Contrasting Notions of the Outsider in The Merchant of Venice and Othello

The captivating effect of the mysterious and the strange upon the human imagination is a quality that has been exploited by storytellers since the advent of storytelling itself. As such, master dramatist William Shakespeare, in the stories he brought to life upon the stage, has crafted entire worlds, and many famous characters therein, around this enticing notion of “otherness”. Thus, theatre patrons who had never been to Venice, and in all likelihood would never get the chance, could be transported there for the mere cost of admission, and characters of strange appearance and custom could be seen and wondered at without risk of actual confrontation. Of course Shakespeare did not employ this “foreign” aesthetic only as a mere gimmick to sell tickets, but rather, Shakespeare’s genius utilized the public’s fascination with the “other” as a means of communicating something much more three-dimensional.
This becomes evident when looking at Shakespeare’s Othello, and The ...