One of Shakespeare`s principal obsessive themes is the difference or contrast between the outward and the inward, between what man pretends to be and what he really is, between the appearance of things and the reality of them. It is one of the dominant themes in Othello, and a dramatically important theme. For Othello is a black Moor in the white society of Venice. On stage, Othello`s blackness is a constant visual element of the play. Conventionally black is associated with evil and is a symbol of lechery, whereas its opposite, white, stands for purity and goodness. "In traditional Greek mythology", Holland points out, "the balck man would stand for the forces of death or winter and the white man for spring and rebirth." But the colours are reversed in Othello. In the first scene of the play, while he is absent on stage, Othello is referred to as the `Moor`, the `old balck ram` and the `Barbary horse` by the white men-Iago and Roderigo. Othello`s stereotyped lasciviousness is intensified by a series of bestial associations. In the second scene, in which Othello appears, we see a man who is the exact opposite of the stereotype, not an animal but a noble human being. In appearance, Othello has the blackness of evil, while Iago has the whiteness of goodness and virtue. In reality, it is not the black Othello who is the instigator of evil or the agent of destruction, but the white Iago. This is the colour paradox on which the play is contructed. Othello seems to be a black devil in appearance, but he is a nobel Moor with the white soul.