Othello – Theme of Love

“I love the gentle desdemona” referring to his wife using the epithet gentle futher paints an image of her kind nature
‘She loved me for the dangers I had passed and I loved her she did pity them’ He is saying his relationship is built on pity, she fell in love with his stories. Othello is seen here as a well traveled and interesting man.
she had eyes and chose me’ Here, Othello is reminding himself that despite his insecurity over his race, Desdemona had free will to fall in love with him. This represents the good side of Othello’s conscience in which he reasons with his negative thoughts
‘O curse of marriage that we can call these delicate creatures ours and not their appetites’ Othello expresses typical 17th century views of women that in marriage they should ‘belong’ to their husbands and that they are prone to being unfaithful. Bring in feminist criticism if this comes up
‘Your wife, my lord: your true and loyal wife’ Desdemona’s pleas of innocence contrast with Iago’s claims of her infidelity. The audience can see she is desperate, we know she is innocent so this increases tensions as we want him to believe her.
‘Commend me to my kind lord’ Despite Othello’s treacherous actions, Desdemona still loves him. We can tell she is innocent and of good nature, we feel immense pathos for her here as she has done nothing to deserve this. Her referring to him as ‘my lord’ reinstates the 17th century belief that women belonged to men and should submit to them, and ‘my’ implies she still loves him.
“O my fair warrior” The two words “fair” and “warrior” contrast. Its almost as if because she is a woman, Desdemona, despite being married to the general and involved in the war, is still considered “fair”. Another interpretation would be that we see the kinder side to Othello here and we see how much he loves Desdemona.
“She is directly in love with him” Meaning Desdemona out of her own free will loves Othello, she hasn’t been drawn in by magic like her father claimed. A feminist critic would argue that here we see women as independent humans who can make their own choices.
“Cassio loves her, I do well believe it” Again, soliloquizing, Iago tells the audience his thoughts. He will use Cassio’s “love” for Desdemona for his own profit as he knows he holds her in high regard, it will make it a lot easier for him to convince Othello of their adultery because of this
“I did love the Moor to live with him” Here, Desdemona stands her ground agaisnt the sea of men critiquing her. Out of her own free will she chose to love othello and chose to live with him, she is not enchanted, this was her own choice and she stands by it.
“I won his daughter” Desdemona is seen here as a prize to be won, Othello hubris is also seen here.
“Her greedy ear devoured my discourse” Othello tells of how him and Desdemona fell in love. She was intrigued by his mysterious anecdotes.
“Iago you art full of love and honesty” Othello has been deceived by Iago. He is entirely blind to his ways and trusts him fully.
“When I love thee not, chaos is come again.” chaos will soon replace order in Othello’s life, foreshadows and shows how much he loves her ‘I will deny thee nothing’ is also repeated. negative abstract noun laced with dramatic irony (is Othello already in the grip of emotions he can’t handle? naturally jealous?)
August 27, 2019