Love and Obsession in Othello

 

“Othello” explores the theme of love and obsessions

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Othello is a tragic play by the great Renaissance English playwright William Shakespeare. The play deals with several themes such as the Self and the Other, jealousy, betrayal, revenge, as well as love and obsession. However, one might say the theme of love and betrayal is the most prominent among these themes. In Othello the playwright shows different types of love and what they mean to different characters. Othello also explores the theme of obsession. When in love, a person wants the best for the one s/he loves. On the other hand, obsession is an irrational feeling where the person wants the other to be his or her only. So, love is different from obsession.  

Othello deals with several kinds of love: love between men and women; love between friends; love for one’s parents or children; love of arête and kleos and love for one’s nation.

When looking at the first type of love. Looking at love between men and women – there are six relationships: Othello and Desdemona, Roderigo and Desdemoan, Desdemona’s father and mother, Othello’s mother and father, Bianca and Cassio and Emilia and Iago. Out of these, both partners seem to love each other in the relationship between Othello and Desdemona. Both Othello and Desdemona risk everything in order to be together with the person s/he loved irrespective of the dangers and difficulties that action posed. On the other hand the relationships between Othello’s and Desdemona’s parents seem to be based on duty, not love. With regard to reason why his father had given the handkerchief to Othello’s mother, one might even say that their relationship borders on obsession. In the relationships between Bianca and Cassio and Emilia and Iago, both Bianca an Emilia seem to love their male partners. However, neither Cassio nor Iago loves their female partners. They consider their female partners as tools. In the relationship between Roderigo and Desdemona, Roderigo destroys himself because of his obsessive love for Desdemona.  

With regard to love between friends, Othello and Cassio have been good friends. It has been Cassio who has helped Othello to win Desdemona’s heart by acting as a go-between. This is why Desdemona feels that she must help Cassio. There is genuine friendship among the three. One might say that there is a friendship between Desdemona and Emilia, too. It is her love for her friend and mistress that mostly make Emilia accuse Othello of murdering Desdemona. Also it is out of this love, Emilia tries to educate Desdemona who is idealistic to the point of being naïve regarding men, faithfulness and jealousy. Iago, on the other hand, a friend only in appearance to everyone in the play. Everyone calls him “Honest Iago” and trusts him. Some consider that Iago’s anger towards Othello stems from obsessive love not reciprocated.

The play also deals with love between parents and children. Brabentio loves his daughter and believes the best of her. When Rodarigo and Iago accuse her of unnatural love, he refuses to believe them. Even after finding out that she had eloped to be with the man she loved, he believed that his daughter was enchanted by Othello. In the end, Brabentio dies of a broken heart according to Montano. One might consider his love for his only daughter was an obsessive love. However, though Desdemona loved her father, she chooses Othello quoting what her mother had done when confronted with a similar problem.           

In addition, the play also deals with love for arête and kleos. All the male characters and even Desdemona are concerned by their good name and fame after death. Out of all the characters, the tragic hero Othello displays the greatest amount of love for his arête and kelos. It is partly the damage done by his wife’s supposed betrayal that makes him act irrationally obsessive and kill her. Cassio, when stripped of his position as Othello’s lieutenant, bemoans the loss out of his love for his good name. Iago’s obsessive desire to punish Othello stems from the idea that he has not been given due recognition and that he has been insulted by Othello by rejecting his suit for the post and by appointing Cassio instead of him.

Othello, also deals with love for one’s nation and a way of life. Venetians go to war with the Ottomites out of their love for their nation and to preserve their culture.     

Shakespearean society also valued the classical idea of the Golden Mean: everything should be in moderation and in the right proportion. Love bordering on extreme is obsession and that should be avoided. The protagonist’s obsession with his arête and kleos made him react violently to Desdemona and Cassio. Iago is also obsessed with his own sense of arête and kleos and out of that obsession he destroys everyone around him. Bianca and Emilia are blind to the faults of the men they loved because of their obsessive love for them – both are destroyed because of that. Desdemona and Othello, too, are obsessively attracted to each other and their love make them blind to the sociopolitical realities of their contemporary society: this destroys them in the end.