Stereotype and Prejudice in Elizabethan Drama: William Shakespeare and Thomas Dekker as Cases in Point

Moors have been ill portrayed in English drama. Their image in the literary dramatic works that were produced during the Elizabethan era is negative. Most of plays in which a Moorish figure plays either a subsidiary or central role do precisely address a certain discourse on particular features that differentiate Moors from white Europeans. Three major features are highlighted recurrently as inherently characteristic of the character of the Moor. He is seen as being physically deformed, black, and sexually driven. These traits are considered as his most distinctive negative physical and moral hallmarks that allow the whites to pass over him a discourse of stereotyping, hence enslavement. Nevertheless, the Moor of the plays insists on asserting his presence through reacting to whites? prejudices. He melodramatically weaves his clashes with foes into marvelous scenes of sarcastic racial self defense.