Theme of Love in Othello, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Love is a theme that is commonly used by Shakespeare in his many plays. Othello is one of his plays whose settings is in Venice, Italy. This quickly draws the attention of the reader to the main theme of the play, which is love. Shakespeare uses this theme to explain the downfall of most of his characters in the play. Through the theme, Shakespeare shows how most characters act against their self-interests eventually revealing their true nature. Converse to other plays by Shakespeare, in Othello, he masterfully depicts love as a tragic theme as it is the cause of the demise of most of his characters. Furthermore, the main characters in the book that are directly influenced by this theme include Othello the husband of Desdemona, Lago the husband to Emilia, Cassio, Bianca, Rodrigo, and Barbanito who is Desdemona’s father

Notably, Shakespeare uses the following characters to bring out the main theme in the play. Eventually, all these characters run into misfortune while in the pursuit of love. In the play, every character that is close with Othello follows his tragic fate that leads to their demise. For instance, while considering the two unfortunate characters Desdemona and Roderigo each of their downfall is subject to Othello. Moreover, while reading the play and scrutinizing the play the three characters bring their own downfall with a little manipulation from Lago. Additionally, Shakespeare breaks love into three following categories: familial love, romantic love, and self-love.

Othello, the protagonist, is a general in the Venetian army. In the play, his character has either direct or indirect influence on fate. Additionally, Lago’s spite fuels his demise and those around him. He is feared and mighty in the presence of his enemies and combatant soldiers, additionally, his character is transformed when in the presence of Desdemona who is his smitten lover. Desdemona is her wife and their love is highly polarized throughout the play in various ways. Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who comes from a very noble family while Othello comes from an African descent family where he was enslaved as a child. Seemingly monumental, their love is able to overcome all these obstacles and prevail. Accordingly, Lago is furious about this relationship and makes their love a subject of disdain because of his grudge against Othello. This is evident when Lago resents their marriage describing it as a violent commencement (Kernan, 3.238). Furthermore, Barbanito who is Desdemona’s father also does not approve the marriage, as he believes that Desdemona deceived him before eloping with Othello. According to Barbanito, Desdemona could not have willingly married Othello unless she was on chains of magic or cast on a spell by Othello. However, their love begins to deteriorate with Lagos manipulative ways towards Othello as he explains his tactics to Rodrigo. For him, he did not follow Othello out of love but he was plotting to destroy their relationship with Desdemona as a revenge for Othello not choosing him as a Lieutenant. In the course of the play, we begin to see an aggressive, agitated, and jealous Othello who has let his negative emotions to overcome his love after being poisoned by Lago. In his efforts to poison Othello, Lago convinces him that his wife Desdemona is not loyal to him as they are having an affair with his friend Cassio. When Othello recognizes a handkerchief that supposedly ought to be Desdemona in Casio’s quarter his jealous maddens up which ends him killing Desdemona. According to him, Desdemona betrays his love and this triggers his unjust and irrational behaviour. Shakespeare is able to show how love can end being tragic as the love between the two main characters Desdemona and Othello end up in the demise of Desdemona.

Likewise, Othello demise originates from his love to Desdemona. At the beginning of the play, the author shows how Othello and Desdemona were in love to the extent of going against Desdemona’s father who was the senator. The two envisioned a happy and prosperous love not having the slightest idea that their love would end up bringing their demise. From the line:

Now as the darkness deepens all harsh sounds die away, and now my turbulent heart finds peace in this embrace and calm refreshment. Let cannons roar and all the world collapse if after the immeasurable wrath come this immeasurable love!

After Othello let his friend Lago poison his thoughts, he became aggressive and jealous which would end up him killing Desdemona. Later, Othello comes to realize that all these cheating stories were just made up by Lago in order spoil their relationship. This revelation comes after Emilia decides to speak the truth in efforts to defend the character of her best friend Desdemona who had died a shameful death being referred to as a cheating whore. When it dawns to Othello that he had killed a woman he loved so much unjustly, he decides to kill himself out of guilt and the belief that he would not be able to survive without her love.

Similarly, Emilia and Lago’s relationship is another that crops to the demise of another character. Surely, this marriage seems like it was made in hell as it is the cause of the fall of almost all the love circles in the play. Unlike Othello, Lago disrespects her wife Emilia and always talk rudely to her mocking her at the slightest provocation. On the other hand, Emilia who dearly loves her husband tries to do everything in her power to make him happy and make the relationship work.  “I nothing but to please his fantasy,” she says as she does so (Kernan, 3.3.343). This is when Emilia steals her friend’s (Desdemona) handkerchief in attempt to make Lago appreciate her. However, her flirtatious interaction with the handkerchief to Lago failed miserably. This handkerchief later becomes a perfect tool for plotting a set up against Othello and his wife which leads to Othello killing Desdemona her wife. Subsequently, when Emilia realizes that she was in one way involved in the mess that led to the death of her friend, she pours out the beans by exposing her husband’s treacherous plot against Othello to the public. This betrayal to her husband was as a result of her love to her friend Desdemona. Consequently, Lago kills her because of the bitterness of betrayal by her wife.  This is another instance that Shakespeare masterfully depicts love as tragic in the play.

