The topics cover love, jealousy, tragedy, deceit, tragedy, friendship, manipulation, violence, racism. There are themes, concepts, values, attitudes, and symbolism put forward in both texts. This proves that the idea of racism continues to transcend in time, allowing the changing audiences to relate to the problems within. However, when the hawk, a black person, is caged up and separated from the white pigeon, white person, the image of a black person does not fit into the white society. During the film when it starts, the hawks can be defined as dark, powerful, and proud. Another is a black hawk that juxtaposes the white pigeons. The color black often provides us the impression that it is dirty and unclean and illegal drugs give us the same picture. One of which is to have a black character to play the “drug dealer” to reinforce the racial stereotype of most drug dealers are black and upholding Shakespeare hallmark technique of Appearance vs Reality.Īnother reason he chooses to play with a black personality is perhaps merely because of how color is interpreted. In Othello, Othello is being labeled as “the Moor,” which according to the collins dictionary “the term ‘Moor’ referred to dark-skinned people in general, used interchangeably with similarly ambiguous terms as ‘African’, ‘Ethiopian’, ‘Negro’, and even ‘Indian’ to designate a figure from Africa.” Similarly in O, Nelson uses many different symbolisms to explore racial tension between the white and the black. Whereas Nelson uses cinematic techniques as the majority of his audiences are teenagers and movies are the most popular enjoyment in modern-day.

Shakespeare uses poetic and dramatic techniques as English literature was the main sole enjoyment during the Elizabethan time period. However, Shakespeare and Nelson choose to use different techniques to explore this issue. Racism is a major issue that exists in both our modern-day society and in the Elizabethan society where the play took place. Tim Nelson has also effectively encapsulated the same universally significant theme of Race throughout his film ‘O’ through the use of various language and film techniques. Shakespeare extensively uses dramatic irony to highlight the fact that Othello evidently has a fatal flaw which regards his appearance vs reality. Othello & ‘O’ features a tragic hero whose fatal flaws result in their demise.

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. Both play and film represent Othello as a Tragic Hero. The texts continue to transcend time as the themes within still relate to modern-day issues expressing the importance and relevance of the narrative to changing times. Although both texts show significant differences being the time frames, many similarities are also evident, exemplified through two main values being race and Appearance vs Reality. A Tim Nelson appropriation of the play Othello into a film from 2001 took a modern-day approach, allowing the play to suit the audience of the 21st century. Since then, many appropriations of the famous tragedy have been created. It was an exciting time in the 1600s as the famous tragedy Othello was written by William Shakespeare was introduced to the world.

Othello race quotes