Essay On Does Othello Love Desdemona

Brabantio shows his racist ways clearly here; he feels that his daughter could never love Othello unless she had been somehow tricked! When one looks deeper into this mindset we understand how loving Othello, the Moor, could be seen as such an issue to her father. Then and even today color is associated with, “sin, damnation, and eventually, sexual promiscuity” (Hall, 182). White on the other hand is associated with, “purity, virginity, and virtue” (Hall, 183). For Desdemona to love Othello she must give up her innocence. For a “pure” and “virtuous” woman to love a man such as Othello she must be a “sinner” and a “whore.” This “realization” of his daughter’s lack of purity causes Brabantio to die due to pure grief as Gratiano explains to us:

/ [Duke:] If you please, / Be't at her father's. / [Brabantio:] I'll not have it so. / [Othello:] Nor I. / [Desdemona:] Nor I" (I.iii.254-262). Even in time of war, Othello's and Desdemona's love holds true. They cannot stand living apart for a long period of time. Brabantio also knows that Desdemona will only show her loyalty to Othello, so he would rather have her away with Othello than home with him. Much later, Othello and Desdemona again show each other their love. Othello plans revelry for the evening in celebration of the defeat of the Turks and in celebration of his marriage to Desdemona. Once the celebration begins, Othello leaves Cassio on guard and departs to consummate his marriage: "Come, my dear love, -- / The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue; / The profit's yet to come `tween me and you" (II.iii.9-11). Othello only wishes for the best from his new marriage with Desdemona. He shows no sign of any desire for anything bad to happen. Othello's and Desdemona's marriage stays free of problems because their love for each other stays strong.

Desdemona’s family majorly influences her identity. In many cases Desdemona’s father expresses his opinions and it changes how she sees herself, and how others see her. When Desdemona falls in love with Othello, Brabantio (Desdemona’s father) is shocked. Brabantio believes that Othello has stolen and enchanted his daughter into loving him and expresses this thought to the Duke. Brabantio tells Othello “O, thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter? Damned as thou art,

the mouth-piece of the Venetian culture wherein women who are submissive to men throughout their life are regarded as respectful. Henceforth he disrespects Desdemona as she married against her father’s wish. He questions her character saying that she is a desperate woman who could not control her emotions.

“Othello” begins in middle of an argument between Roderigo and Iago. Desdemona and Othello’s wedding is the main topic of their argument. Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who is treated as a possession of her father, Brabantio, but by marrying an outsider Othello, she goes against the tradition of venetian custom which she is expected to marry a rich man to maintain her family’s honour. Iago reports Brabantio that his daughter is being stolen by Othello. “Awake! What ho, Brabantio! Thieves, thieves!” (1.1. 76). This quote depicts how unmarried women were treated back in 16’s century. However, while everyone in the play thinks that Othello has stolen Desdemona to marry him, Desdemona speaks herself to prove that she truly loves Othello. “That I love the Moor to love with him” (1.3. 246). Also, she even asks for her permission to go to Cyprus with Othello because she can’t stand the thought of remaining at home, which doesn’t have any adventure. There is a comparison between her social class and her

Even Brabantio, Othello’s own father-in-law, displays disdain toward Othello for marrying his daughter, in his calling him a “lascivious moor.”  Also there is a particularly strong conversation between Iago and Barbarantio, in which Iago states “an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise; Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you.” This statement shows a great deal of hatred toward the marriage of Othello and Desdemona. Iago is saying that if Desdemona were to have sex with Othello, “an old black ram”, it would defile Desdemona’s pure nature, “white ewe” (ewe being a lamb). This is not so much the act of the two people sleeping with each other as it is the fact that Othello is of African descent. Why else would Iago refer Desdemona as the “white ewe” and not just and ewe. The white part seems to display purity in Iago’s eyes. Also there is the part about the devil making a grandsire out of you. This is talking of how Desdemona and Othello’s children would be of a mixed race, of which Barbarantio would be the grandfather. Another racist comment Iago makes to Barbarantio of the interracial marriage of Desdemona and Othello is, “…You’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse. You’ll have your nephews neigh to you. You’ll have coursers for cousins and gennets for germans.” This refers to Othello as a Barbarian, or African, horse who will climb

to be weak and naïve in the eyes of her father. We can tell this from

The fear of interracial marriage in Venetian society is used by Iago in an attempt to alienate Othello. Othello himself acknowledges the fact that interracial marriage is frowned upon and that racism still applies to him despite his position. A common attitude in Venetian society is that black men and women are inhuman and animalistic in nature; Iago capitalizes on this idea in order to aid his plan of antagonizing Othello. Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, is a prime example of the attitude of Venetian society as a whole, in the sense that he “loved” Othello as long as he remained a servant of Venice and would rather Othello not intermingle amongst the Venetian society. Initially Brabantio “oft invited [Othello]” to his home and “queston’d [him] the story of [his] life”, showing an admiration and sincere interest for Othello’s

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

When Othello and Desdemona were not yet married, Othello would tell stories of the wars that he had fought in. That is what led Desdemona to fall in love with Othello. The two had rushed into their marriage. They married each other because they were in "love" with in each other. They did not even really know each other. I do not think that either of them really knew of the notion of "love" to begin with. Othello was much older than Desdemona, which made them two really different people. She was young and had a full life ahead. He was set in his ways and was a bit more reserved. When Desdemona eloped, she deceived her father. This fact made Othello

"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.

Susan Snyder states "Barbantio, Iago and finally Othello see the love Between Othello and Desdemona as unnatural, ‘nature erring from it self’." Othello expresses this through his statement,

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

He does not accept Othello being married to his daughter for the single reason being that he is black. Othello tells him that they are in love and have already married, to which Brabantio responds with “O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow’d my/ daughter?/ Damn’d as thou art, thou hast enchanted her,/ For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,/ If she in chains of magic were not bound,/ Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,/ So opposite to marriage that she shunn’d/ The wealthy curled [darlings] of our nation,/ Would ever have, t’incur a general mock,/ Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom/ Of such a thing as thou-to fear, not to delight!” (I. II.