Treatment to Turks in Shakespeare's Othello

The poor view interpreted of the Turks was in part because of the relentlessness with which the Turks were pushing into eastern Europe. The western sandwich Europeans precept the Turks as a threat, but at the kindred time, the Elizabethans were curious about(predicate) this threat and wanted to know wherefore the Ottoman Empire was so successful. The Turks were seen as infidels, and they were also seen as "creatures of boundless cruelty, holding no act of violence also extreme" (Papp and Kirkland 53). Among the characteristics ascribed to the Turks in Shakespe atomic number 18's time were stubbornness, lustfulness, and barbarism.

In Othello, the Turks ar the enemy, and they are referred to again and again collectively as "the Turk." Othello says to Desdemona, "Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk" (II.i.147), implying that the Turk is a liar. The ease with which such attitudes are used simply by raising the word "Turk" shows that these attitudes were plethoric in this time, and in this short-change, no direct explanations are offered as to why the Turk is not to be trusted and is the enemy. Indeed, the role of the Turk as enemy is merely assumed, so much so that patent denunciation of the Turk is not necessary. The mere that the Turk is the enemy in the fight is sufficient, but clearly Shakespeare is using the fact that Turks are not trusted anyway and that the Ottoman Empire was seen as a threat to Christianity as a reason for telling this stor

Though curious, the English were generally ill-informed and xenophobic. They often lumped all dark-skinned peoples together under a single name, completely oblivious to, or uninterested in, geographical and physical differences. The terms "Moor," "blackamoor," "Ethiope," and "Negro" were interchangeable, despite the fact that these peoples spanned the African continent (Papp and Kirkland 55).

The source for Othello was Giraldi Cinthio, a sixteenth century source whose work was not translated into English until 1753.

One of his stories, called a refreshful though it is actually a collection of stories, was "Disdemona of Venice and the Moorish Captain," from the author's Gli Hecatommithi (the news report is from Decade 3, Story 7), and it served as the model for William shakespeare's Othello. The story and the play both center on Othello, the Moor who is also a brave soldier and leader, and his wife, Disdemona in the original, Desdemona in the play. In both instances, a trusted underling uses his wiles to create jealousy in the moor and to cause him to destroy his wife and himself. There are differences between the villains in the two pieces, the Ensign in Cinthio, and Iago in Shakespeare. Neely states that Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi probably provided Shakespeare with its theme and organizing principle as well as with its plot:

Papp, Joseph and Elizabeth Kirkland. Shakespeare Alive! New York: Bantam, 1988.

More than one of these explorers saw only what they wanted to see. Prejudiced by centuries-old myths and childhood stories about strange African lands, a ship's captain might have a bun in the oven himself that he really had encountered such monsters and savages walking about the tumble-down shore (Papp and Kirkland 56-57).

When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,

The unfolding of the play presents the viewer with the consider of a great man seduced into mistrusting all the ideals and beliefs that have previou
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