Race In Shakespeare Research Paper

Words: 365
Pages: 2

To maintain a better understanding of the issue of race in Shakespeare’s plays, it is important to look back at the culture and background of those times. During the time of the 16th century, there was a huge entry of African Americans into renaissance Europe. The new arrival of these African Americans caused a huge amount of tension with the white Europeans. These blacks, or what the white Europeans identified as “Moors” were very highly discriminated against. “Travel writers saw black Africans as very much ‘alien’ and ‘other’ and attempted to find Biblical and scientific explanations for the color of their skin, which for them came to symbolize (perhaps unconsciously, as one Freudian theory has it) the darkness of sin, lust, and death” (Newman).