عطيل...Othello وليم شكسبير...

Quote: Themes and tropes [edit] Othello's racial classification Portrait of Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun, Moorish ambassador to Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, sometimes claimed as an inspiration for Othello.[11]Honigmann questions whether Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun, Moorish ambassador of the Arab King of Barbary to Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, is an inspiration for Othello. He stayed with his retinue in London for several months and occasioned much discussion, might have inspired Shakespeare's play, written only a few years afterwards.[12] Othello is referred to as a "Moor", a term used during the English Renaissance to refer to dark-skinned people in general.[13] "Renaissance representations of the Moor were vague, varied, inconsistent, and contradictory. As critics have established, the term 'Moor' was used interchangeably with such similarly ambiguous terms as 'African', "Ethiopian', 'Negro', and even 'Indian' to designate a figure from different parts of Africa (or beyond) who was either black or Moslem, neither, or both."[14] There is no consensus over Othello's racial classification, but the character is normally performed as a black person, although he was frequently performed as an Arab during the 19th century. In III.III Othello speaks of himself, saying "Haply for I am black" and later in III.III he denounces Desdemona's supposed sin as being "black as mine own face." Desdemona's physical whiteness is otherwise presented in opposition to Othello's dark skin; V.II "that whiter skin of hers than snow." Iago refers to their racial difference when in I.I he tells Brabantio that "an old black ram / is tupping your white ewe". Michael Neill, editor of the Oxford Shakespeare edition, notes that the earliest external references to Othello's colour, (Thomas Rymer's 1693 critique of the play, and the 1709 engraving in Nicholas Rowe's edition of Shakespeare) assume him to be a black man, while the earliest known North African interpretation was not until Edmund Kean's production of 1814.[15] Modern-day readers and theatre directors normally lean towards the "black" interpretation, while North African Othellos are rare.[16] Although the difference appears clear cut, E.A.J. Honigmann, the editor of the Arden Shakespeare edition, concluded that Othello's race is ambiguous. Various uses of the word 'black' (for example, "Haply for I am black") are insufficient evidence, Honigmann argues, since 'black' could simply mean 'swarthy' to Elizabethans.[17] Back then, French, British, and Italian people generally considered anyone who was "darker than snow white" with the term "black". Not just Sub-Saharan Africans were thus called, but anyone swarthy or Arab-looking. To many Europeans, the word "dark" and the word "black" were inter-changeable. Even some dark Caucasians were sometimes called "black."[18] So regarding the Moor Othello, the term "black" would not be conclusive proof necessarily for a Sub-Saharan typical "black" look for him in Shakespeare's mind.[19] Moreover, Iago twice uses the word 'Barbary' or 'Barbarian' to refer to Othello, seemingly referring to the Barbary coast inhabited by the "tawny" Moors. Roderigo calls Othello 'the thicklips', which seems to refer to European conceptions of Sub-Saharan African physiognomy, but Honigmann counters that, arguing that because these comments are all insults, they need not be taken literally.[20]