For I Am Black: The Othello Monologue

So the "For I Am Black" monologue was actually the subject of my groups' final project Fall 2019 for Tools for Digital Storytelling. Our special interpretation of Shakespeare's Othello would have a strong emphasis on both racism and mental illness. And the soundscape was drawn from the Pan's Labyrinth soundtrack.

Act III, Scene. 3 (line 292)

This fellow's of exceeding honesty,

And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,

Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard, Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings, I'ld whistle her off and let her down the wind,

To pray at fortune. Haply, for I am Black

And have not those soft parts of conversation That chamberers have, or for I am declined

Into the vale of years,--yet that's not much-- She's gone. I am abused; and my relief

Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,

That we can call these delicate creatures ours, And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad, And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,

Than keep a corner in the thing I love

For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones; Prerogatived are they less than the base;

'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:

Even then this forked plague is fated to us

When we do quicken. Desdemona, Look where she comes:

If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself! I'll not believe't.