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Table of Contents
Introduction

Concept of Self and Others

Depiction of European Society Vis-a-Vis Asian and African Sciety

3
Shakespeare and Voltaire Racists or Honest Reporters?
To Criticize or Change or Just a Wake up Call
More Instructive Endings

Conclusion 5
References 6

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Introduction
The Renaissance period has been crticized to be intolerant because
of the ever presence exclusion of Other to the tangible or
qualitative benefit of Europeans. In this assignment we will examine
the Othello and Candide with their authors perspectives and
motives in dispassionate manner in order to prove or refute this
belief.

Concept of Selfand Others in Othello and

Candide
Sex Othello portrays three women in Othello: Desdemona,
Bianca and Emilia in a patriarchial society of Elizabethan era. The
marriage has been described as a purchase made. Othellos says to
Desdemona - Come, my dear love,/The purchase made, the fruits
are to ensue (II.3.8-9). Objectification of women can be attributed
to Iagos reference to his wife as office and seat under two
circumstances. Also, when the Othello states his wish if the general
camp,/Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,/So I had nothing
known (III.3.342-4) The view gains further prominence when the
Desdemona is portrayed as an obedient wife referrong to her
husband as my lord. Further references such as cunning whore
(IV.2.88), villainous whore (V.2.227), wild-cats (II.1.109) by
different characters for different women is the further proof of such
objectification of women and male dominated society (Loomis &
Catherine, 2002).
Similarly, in Candide, Cunegonde, the old woman and Paquette had
gone through rape. Voltaire here implies the role of women in male
dominated society which considered the women as the means to
satisfy their sexual needs. Rape is referred as the customary way of
doing things and natural. Cunegonde is always in the protection of
some male. The only attribute a woman can have in Candide is that
of beauty and they are always subject to the will of men (Means &
Richard, 2006).
Religion Candide brings to the reader the multiple standards of
religion, their justification and the real practice of religion by those
who preach it. For example, Who could have stolen my money and
diamonds?...What shall we do?...(pg. 36-37).Candide is robbed
during a Saints fair. "The good James rushed to his assistance and
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helped him climb back on board....except the brutal sailor...(pg. 26)"

Anti baptist, who has earlier helped sailor, is not helped once he
falls. "People were christians, he didn't doubt that he would be
treated as well...(pg 21)." Denial of food to Candide by Pope in the
context of this statement is the portray of utter religious hypocrisy
where preacher is nnot the practitioner. Religious is considered as
the prominent factor of judging people - "Cucambo humbly asked
what religion the people of Eldorado was". One country, one religion
is implied in this statement (Walsh & Thomas, 2001).
Similarly, in Othello, theres an ongoing battle between the good
and evil which is shown through the roles of Desdemona and Othello
respectively.
Ethnicity Othello has faced the racism in Venice which has turned
him into one. The most visible proof of this is his relationship with
Desdomona, whom he doesnt think to be his worthy. He is easily
convinced of the demeaning charges on her. Iagos statement that
Othello must have wooed Desdemona, a white girl, to marry with a
black military leader. And this statement is not even argued by
anyone. Misleading of Othello by Iago, descriptions such as they,
"thicklips", "the devil", "an old black ram ... tupping your white
ewe." Gives enough evidence that the society at that time was
racist. Venetian society could accept a black with open arms but as
a mercenary and regarded him as overstepped the decency when
he propsed a white girl (Sanders & Norman, 2003).

Depiction of the European society in Venice

vis-a-vis African and Asian societies
In Othello, the venatian societys Political institutions included the
government and military with social conventions that defined
peoples lives. Murder by Othello commit and its effect on both the
political intitutions. Infidelity and adultery by Cassio makes him to
keep this a secret or risk his and Othellos good position in the
military. Womens submissive position in relation to men is another
contrasting feature (Greenblatt, 1980).
Society is fundamentally divided on race, which can be corroborated
by the emphasis on Othellos color as Othello the Moor, An old
black ram, a Barbary horse, and a lascivious Moor!. Othello is
respected but not considered as a civilized Venetian. Social
hypocrisy is suggested when Desdemona is a supersubtle
Venetian because she is not conniving and schemer, thereby
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implying that civilized people are conniving on one hand and on the
other hand referring to Iago as honest Iago.
Similarly, Candide is critical of many social institutions, however, at
the same time not being exempted from certain prejudices. Through
satirical remarks on Church and its philosophy the progressive
thoughts have been implied but nothing sort of revolutionary
(Cooper, 2001). The main character, Candide is travelling the
world and exposing the flaws of various cultures. Through the intital
life of Candide we get the notion that military cared absolute
obedience and not thoughts of the militarymen. The taste you
Europeans have for our yellow mud; but take as much as you want,
and may it bring you well being. (Voltaire, 307) shows the
perception of people about the Europeans as that of greedy and
materialistic.
During the above-mentioned, Asia and Africa was not yet touched
by any scientific thought and were being carried on according to
orthodox cutoms prevalent since ages. Various kingdoms were
involved in self benefiacial activities to the exclusion of civil rights of
people at alrge. Slavery was dominant. In Asia, as domestic and
unpaid workers and in Africa as the mode of settling debts. With the
Industrial Revolution, the need for slaves was observed in European
countries. War prisoners and domestic workers were captured and
resold to serve the Colonial needs. They were started seen as the
social status when used for domestic use. Later, colonialists divided
the Africans and Asians and tried to not let them assimilate so they
couldnt unite politically (Mughal, 2011).

