The villainization of the Turks in Othello

Every place evidently has its own culture and beliefs. When one goes from one place to another, the differences are quite clear. For years cultural and religious differences have caused many nations to go to war against one another. In Shakespeare’s play Othello, the story is set in a “civilized” Christian place named Venice. Venice is known for being the enemy of people like the Turks, for the Turks represent everything they stand against. While Venice is a vastly Christian place, the Turks dominantly consist of Muslim people. Venice is, as described, a very civilized place where the tenants of the Ottoman Empire are vile. With all of this taken into consideration, it is possible to argue that the Turks are the supposed “villains” of Othello. 

Western countries have been prejudiced against the Turks for a very long time. Westerners seeing themselves as the ideal nation, deemed the Turks as “the other” who should be frowned upon. This villainization of the Turks can be seen in the play Othello as well. In scene one of act two, Iago uses a phrase that goes “Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk.” to prove that he is telling the truth. Here the reader can understand that Iago uses segregation against the Turks to his advantage and with that the Turks are to be viewed as deceitful barbarians.  

During the time the Ottoman Empire was at its peak, not only with power over the lands they had conquered but also with their steadily rising economy, they were frightened because coming face to face with these “barbarians” almost always meant immediate death. Due to their ownership of lands spreading around the world, the Turks became a symbol of fear for many. With that came many bad connotations that would be later on associated with the word “Turk”. One of those was the idiom “turned Turk.” When Cassio gets into a fight in scene three of act two, Othello labels Cassio as a “turned Turk” in a line that goes “Have we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that / Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? / For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl!” Here it can be seen that when Cassio, a “civilized Christian” man started acting up, he became a Turk. Someone who has no shame, who is a barbarian. Filiz Barin explains this in a paper for The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association: 

Othello’s reference to Christianity is a reflection of religious tension between observers of Christianity and Islam felt during those years while it is also an obvious attempt to prove the “superiority” of Christianity over Islam by stripping the followers of Islam of civilized and righteous behavior.

To conclude, the Christians are victimized throughout this whole play as if they are better than Turks while the Turks are villainized by showing only one portion of a story that requires two perspectives to be understood. As we are only shown the perspective of non-Turks in the play, the Turks are inevitably the big bads of Othello.