Introduction
Literary works are not produced in a vacuum; rather, they are often based on the surrounding reality and reflect social and cultural norms prevailing in the time and place in which they are written. Since social norms tend to change over time, it may be difficult for a modern reader to understand and appreciate the value of works produced centuries ago. Sometimes, the authors’ personal experiences can also be reflected in their works and constitute a great part of the meaning embedded in their books.
Therefore, to make inferences about literary works, the reader should be familiar with the context in which they were created. This paper aims to explore the background of Sophocles’s Antigone and Shakespeare’s Othello. Written in the fifth century BC and the seventeenth century, respectively, these works may be difficult to understand for a contemporary reader without knowledge of their historical context. The background knowledge allows for comprehending the role of Othello’s race in his murder of Desdemona and the underlying political reason for the conflict between Creon and Antigone.
Background of Shakespeare’s Othello
Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, Othello, in 1603, when the Elizabethan era was coming to an end, and Venice was an important trade city and the target of the Turks’ conquest. The plot narrates a story of a Moorish general, Othello, who is deceived by his ensign, Iago, into the belief that his wife, Desdemona, is unfaithful to him. The proof of Desdemona’s infidelity is dubious, but Othello believes it and kills his wife. After that, Iago’s deceit is revealed, and Othello deeply regrets his mistake and commits suicide. The audience of the play can be confused by how easily Othello, a noble warrior, and a loving husband, believes Iago’s lies and smothers his beloved wife. However, the context of the tragedy helps shed light on Othello’s motives.
Shakespeare chose Venice as the setting for many of his plays, including Othello. The choice of this location was not arbitrary: it was an important trade city, known for its diverse racial and ethnic composition and various vices, in which Venetians indulged themselves. However, in Othello, Shakespeare focused on foreign stereotypes and depicted Venetia as “a cosmopolitan yet not welcoming city” (Potter 212). Indeed, in Shakespeare’s times, Venetia was a city that welcomed people of various origins, mainly for trade purposes. It was “modern and cosmopolitan long before most other nations,” but foreigners there were “both privileged and restricted” (Holderness 27).
It means that the city strongly encouraged foreigners to participate in trade but prevented them from becoming an integrative part of the Venetian society. As a result, although aliens were present in Venice in abundance, they were regarded as outsiders.
In Othello, the main character is the Moor, which places him in a position of an outsider concerning others. In Venice, a Moor could denote several related concepts. It could refer to either all Africans or “the inhabitants of the whole North African littoral” (Holderness 47). Sometimes, the term “Moor” was applied to all darker-skinned people or, more specifically, to “the Berber-Arab people of the part of North Africa” (Holderness 47).
Finally, this word was occasionally used from a religious perspective to denote Muslims (Holderness 47). Regardless of the exact meaning, the Moor, a darker-skinned person who probably adhered to the Islamic religion, was an outsider in Venetia, a city of white people professing Christianity.
Although Othello, being the Moor, is doomed to be a stranger among Venetians, he struggles to become part of this society. To show this, Shakespeare set the stage for the play’s events against the backdrop of war between Venice and the Turks. The war between Venice and the Ottoman Empire indeed took place in the sixteenth century, and Shakespeare was likely to reflect the Battle of Lepanto in Othello. However, his narration, according to which Othello rescued the Cyprus thanks to the storm that ruined the Turks’ fleet, was “alternative history” because the actual battle looked different (Potter 316).
Nevertheless, Othello’s victory in this battle is significant to the plot. Even though Othello is a Moor, he fights for Venice in this war and wins, thus proving his loyalty to the Christian Venice. His victory is celebrated, which incites Iago’s jealousy and desire to destroy Othello.
Othello probably understands his otherness, which makes him vulnerable to Iago’s deceit. In the beginning, Othello has to prove to senators that Desdemona indeed loves him and is not forced to be with him by witchcraft. This episode implies that, for Venetians, it was strange that a white Christian woman could fall in love with a Moor. Although Othello loves Desdemona and has faith in her love for him, he seems to be unsure deep inside that Desdemona will not choose someone of her ethnic background over Othello.
Therefore, when Iago plants the seed of doubt in Othello’s mind, Othello readily accepts the assumption of Desdemona’s infidelity. He believes that she could prefer fair-skinned Cassio to him, a darker-skinned Moor. When Othello realizes that he killed Desdemona by mistake, he murders himself, thus associating himself “with the Other, the enemy of Venice; the stranger, the alien; the malignant, turbaned, and circumcised: the Muslim” (Holderness 54). Thus, the fact that Othello was a Moor, coupled with Venetians’ attitudes toward foreigners in the sixteenth century, explains Othello’s credulity regarding Iago’s deceit.
