Othello, Race, and Cultural Memory on Cheers_____17
But it is only with this collective memory loss that the play can be universalized
in such a way.
Of course, Othello’s race has largely not been forgotten in the collective
memory. If one knew nothing about Othello before watching this episode, one
would not know that Othello is black. This could then be called a case of
hopeful forgetting, as the show’s creators realize that much of the audience will
associate Othello with a black man but are simply hoping that they will overlook
it. They are imposing Miller’s version of the play not through an argument that
Othello should be white, but instead by leaving it out altogether. However, there
is still the troublesome question of why, if they are trying to erase Othello’s
race, they use the undeniably racist Uncontrollable-Othello narrative? As has
been discussed earlier, the “Uncontrollable Othello” story cannot be separated
from race. It is predicated on the instability of a white man playing a black man.
It could then be surmised that the creators of the episode are only endorsing the
Miller version on the surface, but keeping the unspoken racial associations
which give the Uncontrollable-Othello narrative, and arguably the play itself, its
power.
That Othello’s race is still a presence can also possibly be seen in the
staging of the strangulation scene. As outlined by Pascale Aebischer, the staging
of the strangulation scene, like Othello’s race, has been altered over time to fit
the sensibilities of the times and carries with it specific racial connotations.14
The original staging of the scene was most likely done in full view of the
audience, with Othello wrapping his hands around Desdemona’s throat.
However, by the Victorian age, the scene had been softened, often played
behind bed curtains, with Othello using a pillow instead of his bare hands. In the
era of the great Shakespearean actors, the focus was shifted away from the dying
Desdemona and onto the star playing Othello, who often imbued the part with
great pathos. These changes in staging coincided with the idea that Othello was
not black, but instead a “tawny Moor” and actors began to wear much lighter
black makeup. As a consequence, says Aebischer, “What emerged in Victorian
stagings, then, was a correlation between rac H[