Desdemona And The Thievery In William Shakespeare's Othello

In Shakespeare's Othello, Othello's pride prevents him from finding the truth, eventually leading to his demise. Initially, Othello and Desdemona are deeply in love, despite her father's disapproval of their marriage. However, when Othello promotes Cassio instead of Iago to Lieutenant, Iago has his revenge by convincing Othello that Desdemona cheats on him with Cassio, destroying the marriage between Othello and Desdemona. Othello grows to meet his downfall when his trusted friend Iago causes him to think that his wife Desdemona is unfaithful.

The relationship between Desdemona and Othello in the play ‘Othello’ is used to express and observe the way that humans are selfish by nature. Although both Desdemona and Othello do sincerely love each other, both of them find great personal gain in their marriage, which clearly contributes to their feelings for one another. Othello, who is a black leader in an overwhelmingly white, Christian society, has come from a troubled and difficult background, being “sold to slavery” and working in the military all his life. In finding a good Christian wife in Desdemona, he finds someone to always support him in hard times, as evidenced in his summary of their romance, “she loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them”. This quote suggests that their love is more self-serving than he lets on; Desdemona loves Othello for the adventures he has been on and the stories he tells, and Othello loves Desdemona because she listens and devotes herself to what he has to say. When Desdemona gets a chance to explain their relationship herself, she is particularly proud of the fact that she “did love the Moor to live with him; my downright violence and storms of fortunes may trumpet to the world”. We note that she mentions her ‘violence’, the way she deliberately disobeyed her father and fled his company to secretly marry a man who is not one of her father’s approved suitors. This furthers the idea that Desdemona seems to be in love with Othello because of the adventures he has been on, and the excitement and liberty of her being with such a man; she is seeking her own freedom in a misogynistic society by defying her father to marry Othello. Their relationship is

Shakespeare's “Othello” is a tragedy written about a black lieutenant and his terrific outcome. Being manipulated by the villain Iago, drives him to kill his own wife. Othello is responsible for Desdemona's death because he allowed Iago to manipulate him, he didn't trust Desdemona and strangled her while she slept.

In the play, The Tragedy of Othello, judging from the relationship between Desdemona and Othello, seems to say that marriage based on an innocent romantic love is bound to fail. There is a common thread of betrayal and deceit among many characters. Othello and Desdemona being the most vividly portrayed. The two appear to love one another romantically at first, but it soon after transforms into a secular love. This comes to pass because there is no foundation for a relationship. There is no trust, no communication, and no understanding.

In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello and Desdemona’s marriage was doomed from the start. They did not start well; their marriage was controversial because of their race and Othello’s failure to follow proper etiquette while he was courting her. However these issues could have been overcome with time. The biggest problem is Othello’s attitude to Desdemona. Othello’s model of Desdemona prevents him from considering her a person. He thinks of her instead as superior to himself in every way, to the point that she is a god. Her race, beauty, and status make her godly in his mind. She becomes untouchable in Othello’s mind, and he begins to distance himself from her. Because Othello thinks of Desdemona as “Alabaster”(5.2.5) he will never consider

Iago often refers to Othello as the "Moor" and when Emilia realises how Othello has treated his wife, she calls him "the blacker devil". As Iago's plan unfolds, Othello's suspicions and jealousy come to the fore. Iago's blasphemous expressions gradually infiltrate Othello's vocabulary as Othello becomes more and more convinced that Desdemona is being unfaithful. Initially he claims that while the marriage is expected to bring him some physical satisfaction, he and his wife value their mental attraction just as highly. However, as he becomes ensnared in Iago's trap, Othello reveals a more detailed acknowledgement of Desdemona's sexual appeal. As he discusses her death with Iago, he says he will not argue with Desdemona"lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again".

Othello is a soldier. A strong man. What he knows of life comes from his experiences on the battlefield. He is an honest man, who was trusting as well. He has his friends and confidants, that he holds all of his trust in; maybe too much trust. He is married to young, beautiful Dedemona. She disobeyed her father by marrying Othello, a man of another race, and another color. She has a deep and compassionate love for Othello. The story of Othello and Desdemona is not one of a story book romance. What started as a love for two people, turned out to be a marriage based on jealousy, deceit and in the end a tragic murder.

