While Desdemona often expresses her love of Othello and her dedication to “His honors and his valiant parts,” it is obvious that Othello does not truly love Desdemona (1.3.288). The first reason that shows that Othello does not indeed love Desdemona is that he does not completely trust her. After Iago tells Othello that he believes Cassio and Desdemona are in love, Othello immediately decides that this must be the truth, and vows to “tear her all to pieces” (3.3.490). This quote displays the fact that Othello’s trust for Desdemona is as fragile as eggshells are in an earthquake. Several times throughout the book, his own unsupported ideas completely overrule anything Desdemona could say. The fact that he trusts ideas with no proof whatsoever
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
In Othello, Desdemona has a relentless nature which allows her to love and care unconditionally. Throughout the play, Desdemona has a determined attitude towards her beliefs and she does not believe other’s opinions. This is shown when Desdemona and Emilia were having a conversation. Emilia tells Desdemona that Othello shows jealously but Desdemona immediately disagrees with Emilia telling her to “Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse/Full of crusadoes And but my noble Moor/ Is true of mind, and made of no such baseness/As jealous creatures are, it were enough/To put him to ill thinking” (3.4.24-29). Desdemona is relentless in her love for Othello and claims Othello to be too noble to be jealous. Her relentless nature makes her love for Othello so unconditional that she cannot see the clear jealousy Othello harbours. Desdemona then shows that she is not only relentless but determined when she makes a promise with Cassio. After being harshly fired, Desdemona promises Cassio that she will convince
Desdemona is portrayed as a very inquisitive women, whom loves to explore the things and people outside of her class. She fell in love with Othello because of her curious nature and being attracted to his acts of bravado. Her intentions are sincere; however her curiosity in this act is seen as folly. She asks her cousin Lodovico about his arrival and informs him of Cassio’s dismissal. This angers Othello as she is praising another man, taking a persona of being proactive about him. For Othello this concludes that she is disobedient and has dishonored him - to put her in place, he resorts to violence:
Othello is not hurt because of a failing love, but because of how it makes him look and hurts his pride. This is when things get ugly. Othello puts more trust in Iago than in his own wife. This is due, in part, to Iago's manipulative skills, but mostly to Othello's lack of communication skills, especially with his wife. But Desdemona does not do anything to mediate the situation and lets the condition escalate, and her self-blaming attitude only perpetuates Othello's misgiven notion that she has been falsely accused . After Othello strikes her in front of the whole dinner party, and orders her around like a peasant,
Othello’s love for Desdemona was so deep he could not bear the thought of another being with her; “If she be false, O! Then heaven mocks itself. I’ll not believe’t.” Iago uses the characters of Cassio and the obsessive Roderigo as his weapons in his cunning plan. Iago drives the idea into Othello’s mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful, inciting him into a state of jealousy. “Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee; and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” Othello growing insecurities about his wife’s faithfulness only adds to his psychological suffering which in turn acts as a catalyst towards the suffering of other characters involved in the play.Iago tells these lies with the intention of driving Othello insane as well as establish his dominance and influence the situations of those characters close to Othello. Evidence of this comes in one of Iago’s soliloquies from act two, scene one; “That Cassio loves her, I do well Believe’t: That she loves him, ‘tis apt and of great credit.” This section shows that he is trying to convince himself that his own manipulative lies are true and is trying to reassure his motives by justifying his own actions. By convincing Othello
She begins the play as a independent and thoughtful person, but she must struggle against all odds to make Othello believe that she is not too independent. Desdemona is a symbol of innocence and helplessness. However in the beginning of the play, she seems to be mature and quite insightful of events around her. Iago often tells Othello that she is unfaithful. It seems that she refuses to accept what Iago is doing. She has a tendency to be sympathetic towards other people's situations, like Cassio. This also further inspired Othello's jealousy when Iago pointed out that Cassio and Desdemona were speaking in private. She often pays attention to other people’s thoughts, yet remains distrustful if they differ from her own. She has a loyalty to her husband in all aspects of life,
"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.
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 very man who was ever so kind and respectful to Desdemona, letting her speak for herself, now brutally orders her to go back to bed. On top of that, Emilia’s claims that Desdemona is innocent, Othello refuses to accept that it is true. Othello assumes, “She says enough; yet she’s a simple bawd/That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,/A closet lock and key of villainous secrets;/And yet she’ll kneel and pray. I have seen her do’t.”
Looking at the play, all along Desdemona is a very feminine character. She most likely acts like a wife and daughter. So full of cares, Desdemona at a point of the play even neglected her house quarrels and goes out to spare fellings with Cassio to try to help with his situations with Othello. So faithful she was, even when she and Othello were not on the best terms, she was still trying to fixed everything even she knows that she was not cheating, which she explains, " Yes, faith, so humbled that he hath left parts of his grief with me to suffer with him. Good love call him
It is obvious that Othello and Desdemona have feelings for each other, however, do the really truly love each other? It is a difficult topic and is debatable on both yes, and no. One belief is that both do love each other, but it looks as though Desdemona’s love is stronger then that of Othello’s. It seems as though Desdemona feels stronger towards Othello then he feels about her. There are many reasons as to why. For example, Othello can be convinced very easily and quickly by Iago’s words when he tells him that Desdemona is lying to him and cheating on him with Cassio.
Desdemona and Othello have a strong sense of love for each other at the beginning of the play but their relationship lacks support, trust, communication and understanding for one another. They have more of love at first sight, Desdemona sees a strong
Desdemona’s defense of Othello even as she dies, displays the unconditional love she had for him, a love beyond the concept of Eros. As Othello smothers her with a pillow she makes an effort to make sure that Othello still knows she loves him. “Emilia: Oh, who hath done this deed? Desdemona: Nobody. I myself.
Othello’s immediate trust for Iago’s speculations demonstrate the truth of the matter that Othello is not close with his wife to be able to hear the truth from her. Othello exhibits assurance in Iago and goes to him for advice. In return, Iago deceives Othello by pointing out Desdemona’s actions saying “She did deceive her father” by marrying a Moor (III.iii.206). Iago is implying that Desdemona is not to be trusted because she lied to her father. Othello now disregards Desdemona and changes his attitude towards her. Othello believes that if she was able to lie and hide a relationship from her own father, she is capable of hiding her cheating ways from him. Othello is persuaded that Desdemona has what it takes to go behind the backs of the people she loves and this creates