Othello

Humanities 102

Othello remained an outsider because he was unable to trust Desdemona and lacked the basic element of love. Othello disintegrates morally. His destructiveness extends to his own suicide when his error is exposed. He suffers emotional agonies throughout this process, and we suffer with him, grieving for the destruction of his inherent nobility and the beauty that his marriage exemplifies at its outset.

Othello was a majestically positive character a leading figure in the Venetian and respected military man (Lecture 7, 15:18) and a loving husband. He carries himself with inspiring dignity while frankly delighting in his young wife, whose love he values. When the couple defend their elopement, (Lecture 6, 13:47), we see that their love is both spiritually satisfying and sexually healthy. However, in the second half of the play he abandons this transcendent love for a blind jealousy too strong to see reason. He loses faith not only in Desdemona but also in himself. When he rejects her love and trust, Othello also rejects his own capacity for love. Othello can only babble as he falls at Iago's feet in a trance. As he gathers his self and recovers he imagines that he only had one goal and that is to kill Desdemona and Cassio. In Othello's hatred he shares Iago's malicious spirit. Indeed, as the play progresses he even comes to resemble the villain in his speech, using disjointed repetitions, broken sentences, and Iago's violent, sexual animal imagery, Lecture 7, 26:42. Othello in his rage cruelly insults his wife publicly and exaggerated his jealousy when he stated he believes Desdemona was a harlot and Emilia her bawd.

In the end, though he can still contemplate his love for his wife when he sees her asleep, he kills her with a coolness that stresses the power of his fixation. His reaction once Desdemona's innocence has been established is just as potent. He recognizes that he is no longer noble and equating himself with the heathen enemies he...