Analysis and Reaction to “The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice” by William Shakespeare

Having read “The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice” by William Shakespeare, we can’t but make a conclusion that love and jealousy are the main topics in this play. These too strong feelings usually possess our mind and obscure the rationale.

Love is presented as a power that is able to triumph over serious difficulties but is conquered by insignificant obstacles. Love is deep and strong, it makes the main character, Othello, intensive, but it can’t show to him the right direction. The heart of Othello is opened for Desdemona, but his mind remains closed. We can see that love is different with different characters of the play. The main hero Othello understands that trust is very important thing in marriage and it can’t be built in one day. However, his foes acted too rapidly and did not give him a time to build trust. The deep feeling of Othello and Desdemona appeared instantly and was built mostly on passion, but Desdemona managed to turn it into strong attachment not realized by Othello: “It cannot be true that she really loves me…if she loves me, then there must be something wrong with her” (Shakespeare). The false love of Iago is the love to his friends who are betrayed by them. Roderigo dies because of him, Iago deceives him: “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at; I am not what I am” (Shakespeare). Desdemona treats Cassio as a friend but this feeling is not understood by Othello in the right way. The love of Emilia for Desdemona is true love as she rose against her mean husband.

Jealousy is the power that appeared to kill Othello. It was Iago who helped this destructive feeling occupy the soul of the mail hero of the play. Stupid Iago thought that he knows everything about jealousy but he did not take into account all the storm of passions that could be awoken in poor Othello. Iago knew that Othello was hot-tempered, but he could not even imagine what it could take a turn for. Jealousy makes Othello concentrate on only one thought: Desdemona is unfaithful, and nothing could make him change his mind. This fatal fixation obscured the rationale and Othello forget about his principles. Straight after killing Desdemona, the rationale returns to tragic figure of poor Othello. He again can think logically and thus understands his misdeed. Othello has no way out except to execute himself. “I kissed thee ere I killed thee, no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss” (Shakespeare).

The tragic story of unhappy Othello and his poor wife Desdemona teaches us to be self-possessed. If Othello were in control of himself, the tragedy had not even happened. Also it is important to be attentive in order not to be deceived by evil-wishes. Mutual trust should present in relations from the very beginning. Jealousy as well as love should not obscure the underlying principles. We all should do our best to protect our relations and our family.

References
Shakespeare, William. “Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice”. Open Source
Shakespeare, 2003. Web. 18 June 2011.