The Relationship Between Love And Hate In Othello Essay

In the beginning of the play, Othello and Desdemona have a strong relationship. When others interfere with their marriage, Othello

Shakespeare's point in Othello the Moor is that each individual has a destiny and fate is central in the lives of his characters.  Othello, a great warrior, is the lead character and the target for attack from a disgruntled soldier, Iago.  Iago plots with the aide of his wife, Emilia, to plant subtle notions of jealously in the case of Othello's expedient marriage to Desdemona.  Othello loves Desdemona and the same is true for Othello, but Iago successfully destroys the trust between the couple with a scheme in which Othello is unable to control his jealousy.  There are several other characters that Iago uses to set his plan into motion such as Roderigo, Bianca and Cassio.  Cassio is not so much a willing participant in the scheme of the play as he is a scapegoat (or object of irrational hostility; Webster's Dictionary, 652) to pin the entire plot on.  It is known that Emilia's character becomes crucial to the plot, as she is the most essential character to her husband's crusade to destroy Othello and Desdemona.

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 play Othello is based on tragedy of Othello’s jealousy, which ironically leads Othello to kill Desdemona, his beloved (wife). Evil Iago is above all Shakespeare’s villains. Iago is a person with evil emotions, and as a result he deceives everybody, he also is exceptionally influential character who has taken in everyone, above all his own wife Emilia. His public face of bravery and honesty conceals a satanic delight in manipulation and destruction, and he will stop at nothing. Iago’s opinion on women is that he detests women in all kinds and shapes, and finds faults even when they have little or no faults.

Iago does not stop there, his jealously leads him to start infecting others and the first is Roderigo, a naïve gentleman in Venice. To put his scheme into motion, Iago informs Roderigo of Othello and Desdemona’s elopement, which causes Roderigo to become very upset because he too is in love with Desdemona and is willing to do anything to win her love. Iago plants the seed of jealousy in Roderigo’s mind because he knows he can now use Roderigo “for sport and profit” (I.iii.1180) by playing off his jealousy toward anyone who comes close to Desdemona. After breaking Roderigo down he then, builds him back up by telling him a way they can break up the marriage. Iago tells him:

Othello's wife Desdemona and his own friend Roderigo (a Venetian gentleman). He uses Desdemona's love of Othello and Roderigo's money with his secret love for Desdemona, to manipulate them towards his own good. He is a psychotic driven to kill, from strangers on a battlefield to his wife in Othello's

What is not clear is whether Desdemona would even consider Roderigo’s advances. We know that Roderigo has failed in previous attempts to court Desdemona and Brabantio “charged thee not to haunt my doors” (Shakespeare 1458). Roderigo is eager to charge forward with Iago’s instructions and is so gullible that he is repeatedly puts his self in physical danger. Roderigo has no realistic chance of success and is therefore considered a pawn for Iago to maneuver. To enlist his help to eliminate Cassio, Iago conjures up a tale of an affair between Desdemona and Cassio that Roderigo is all too willingly to accept about the woman he loves. According to Iago, Roderigo is no longer considered Desdemona’s second choice behind Othello, but falls to a distant third behind Cassio. Roderigo becomes

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.

However strong the emotional attitude of prejudices may be in Othello, Love is the most powerful emotion and ironically the emotion that leads to the most vulnerability. Loves of all kinds are tested in the tragedy and ultimately all fail to rectify the horrible situation. Marital love for Othello and Desdemona serve as both a heaven and a hell on earth. As Othello portrays by saying,

It is here that the audience begins seeing a different identity of Othello. Who was once regarded as so valiant and courageous, was now beginning to show signs of severe insecurities dealing with matters, most importantly, such as his lack of experience in love and marriage causing shadows of doubt over his confidence in himself and his ability to be loved by and worthy of someone like Desdemona. Desdemona, although not intentionally, seems to be the reason for all the unrest in Othello. This is an instance in the play when irony shines it's smiling face upon Shakespeare's most tragic characters. Othello feels truly happy with the presence of Desdemona in his life (Act II.1, 181-187):

Shakespeare portrays Othello as the general without faults, perfect. Yet, he slowly reveals the weaknesses of Othello’s love for Desdemona. For this love he will forsake anything. Iago is quick to pick on this and starts working towards destroying Othello through his only shortcoming.

He states that Desdemona is unhappy by marrying Othello. Othello doesn't have anything although he's a famous soldier in the society. It is not a fault when someone fall in love and have affection between them. Although, Othello should have think about the racial problem before loving her. Because in the society, racial prejudice is present, and he is always being neglected because of his skin color. Therefore, marrying someone from another race will not be accepted

Because they are both white, Desdemona is to be with Cassio, which further confirms Othello's idea that he does not belong. Just before Othello kills himself, he refers to a time when he killed a "turban'd Turk" (V.2.3720). Othello reflects on this moment, becoming what he was before his Christian conversion, his "self-making has been undone and he now kills, again, his irreversible circumcised, unassimilable racial type" (Bell 57). After committing this horrible act and returning to his senses, Othello is aware that all of his actions have been a result of jealousy caused by Iago, yet he still wants people to "[s]peak of [him]" as he is, a man who was unable to control his own emotions (V.2.3709). This racial divide is seen further when Othello is about to kill his new wife. He compares Desdemona's skin to his own, having "whiter skin . . . than snow" (V.2.3305). In this context, her white skin and his black skin alienates the both of them. Even though Desdemona "had eyes, and chose [Othello]" and with some self-doubt, Othello believes that something must be wrong with Desdemona if she loves him like she does (III.3.1839). Something must be wrong with a Venetian woman married to a Moor. Because Othello is a Moor, he does not fit in with Venetian society which all the more hurts his sanity. Despite his race, disadvantages, and crimes, Othello remains a victim and not a villain. He may

Jews are unfortunately the popular group to be picked on. This goes way back in history. The Jews are accused of being the killers of Jesus which I believe is the main reason they are hated to this degree. Many people are probably band wagon haters and only hate Jews for the fact many people hate them. They probably may not even know the reason they are even hated on. They just follow the crowd. Other big influencers could be Adolf Hitler and William Shakespeare. In many of Shakespeare’s acts, the actors displayed much hatred against Jews like in “The Merchant of Venice” play I saw at the Miller Outdoor Stadium. Adolf Hitler’s voice was so persuasive and direct that some of that energy still lingers in some people today and they kill Jews as

Love and hate are both very powerful emotions. The abundance one can feel inside when feeling them can be overwhelming at times. I think everyone can relate to the feeling when you love someone so much you would do anything and everything for them. We can also understand that feeling when you can’t even stand the thought of someone being in the same room of you. When we look at what emotion is more powerful, I think hate is stronger than love. The reason being is that love can quickly turn to hate, but hate doesn’t change to love very fast, if at all. I think Othello is a great example of this. His love for his wife, turned to hate so fast because he thought she was cheating on him. He murdered his wife in pure cold blood which shows how hate can be such a powerful emotion that it can actually cause someone to want to commit murder. The feeling of love and hate can change someone, and they both can be very powerful. However, I think that hate is an emotion unlike no other in which the feeling is very stable, in the since that it is very hard to change someone’s mind about you when they hate you.