Echoes of Cervantes in Othello

This essay argues that elements of Cervantes's life and work find echoes in Othello. It begins with a consideration of Algiers, where Cervantes was imprisoned from 1575-1580, along with thousands of other Christian slaves captured by Muslim pirates. The author examines the status of renegades:...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New England theatre journal 2022-01, Vol.33, p.1-16
Main Author: Falocco, Joe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British & Irish literature
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616)
Christianity
Christians
Cultural identity
Emancipation of slaves
English literature
Islam
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Muslims
Piracy
Religion
Religious conversion
Shakespeare plays
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Slavery
Spanish literature
Writers
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Summary:This essay argues that elements of Cervantes's life and work find echoes in Othello. It begins with a consideration of Algiers, where Cervantes was imprisoned from 1575-1580, along with thousands of other Christian slaves captured by Muslim pirates. The author examines the status of renegades: Christian prisoners who converted to Islam to gain freedom and (in many cases) to become pirates themselves. The essay then compares the fate of these renegades to that of Othello. Like the author Leo Africanus, Shakespeare's Moor was born a Muslim, captured into slavery, and converted to Christianity in order to earn his freedom. As with the renegades of Algiers and the Moriscos of Spain, the religious sincerity of such converts remained suspect. The essay then compares Algiers to the multicultural setting of Cyprus. It studies the island against the historical backdrop of the battle of Lepanto, where Cervantes served, and which Shakespeare used as inspiration for the military action in his tragedy. Finally, the essay examines the similarities between Cervantes's "La historia del cautivo and Othello, with a particular emphasis on the characters of Brabantio and Agi Morato. The author concludes that both these works take place in a Mediterranean world where religious and ethnic identities are mutable and fluid. Interpretations of Othello that acknowledge this cultural instability have the potential to change how Shakespeare's play is received.
ISSN:1050-9720