William Shakespeare's Othello becomes famous for its thematic conflict between appearance and reality, Iago's motiveless malice, and Othello's downfall when he naively believes that of Desdemona without any substantial proof. While all of these factors are important, the historical aspects of Othello are even more important because they provide the foundation for the more complex concepts explored by the play. The context in which the play is written has underlying distinctions between races. Race plays a huge role in Othello because it sets boundaries that cause the tragic hero's downfall. The introduction to racism occurs when Brabnatio discovers the marriage of Desdemon and the Moor. Brabnatio immediately tells the Duke: “She was mistreated, robbed and corrupted/By spells and medicines bought from acrobats./For nature to err so absurdly,/Not being deficient, blind or lame in sense. ,/Without witchcraft could not. (I,iii,60-64) This means that Othello must have performed some black magic tricks on Desdemona because she would never marry a black person. For Brabnatio, it is implausible that Desedemona would fall in love with someone who is not white. To resolve this problem, Brabnatio confidently asks the Duke to mediate this dilemma, as it is widely known that blacks are inferior to whites and therefore people of different races should not marry . However, this does not end the marriage as even Desdemona implies that she is not against the act of segregation. Desdemona does not advocate for the breaking of traditions; she astutely defends her marriage, not on a superficial basis, but on substantive grounds. She argues: “I saw Othello's face in his mind” (I, iii, 252), meaning that even though his face is black, I accept and... in the middle of a sheet. .. someone who is not white and is considered barbaric, making them more susceptible to deception and manipulation due to their lack of social intellect. Another aspect is also shown through these lines: the ideology of borders and the consequences of crossing them. If Othello married a woman of his kind, he would not be breaking any rules; he would not feel doubtful or uncertain about her acceptance of him. However, because he breaks the racial boundary between blacks and whites by marrying Desdemona, he is more easily manipulated into believing Desdemona's infidelity. So, in a sense, crossing racial boundaries in Shakespeare's time leads to the tragic denouement of the play: the deaths of Othello, Desdemona, Elimia, Roddrigo, and Barbnatio. Works Cited Shakespeare, William and Jane Coles. Othello. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 1992. Print.