Essay on The Moor in the Works of William Shakespeare

The Sources and Representations of the Moor in the Works of Shakespeare One theme consistently reemployed throughout Shakespeares plays is that of the Other. The Other is usually characterized as a character that is somehow separated, stigmatized, or noted as being different from the mainstream ideal. For the Elizabethan England of Shakespeares time, it may have been a self-defensive maneuver against the encroachment of something which threatened too close to home (Bartels 450). Bryant lists several methods used to employ this convention of the Other: race such as that of Shylock and Aaron, nationality as in Iachimo, bastardy such as the characters Don John and Edmund, social status such as that belonging to Iago, and†¦show more content†¦Whether the term Moor had a definition of white or black, of pagan or Muslim religion, or area of origin seems to be interchangeable when one notes the differences between Shakespeares four characters. Sources of the Elizabethan image of the Moor most likely came from sources such as classical descriptions, act ual encounters, travel narratives, and literary conventions (Bartels 433). Why is the Moor prevalent during Shakespeares time? What was the importance of or the sources for this new Other in English literature? Shakespeare uses the Moor as being characterized in several ways and used for varied dramatic purposes. In order to have a full understanding of the Moorish character in Shakespeares works, one must look to historys relations and depictions of the Moor and how it influenced Shakespeare. Moors were characterized in Elizabethan England as being alternately or even simultaneously noble or monstrous, civil or savage. Being a different race meant, primarily, being an Other, non-English, as well as non-Christian (Braxton 8). The term Moor, as I have noted before, was fairly vague in definition. 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