"Othello" is Shakespeare's tale of lust, power, jealousy and racism.
...the word 'race' in our contemporary usage does not exist in the plays; indeed, the word only appeared for the first time in English in the sixteenth century, so the range of meanings now attached to it was simply not available in the language at the time Shakespeare was writing. These meanings have gradually accrued since the early seventeenth century, in step with the systematic expansion of British and European economic power overseas. 'Racism' is the corollary of imperialism and colonialism - the racism which denies the humanity of its victims becomes a 'necessity' during periods of violent enslavement, conquest and expansion. Susan Leech, Shakespeare in the Classroom: What's the matter?
(London, Open University Press, 1992) p. 81 http://www.rsc.org.uk/othello/teachers/racism.html
Shakespeare develops his characterization of "valiant Othello" far beyond that of the conventional stereotype. Yet there are moments when Othello's actions do fulfill the "erring barbarian" image. This is particularly the case in Act 4, where he loses consciousness in a frenzy of jealousy, vows to "chop" Desdemona into "messes" after listening in on the conversation between Iago and Cassio, and behaves viciously by striking Desdemona in public.
One defense of Othello's behavior here is to say that it is a triumph of Iago's callous manipulation of him, combined with the Moor's "tragic readiness to accept the negative, oversimplified stereotype of himself"; but Othello's degrading performance is almost bound to alienate the audience, Jacobean or modern. By the finale of the play, Othello is split between the identity he has tried to maintain as an "honorary white" in Venice where the Senate has appropriated his military "services" and even, in opposition to Brabantio, condoned his marriage to a white woman and his pervasive sense of himself as an African outsider.
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