Othello (character) arrested, transported from Cyprus to Venice, and tortured, but refuses to admit his guilt. He is condemned to exile; Desdemona's relatives eventually put him to death. The ensign escapes any prosecution in Desdemona's death but engages in other crimes and dies after being tortured. There is no consensus over Othello's race. E. A. J. Honigmann, the editor of the Arden Shakespeare edition concluded that Othello's race is ambiguous. "Renaissance representations of the Moor were vague, varied, inconsistent, and contradictory. As critics have established, the term 'Moor' referred to dark-skinned people in general, used interchangeably with similarly ambiguous terms as 'African',
Stereotypes of Jews in literature anti-Semitism. However, also like Shylock, he occasionally shows evidence of humanity (albeit very rarely). It has been suggested that "The Jew of Malta" influenced Shakespeare's play, "The Merchant of Venice". Despite the fact that Shakespeare probably never met a Jew, "The Merchant of Venice" includes a character named Shylock who has become the archetype of the Jewish moneylender stereotype. Derek Cohen asserts that the Shylock character is "the best known Jew in English." Shylock is a money-lender and was often portrayed with a hooked nose and bright red wigs. Shylock's character has been criticized for its anti-Semitic nature, although some