Things to Know

About Shakespeare’s Othello

What is a villain?

What is “the Other”?

Dialectics…

What does “Moor” mean?

The Ottoman Empire

The Fall of Constantinople (1453)

What was Venice?

Pretty pictures for you!

More Venice…

Venetian Masks

Original Doge

Cyprus

So, overall:

– Moors: Would have held an exotic appeal and excited a certain fear in the London audience.

– Ottoman Empire: a force that pushed Islam into the European sphere and caused fear to arise in some Londoners

– Venice: Land of the rich and the wily. Machiavelli’s The Prince would come to mind, as would Shakespeare’s previous play, The Merchant of Venice and its Jewish character, Shylock.

– Both the Moors and the Venetians would hold a bit of the appeal/fear of alterity for the London audience.