Bianca is also another character whose romantic love to Cassio is depicted as a catalyst for destruction. This love is not mutual as Cassio does not appear to have any intentions of committing to Bianca making it a one-sided romance. Cassio who is close to Othello and the Lieutenant to the Venetian army later becomes caught up in the Lago plot of destroying Othello. Knowing that Cassio was the gentleman who was awarded the lieutenant position which he (Lago) was eyeing, he decided to bring both Othello and Cassio down. Lago who clearly knows that her wife Emilia is a friend to Desdemona begs her to bring him the special handkerchief which Othello gave to her wife as a sign of undying love. Once the handkerchief is in his hand, Lago plants it at Cassio apartment prompting Cassio to give it to Bianca who was crazy in love with Cassio. Through her outburst, she waves a handkerchief in their quarters which Othello recognizes as Desdemona’s making him believe in the cheating tale between his wife and Cassio prompting Othello to kill her wife.  Therefore, it is evident that the love between Bianca and Cassio was a catalyst to the demise of both Othello and Desdemona.

Rodrigo is another character in the play whose demise can be directly linked to his love or desire to have Desdemona. From the onset of the play, Rodrigo who is a close friend to Lago was dishing out money to him in order to be connected to Desdemona. However, his efforts to win the girl he loved ended up to his untimely death. Lago knowing how Rodrigo was desperate tricked him to kill Cassio in order for his mission to be easily accomplished which turned out to be the fall of Rodrigo. In his attempt to stab Cassio, Rodrigo was stabbed and left in a vulnerable situation. Lago knew very well that Rodrigo was going to say the truth if confronted, so he decided to silence him through stabbing him until he died. This becomes the third character that dies in the play due to love. According to Shakespeare, love was both sweet and nasty and the most demise of heroes usually originates from love and trust of those close to them.

Othello’s love to Lago which is on friendship level is also a contributing factor to the demise of most characters in the play. With love, trust is usually built among close people and this is what transpired between this two characters. Lago knew very well that Othello trusted him as his friend and that made it easy for him to plot a fall against him. If it was not for love, Othello would not have just believed every word that Lago told him concerning his wife and Cassio. This trust made Othello believe everything that he was told which made him aggressive and even jealous of his wife. Shakespeare tries to show how friendship can become a stumbling block towards a person success. He masterfully shows how Lago used all the opportunities that came to him to plot against Othello whom he knew would in no manner doubt his story. Therefore through his love, faith and trust to his friend, he ends up killing his wife and subsequently killing himself.

Another love in the play that ends up bringing demise to the characters in the story is Lago’s self-love. Shakespeare who is a creative writer introduces Lago as a villain character who loves himself so much that he plans a downfall to any person who seems to hinder his success. In addition, he uses any person close to him to accomplish his self-desires. At first, Lagos plots a fall out between Othello his general and his wife Desdemona for Othello failed to appoint him to the lieutenant position. Possessed by his selfish interests, he poisons Othello’s mind by creating a story, which is not true about her wife’s infidelity affair with Cassio who had been appointed to the lieutenant position. “Not out of absolute lust (though peradventure I stand accountant for as great a sin) But partly led to diet my revenge” (Leggart, 847). In addition, he takes advantage of Rodrigo’s by manipulating him on how he will separate Othello with Desdemona and make them couples. Through this betrayal, Shakespeare tries to draw the attention of the reader on how self-love can be dangerous to the people close to you. The fact that Lago was using anybody close to him to achieve his desires is evident enough:

Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners. So that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness or manured with industry, why the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. (Shakespeare, 3.361-368)

His self-love prompted him to plot demise against his friend Othello who kills himself and Desdemona and him killing her wife and Rodrigo. Therefore, through his mastery in literary works, Shakespeare is also able to convince his audience of how love can become tragic.

Conclusion

Love is a strong theme in the play Othello by Shakespeare. Through creativity and mastery in the art of writing, Shakespeare has been able to show how love can end up tragic. First, through the death of Desdemona who is killed by his enraged husband Othello who thinks she is not faithful to her, Shakespeare is able to convince the audience that love does not always end up in happiness. Second, Othello kills himself after realizing he unjustly killed her wife and that he could not live without her. Another character such as Emilia is killed by her husband when she tries to defend the character of her friend Desdemona by betraying her husband’s lies.  Finally, Rodrigo also dies in efforts of trying to win the love of his life who sarcastically was another person’s wife.

Work Cited

Kernan, Alvin. “Othello.” Shakespeare, William. Penguin, 2013.

Leggatt, Alexander. “Love and Faith in “Othello” and “Otello..” University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 4, Fall 2012, pp. 836-849. EBSCOhost.

Weedin Jr, E.K. “Love’s Reason in Othello.” Studies in English Literature (Rice), vol. 15, no. 2, 1975, p. 293. EBSCOhost.