Neither Man nor Beast

The title of my exhibit is “Neither Man nor Beast” due to its exploration of the European views of “the other” as both man and monster, and the role that these views play in William Shakespeare’s Othello.

            Within the play, it is made clear that Othello is shown a significantly lower amount of respect due to the color of his skin and his country of origin. However, in addition, comparisons are made to suggest that Moor is synonymous with animal. Othello is referred to, through the use of figurative language, as an animal such as a ram or a dog. While Europeans did not necessarily believe that Moors were animals, they did understand that men still shared the same human form, they failed also to see them as people.

            The texts I have included, individually, show the different levels at which Europeans understood the Moors. Collectively, these books work to suggest that Europeans during Shakespeare’s time not only viewed Moors as lesser men, but that they saw them as creatures that fell somewhere on the spectrum between man and beast. By calling attention to the Europeans’ ambiguous understanding of those disparate from them, attention is also thus called to the true extent of racism that existed in Early Modern Europe.