Introduction
William Shakespeare is known as the author of several great stories about human relationships. He focused on such eternal themes as love, friendship, respect, and family. Each of his plays delivers a serious message to the reader and helps understand the complexity of life. At the beginning of the 1600s, Shakespeare wrote Othello, his famous tragedy about the Moorish general and a white Venetian lady. A distinctive feature of this play compared to Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet is the author’s attention to racial inequalities and the power of external impact on people’s decisions and actions. Even being passionately in love with his young wife, the man demonstrates the impossibility to resist his credulity, which results in abuse and misunderstandings in family affairs. The role of Iago, Roderigo, and Cassio cannot be ignored, and their presence in Othello’s life determines most of his steps. Desdemona’s death at his husband’s hands proves that jealousy seeds are easy to sow but hard to eradicate because they are reinforced by the outside psychological and racial means, making characters weak, irrational, and desperate.
Main body
The death of Desdemona is probably one of the most tragic and unfair events in Shakespeare’s play that shows how fragile and dangerous the line between love and hatred is. In the previous four acts, Iago did many insidious things to convince Othello of Desdemona’s betrayal. As a result, Othello enters the room of his sleeping wife with the only intention to punish her and not to allow “she’ll betray more men” (Shakespeare 182). His question “Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona?” has already become an iconic symbol for many couples around the globe (Shakespeare 183). Without hearing her excuses and the desire to prove her innocence, Othello smothers Desdemona with a pillow, remembering her handkerchief in Cassio’s hands as the main evidence of her cheating. This moment turns out to be the key one in the story as it reveals the imperfection of patriarchal society and the inevitability of certain psychological effects on human decisions and behaviors. As soon as all truth is shared, Othello realizes how foolishly confiding he was for a long period, relying on his male pride, attention to unchecked evidence, and unwillingness to communicate with entrusted people.
The reasons, conditions under which Othello kills his wife, and outcomes of his choice create a solid background for many abusive husbands all the time. As a part of his regret, Othello describes himself to Lodovico as the “one that loved not wisely, but too well” (Shakespeare 195). This statement is used to introduce his love for Desdemona as intense and passionate and to explain his mistake as a rash and poorly judged action. As well as many individuals today, Othello is presented as a man of action, whose quick but thoughtless decisions affect his life and the lives of other people. On the one hand, his readiness to trust Iago and no need to check the credibility of his words make him weak. On the other hand, this blind loyalty can be explained by the power of patriarchal relationships in society. Unfortunately, despite his military professionalism, intuition, and doubts, Othello prefers to follow an honor code according to which he should not stand the infidelity of his friend and his wife. Still, all these details and controversies do not make Othello an antagonist but a tragic and trusting protagonist.
It is high time to dig a little deeper to clarify the character’s psychology that makes death the only inevitable outcome in the story. The madness of Othello is rooted in Iago’s jealousy and the desire to revenge. By his true nature, Othello is hardly jealous or irrational. His military experience “from year to year – the battles, sieges, fortunes… most disastrous chances, of moving accidents by flood and field” underlines the positive characteristics of Othello as a man and a leader (Shakespeare 84). He is strong and confident in his powers and skills, but Iago makes him vulnerable to jealousy, “the green-eyed monster which doth mock” (Shakespeare 131). The possible psychological explanation for Othello’s weakness is his failure to hide his true feelings as Iago does it. Deceptions of a friend are never easy to predict, and Iago admits that “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve/For daws to peck at. I am not what I am” (Shakespeare 68). The man aims at fooling others and using his false emotions to provoke distrust. Therefore, Othello’s madness has extrinsic reasons that he is not able to control or predict.
In addition to evident external factors of Othello’s jealousy, one should admit the role of racial distinction of the main character. The position of Shakespeare remains unclear in the play due to several ambiguous quotes and metaphors. Some characters neglect the color of their skin or accept it as their strength. Iago, in his turn, uses words as his main weapon to strengthen Brabantio’s negative attitudes toward Othello by informing him that his daughter “covered with a Barbary horse” is “now making the beast with two backs” (Shakespeare 70). He also compares Othello with “an old black ram” and Desdemona with a “white ewe” to underline the differences between the young people (Shakespeare 69). Brabantio does not accept the fact that his daughter could, “despite nature,… fall in love with what she feared to look on” (Shakespeare 82). All these characteristics do not play a crucial role in the play, but they explain why Othello might consider his skin color an outsider that provoking an inferiority complex.
Taking into consideration the impact of Iago’s deceptions and the impossibility to avoid the positions of certain people regarding Othello’s race, the line between love and hate is gradually erased. Although Othello cannot ignore his true feelings for Desdemona, he has to deal with a thought about his wife’s betrayal that Iago outrageously imposes. From their first meeting, Desdemona falls in love “for the dangers I had passed,” and Othello admires her charms because “she did pity them [dangers]” (Shakespeare 85). In a short period, Othello becomes spoiled by the seeds of jealousy and lie sowed by Iago. Instead of believing his wife, Othello trusts Iago and his “evidence” and considers marriage as a curse (Shakespeare 135). His love for a wonderful, innocent woman turns into the desire to “live upon the vapor of a dungeon” but never be under the spell of “these delicate creatures” (Shakespeare 135). He is not wise but passionate about everything that happens around him, and his mistakes, as well as madness, may be explained as an unconscious reaction fed by rough manipulations.
The story under analysis is full of complex characters, ambivalent monologues, and hard decisions. The reader becomes the only person who knows all the truth from the very beginning and can rationally assess each situation. The relationships between Othello and Desdemona seem to be doomed as soon as the former begins thinking of his race as something that distinguishes him from other people. Iago’s deception is unfair and disgusting because he uses innocent characters to achieve his evil purposes. Family abuse is not a new concept in modern society, but the way how it develops in Othello deserves attention and recognition. Men possess certain psychological and emotional powers over women, which makes them responsible for several significant decisions. Othello neglects his duties and prefers to trust a male opinion over the possibility to talk to his wife and clarify a situation. Therefore, the play teaches the reader never to make fast decisions but to value communication and the analysis of information.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the end of Othello is one of the most tragic events of the play. His love for Desdemona makes him passionate, and his passion makes him vulnerable to deception. Patriarchal ideology is not only a weapon in men’s hands but a challenge that imposes high-level responsibility. Racial and gender biases play an important role in the development of human relationships, and Shakespeare calls the reader to make fair judgments and mortify diversity. Iago’s manipulations lead to Othello’s madness in different ways and never allow him to think wisely. Therefore, the story of Othello and Desdemona reaches death because of the destructive effects of jealousy, blind faith, and poor self-esteem.
Reference
Shakespeare, William. Othello. Edited by Norman Sanders, Cambridge University Press, 2003.