The Rhetoric of Black and White in Othello

Abstract

black in our language and literature had reached explosive pitch, I found the preparation of Othello arduous but illuminating exercise. The repeated use of the terms black and white, with various but always polarized meanings, and the relationship of those terms other suggested and dramatized elements of the play required, indeed demanded, a full explication of the terms and of Shakespeare's use of them in Othello. Such explication suggests that the complex and confusing values of black and are used reinforce the theme of man's tragic blindness in Othello. The terms black and have been complex and confusing since the beginning of the language, and Shakespeare seems have fully exploited their complexity within Othello. According the OED, the origin of the word black is obscure, but seems be related the verb Blaekan, to burn, or scorch, and is used for that color of charcoal which is the total absorption, or the total absence of light; however, the original term, blac, is so close bl4c, meaning shining white-the total reflection or presence of light-that the meanings of the two are not always distinguishable,' even by context. This early confusion of the literal, denotative meanings of the terms is a vivid precursor of possible confusions available by Shakespeare's day when both black and could be accurately used for a wide variety of specific denotations, each with its own range of connotations. Shakespeare not only employed various meanings of the terms and their connotations literally and metaphorically, but also persistently applied the connotations of one meaning of black another meaning of black. In addition, the conflated and confusing values of black that resulted from this treatment are heightened by a similar treatment of the opposite values of white, or, more often, fair. Within Othello, black is used with five explicit denotations, and or fair is posed in each instance, either explicitly or by suggestion, as the opposite quality. First, black is used as a color designation for the darkest hue, an old black ram (I. i. 88)2; white, as the opposite, designates the lightest hue: white ewe (I. i. 89). Second, black. is used designate a Moor, a Negro, one of