In Othello, race is an issue in much the way it would be today. Othello is an important general and so is revered and admired, but at the same time there is resentment because he is a Moor and resentment because he has married a white woman. This fact underlies much of the action of the play even when it is not mentioned directly, but race plays a divisive role just the same. Iago understands the nature of race and the way it affects others, including Othello himself, and he manipulates ideas of race in order to further his plot and also, as part of that effort, to affect how othello views and thinks about the world.
Race affects the plot because it generates tension with certain of the townspeople, allows Iago to manipulate various people, and isolates Othello as the "other" in Venetian society. Race affects Othello's psychology in similar ways, making him feel isolated from others and emphasizing his "differentness" so that 1) he becomes more willing to believe that others see him as inferior, which in turn contributes to his willingness to believe that his wife would deceive him; 2) he becomes more vulnerable to the machinations of Iago as the latter tries to manipulate him; and 3) he is left to cope with his problems alone because he has no one he believes he can speak to about them.
The sexual nature of much of the resentment many feel toward powerful black men like Othello is apparent in the way Iago uses racism as a goad to cause others to do his bidding, as when he calls up to Brabantio,
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe (I.i.97-99).
The Duke turns the same wording on its head when berating Brabantio for his behavior:
If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your son in law is far more fair than black (I.iii.326-328).
Images of blackness and darkness are often used in common conversation to ind
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