Othello is the only minority that Shakespeare features as the principal or major character in a play.  Cleopatra, might well be played by a black woman, and there are other parts that can logically be taken by minority actors, but Othello is clearly a black man as Shakespeare has created him.  This is somewhat surprising as there were nearly no blacks in Elizabethan England.  At this time English sea captains engaged in slave trading and indeed slave capturing, but slaves were not common in London and black people were viewed as more a curiosity than anything else.  But Othello is not just a black man, he is a Moor meaning that his roots are in North Africa.  As such he would be associated with cunning, bravery, and strength.  He might also be suspected for his temper and compelling desire for revenge.

Most critics today suggest that Shakespeare makes Othello into a much more complex figure who supports a strong ethical and moral code, which when he breaks causes his violent and tragic end.  These critics are quick to seize upon our modern terminology labeling Othello as the other and analyzing him as a victim of otherness.  He is exploited by the Venetian Duke, but never fully permitted to enter Venetian society and Venetian life.

His wife, Disdemona, is a beautiful, intelligent, and mature woman.  She is not quick to passion like Juliet, nor is she the picture of calm reason like Portia.  I think she tends to fall between these two famous Italian heroines.  Disdemona may be  the ideal wife: beautiful, loyal, intelligent, and engaged in life.  Yes, she does meddle and she is naive, but clearly she is not so meddlesome as to deserve the fate that she suffers....