Orientalism in Othello, Act I

If you will recall, my literary comprehension paper suggested that the best way for me to achieve the third level of reading development is to purposely interpret a text from a world perspective and/or theory. As a result, I found the class discussion of Orientalism in Othello as exceedingly helpful because, even though I have picked up on Orientalist characteristics in other texts, I personally have never connected Shakespeare to this particular world perspective. I do not know why this is the case seeing how Shakespeare was alive during the time when there was not that much exposure to non-Western cultures, which resulted in such fantasized Orientalist opinions. However, the class discussion allowed me to finally analyze the various reasons behind Shakespeare’s use of Orientalism, whether it was to criticize or simply incorporate accepted Orientalist views. I personally am torn between these two interpretations of the text seeing how there were not many individuals during Shakespeare's time that were apposed to Orientalism, which makes the likelihood that Shakespeare is apposed to Orientalism rather slim. Yet, since Othello obtains some mild sympathy from the audience for all that has befallen him and his loved ones due to the greater evil of Iago, which is typically the overall purpose of any tragedy, I am slightly swayed to believe that Shakespeare himself does sympathize with Othello and is consequently against Orientalism. Though the degree to which Shakespeare is against Orientalism may be slighter than what would be desired by modern cultures.