Shakespeare and Voltaire racists and bigots

or just honest reporters
Shakespeare is sometimes seen as racist and bigot. Shakespeare
never talked to his audience so its difficult to know his real thoughts
on the societal contexts (Fiedler, 1973). It was only his brilliantl
characters and their dialogues with impeccable timings along with
the historical contexts of the society he narrated that can give us
insight into his thoughts. In Othello, Othello considered inferior by
venetian society but Shakespeare never considered him as one.
Nay, we must think men are not gods (III.4.144) by Desdemona is
all agianst the allegation of bigotary to underscore the given
conclusion. In Merchant of Venice Shakespeare shows the immoral
reactions of Christians to Shylok. But what is often ignored, is Juliets

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strong character and her belief in the power of love (Loomba,

2002).
On the other hand Voltaire is infamously attributed with the various
quotes such as The Negro race is a species of men different from
ours as the breed of spaniels is from that of greyhounds. The
mucous membrane, or network, which Nature has spread between
the muscles and the skin, is white in us and black or copper-colored
in them. And It is a serious question among them whether the
Africans are descended from monkeys or whether the monkeys
come from them. So it becomes pretty clear that aaccording to the
modern usage, Voltaire can be labelled as a racist. However, one
should not sigle out him and take into consideration the society he
was living in and the prevailing and domninant thoughts on racism
(Voltaire, 2005).

To Criticize and Change or Just a Wakeup Call

The Shakespeare has dealt with the themes of race, religion,
marriage, mistrust and culture in the Othello. Besides being
considered as an unforgettable piece of litrature it is also referenced
as the commentary on the history of that time (Hadfield, 2005).
Voltaires Candide is the open criticism of church, its thought and
philosophy and nobility and their arrogance. It also has signs of
criticism of certain aspects of philosophy of Enlightenment. For
example, in Candide the figure of the Grand Inquisitor orders an
auto-da-f to ward off earthquakes (Scherr, 1993).
Thus, from this discussion we can safely conclude that both the
works were largely aimed to criticize and change

More Effective and Instructive Endings

The more instructive effective ending of Othello would have been
the removal of jealousy and doubt from the heart of Othello hailing
the idea of transformation and not one of the perpetuating the
inherent flaw of the protagonist. His seeing himself as a savage
outsider is in a way reinforcing the beliefs of his race critics.
In Candide, Candide dismisses the Optimism and the question is
unresloved to believe in what. With the intentional puzzling ending
one may draw the conclusion that the pessimism was the hidden
message including the abandoning of hope for a good world. The
alternate ending should have either left the story with the clear
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philosophy even if it was pessimistic. In the absence of the

philosophy to believe in the reader is left with the meaninglesness
he started to resolve with this story at the first place.

Conclusion
In this assignment an effort has been made to discuss Othello and
Candide of Shakespeare and Voltaire respectively. These have been
sufficiently discussed under the themes of various questions
provided to us in light of our academic course. And this concludes
the end of this assignment.

References
Fiedler, L.A. (1973) The Stranger in Shakespeare, St Albans, .1
.Paladin
Loomba, A. (2002) Shakespeare, Race and Colonialism, Oxford, .2
.Oxford University Press
Greenblatt, S. (1980) Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to .3
.Shakespeare, Chicago, University of Chicago Press
Voltaire (2005) Candide, or Optimism (trans. And ed. T. Cuffe, with .4
.an introduction by M. Wood), Harmondsworth, Penguin
Cooper, A. A., Third Earl of Shaftesbury (2001) Characteristics of .5
Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (ed. D.D. UYL), 3 vol, New York,
.Liberty Fund
..6
http://www.academia.edu/8053314/Candide_Thoughts_of_Voltaire_o
_n_Optimism_Philosophy_and_The_Other
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7. Scherr, A. (1993). Candide, Voltaire.

http://www.whsd.net/userfiles/1634/Classes/7368/CandideGender.pdf
8. Hadfield, A. (2005). Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe. In Hadfield, A.
and Hammond, P. Eds.
Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe
9. Matar, N. and Stoeckel, R. (2005). Europes Mediterranean
Frontier: The Moor. In Hadfield, A. and Hammond, P.Eds.
Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe.
London : Thomas Learning.
10. Mughal, M., A.,Z. (2011). Mohenjo-daros Sewers. World History
Encyclopedia, Vol. 3. Ed: Kevin Murray McGeough. Santa Barbara,
CA: ABC-CLIO, pp. 121-122.
11. Wootton, David (2000). Candide and Related Texts. Hackett
Publishing Company, Inc.
12. Walsh, Thomas (2001). Readings on Candide. Literary
Companion to World Literature. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.
13. Morrison, Ian R. (January 2002). "Leonardo
Sciascia's Candido and Voltaire's Candide".Modern Language
Review
14. Means, Richard (2006). Voltaire: Background and Early Writing.
15. Billington, Michael (5 April 2007). ""Black or white? Casting can
be a grey area" Guardian article. 5 April 2007"
16. John Kerrigan, Shakespeare's Binding Language, Oxford
University Press (Oxford & New York: 2016)
17. Sanders, Norman (ed.). Othello (2003, rev. ed.), New Cambridge
Shakespeare
18. Loomis, Catherine ed. (2002). William Shakespeare: A
Documentary Volume

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