Background of Sophocles’s Antigone
Antigone is the last play in Sophocles’s Theban trilogy. The events described in Antigone continue the story narrated in the Aeschylean Seven against Thebes. The play begins after brothers Polynices and Eteocles kill each other, fighting on the opposite sides in a civil war. Creon, the ruler of Thebes, issues a decree, according to which only Eteocles can be buried, while Polynices’s body should be left on the battlefield.
However, Antigone, Polynices and Eteocles’s sister, buries her brother against Creon’s order. After she gets caught, Creon commands that Antigone be confined in a tomb and die of starvation. Although many people try to dissuade Creon from his decision, he remains adamant. As a result, a chain of deaths follows: Antigone hangs herself; then her fiancé Haemon commits suicide, and his mother, Eurydice, also kills herself after losing her only son. For understanding who is right in the conflict between Antigone and Creon, the reader should be familiar with political thoughts prevailing in Athens in the times when the play was written.
When reading Antigone, the modern audience may assume that the conflict in the play is between the laws of gods and the laws of the state. However, this interpretation would be wrong because it would not reflect the views of Sophocles’s contemporaries. In Athens, there was no disconnection between religion and state; on the contrary, religion was deeply integrated into politics (Ormand 288). Athenians also had the laws set by gods, which were called “unwritten laws” or “established laws” (Ormand 289). These laws were the basis of all orders and decrees issued by Athenian rulers, and “all magistrates had to swear that they would obey the laws” (Ormand 290). If the order contradicted the established laws, citizens were allowed to disobey it, and the ruler who gave this order could be deposed (Ormand 290). Thus, Athenians adhered to democratic views by admitting that illegal orders should not be followed, and religion played an important role in their politics.
One of the Athenian established laws was that all free people had the right to a proper burial, even if they were enemies of the state. Athenian rulers could forbid burying enemies in the territory of their state, but they still could be buried outside the state. In Antigone, Creon does not give his citizens this opportunity by prohibiting Polynices’ burial. Thus, Creon violates the established law, which means that Sophocles’s audience would not consider Antigone’s disobedience “dangerous or unusual” (Ormand 290). On the contrary, it was Creon who was not right in the conflict. By violating the laws of gods, Creon behaves like a tyrant, thus contradicting Greeks’ democratic values.
Creon’s betrayal of democratic views is also manifested in his refusal to consult and hear the advice of his citizens. In addition to the gods’ approval of their orders, rules were expected to receive approval from their citizens. However, Creon does none of this; it becomes evident when Antigone says that the Theban people agree with her decision but keep silent because of fear (Ormand 291). When considering Antigone from the political perspective that was prevalent in Athens in the fifth century BC, it becomes clear how Sophocles’s audience could react to the play. Antigone’s decision to bury her brother should have received support because she is guided by the established laws and the opinion of the public. Creon’s commands, on the other hand, should have been disapproved because they were not underpinned by gods’ laws and citizens’ approval.
Thus, Sophocles’s Antigone served as a warning against tyranny, which was represented by Creon. The play was well-received when it was first performed. One of the ancient introductions to the play even says that “Sophocles was awarded a generalship in the war against Samos, because of the fame he acquired in staging the Antigone” (Ormand 55). Perhaps, the success of Antigone is attributed to the strong democratic values that Sophocles put in this play.
Conclusion
The knowledge of the historical background of literary works has a significant role in understanding the meaning that their authors tried to convey. This paper reviewed how the familiarity with the context of Shakespeare’s Othello and Sophocles’s Antigone contributed to comprehending these works. In Othello, the knowledge of Othello’s race and Venetians’ attitudes toward Moors helps the audience to realize that Othello was an outsider in Venetia, which undermined his self-confidence and allowed Iago to deceive him easily.
In Antigone, Sophocles, being an important political figure, expressed his negative attitude toward tyranny, which aligned with Athenians’ democratic values. Thus, the knowledge of the background of literary works helps to analyze them more thoroughly and prevents the audience from misinterpreting or superficially understanding the authors’ message.
Works Cited
Holderness, Graham. Shakespeare and Venice. Ashgate, 2010.
Ormand, Kirk, editor. A Companion to Sophocles. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
Potter, Lois. William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.