"You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not” (Picoult, 384). This quote is the definition of true love, something the two protagonists of this play sadly never had. The tragedy Othello is about a general of the Venetian army, and his beautiful wife Desdemona, whose lives are completely ruined by the deceitful, cunning, and cowardly Iago. One of Iago’s biggest accomplishments was breaking up Othello and Desdemona's relationship by getting it into Othello’s head that Desdemona was cheating on him. This really made the reader question Othello’s feelings towards Desdemona as for someone who claimed to have love Desdemona with a passion, Othello sure was quick to believe Iago’s lies and turn on Desdemona. Based on his actions towards Desdemona, Othello proved that he does not truly love Desdemona because he is insecure, lacks trust, and is a very jealous person.

Iago plays on Othello’s own insecurity about his race to trigger jealousy; an example of this would be his observation on lines 227 and 228, where he insinuates that Desdemona may be better suited to somebody “of her own clime, complexion and degree”. This follows a quote from Othello, stating that his relationship is ‘nature erring from itself’, allowing the audience to see his own uncertainty about his ethnic background, which Iago then develops and twists to suit his needs. Iago’s quote implies that Desdemona would be better matched with a man of similar race, such as Cassio, rather than Othello, which is designed to spark jealousy within Othello, and is shown to have a profound effect on him towards the end of the scene, with his aside to the audience “Why did I marry”.

Daringly, Shakespeare opens this tragedy of love not with a direct and sympathetic portrayal of the lovers themselves, but with a scene of vicious insinuation about their marriage. The images employed by Iago to describe the coupling of Othello and Desdemona are revoltingly animalistic, sodomistic. [. . .] This degraded view reduces the marriage to one of utter

Othello, not knowing that Cassio was in fact speaking with Desdemona in hopes of being reinstated as Lieutenant, mistakenly believes that the two are having an affair and that Desdemona has lost her chastity. Iago skillfully capitalizes on the situation by developing his attack further: "She did deceive her father, marrying you" (3.3.220). Othello begins to see Iago's reasoning: if she could deceive her father, she could just as easily deceive her new husband. Once Othello's bliss has been decimated, Iago concentrates on weakening Othello's perception of himself; Iago very carefully and very tactfully chooses words and metaphors that subconsciously pit Othello against the Venetians. Othello begins to perceive himself as an outsider in his own country, "a malignant and turbaned Turk" (5.2.365). A fruitful marriage with a Venetian woman becomes out of the question in Othello's mind. Iago's successful manipulation takes a self-confidant man and reduces him to one at ends with himself and with the woman he loved.

When Iago makes a point of including Othello’s race in a conversation with a confidant, it proves that he feels that Othello’s race is the reason for his actions. There is an obvious abhorrence for Othello based upon his race. Later in the play, Iago goes on to say “If she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor” (Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum “WRAC” ). This statement shows that Iago is jealous of Othello because he won the love of Desdemona and is cause for insecurities on his part. Iago must now question his marriage and whether or not Othello is cause for infidelity. These insecurities act as extra motivation for Iago’s actions.

In Shakespeare’s play “Othello” the main characters Othello and Desdemona suffer a tragic fate due to their actions and unforeseen circumstances. A majority of Desdemona’s suffering is down to Iago’s manipulation. However, it could also be argued that Iago is not completely to blame for the misfortune of Desdemona. We as the readers can see evidence of this at certain points in the play where Iago has planted the seeds of despair and Desdemona and Othello have fallen for his plans. In this essay, I will look at key moments in the play where Desdemona is presented as a tragic victim by the writer and justify why she is a tragic victim using quotes from the play.

Othello and Iago love emotions shows throughout the play that they have certain different view on their wives. Othello is so in love with Desdemona that he can’t imagine the thought of her being unfaithful to him. The aspect of him and his unbreakable love for Desdemona can be seen in these lines: “But that I love the gentle Desdemona, I would not my unhoused free condition, Put into circumscription and confine” (Othello 561;lines 25-28). Othello and Desdemona shows a healthy and genuine love for each other. Othello shows his affection for Desdemona despite their racial differences. Throughout the play Othello reassures us about their love and no one else’s thought can break it.

The tragic play Othello by William Shakespeare, discusses the relationship between Othello and Desdemona that begins as loving, but abruptly alters to a hateful relationship due to a lack of truth. Dishonesty and misunderstandings between Desdemona and Othello drive the collapse of their marriage as well as Iago’s deceitful words which force Othello to discredit Desdemona’s love. William Shakespeare portrays the fall of the relationship of Desdemona and Othello due to his ability of believing false delusions he hears about his wife and the reason for this is from his distrust for women, his jealousy and the fact that he truly lacks confidence in himself, leads him to doubt the love Desdemona has for him.