Othello is the
Moor of
Venice, a truly heroic
officer and
adventurer who has won the love of the fair
Desdemona by his personal attractiveness, intelligence and fine reputation. Othello is
black - but this is not seen as an issue by most of those around him. Only
Iago and Desdemona's father,
Brabantio, have a problem with his race. Both of these have other reasons to dislike the General - Brabantio resents Othello's relationship with his daughter, and Iago is angry that Othello has promoted
Michael Cassio to
Lieutenant - a position Iago sees as rightly his own.
Laurence Fishburne has played the Moor to excellent effect on film.
Shakespeare demonstrates his love of long words in this play: Othello is reputed to have escaped from the
anthropophagi.