The Role of Race in Shakespeare's Othello

Iago was traditionally pictured on a white horse trampling moors underfoot in the 10th century Saint Iago may give that figure an agenda which needs to be understood as racial. In Titus Andronicus Aaron has at least as many of the qualities of Yago as he does Othello and the prince of Morocco one of Portia's impossible suitors in the merchant of Venice his blackness seems a clear visual shorthand for his unsusability as a husband. If you want to look at moors in other works you might think about Shakespeare's own moors in Peele's battle of Alcazar George Peele the battle of Alcazars is all used to show how Shakespeare