devils as being black or dark-skinned also lent another connotation to the reader, viewer, or performer of Shakespeare’s plays.

Moslem Moors, of Arabic origin and having dark skin and hair, conquered North Africa in the seventh and eight centuries C.E., bringing the religion of Islam to that area. The Moors subsequently went out into Spain in the eighth century C.E. With these invasions came the religion of Islam, pre-Islamic culture, and intermarriage. From the eleventh century through the fifteenth century, the Christians re-conquered Spain, with the year 1492 not only marking the discovery of the Americas and the expulsion of the Jews by Ferdinand and Isabella, but the final part of Spain, otherwise known as Granada, being reclaimed from the Moslem Moors. With the reclaiming of Spain came a need for the Orthodoxy of Catholic Christianity. Pope Paul IV’s reference to “that breed of Moors and Jews, those dregs of the earth,” shows how the threat of the re-conquest of Spain by the Moors caused a great widespread fear and racism. As a result of these fears, many Moors inhabiting Spain adopted a more European culture, with many embracing Christianity, at least at surface level, becoming what were later termed Moriscos.

With politics of the late 1500s and early 1600s, not much had changed in terms of enmity. Moors in North Africa were seen as “deadly bretherin” of the Ottoman Turks, and it was not difficult to expand this feeling to the Spanish Moriscos. Racial strife between the Moriscos and the Catholic population characterized the last decades of the 1500s. In 1609, this hatred and fear culminated into the expulsion of some 300,000 Moriscos by King Phillip III of Spain.

International trade and politics of the Elizabethan era also lent a hand in Shakespeare’s depiction of the Moor. Although the Spanish interpretation of the Moslem Moor was most likely a factor in the Elizabethan image, extensive trading contracts and international diplomacy had a fair hand in offsetting the negative stereotype while at the same time perpetuating it. Both England and what we will call Morocco had a great anti-Catholic, anti-Spanish sentiment that bound their relationship further. Although Africa was considered to be a continent of infidels and pagans by many, the political danger of an invasion by Catholic Spain prompted England to forgo the stigma of trading in munitions with Morocco. Blacks from Africa were also first present in England during this time. Although mostly documented as slaves, before the triangular slave trade became institutionalized, there were also many free blacks who came and went throughout Europe.

During trading expeditions, many times English merchant traders would forcibly kidnap native peoples from the African continent and take them back to England. They were oftentimes taught English, and were later used as interpreters during further voyages to the same lands. This displays how the people of the African continent were viewed as being socially inferior by the white, Christian Englishman. These “Moors” who were now living in England were probably put on display to some extent as a kind of curiosity, and therefore, were most likely visible enough to lend an idea to the general English mind.

Christian tradition at this time had the notion that Africans were descendants of Ham, the son of Noah who was cursed for gazing upon the naked body of his father. Also, the identification of Islam with polygamy and legal concubines created an image of a Moor as sexually unrestrained. Othello, the “old black ram” is characterized as preoccupied with “making the beast with two backs” with the “white ewe” Desdemona. In addition, Iago also mentions that he has heard a rumor that Othello is “tupping” his own wife. Always an Other, Shakespeare uses the ideas of the Moor to create effective reflections of Elizabethan society’s ethnocentric view of other cultures.