The love Desdemona and Othello share is pitted against the seething hatred Iago feels toward Othello in this tragedy—and hate wins.
Othello and Desdemona truly love each other, despite their differences in culture, age, and race. Iago, who already hates Othello as someone he doesn't accept as worthy of having command over him, becomes even angrier and more violently hate filled when Othello promotes Cassio over him. The best way Iago can find to hurt Othello is to drive a wedge between him and Desdemona. He grasps that Othello's weak point is his insecurity about being lovable to such a woman, and so Iago goes after that weakness relentlessly.
We see that hate is the enemy of romantic love. A hateful character like Iago can't bear to see Desdemona and Othello contented and in love. But another enemy of love is insecurity. If Othello could have loved himself more—perhaps an impossible hope given the racist culture of Venice—Iago could not have manipulated him into killing Desdemona.
Further, sexism interferes with love. Othello, a military leader, is used to relying on the advice and insight of other men, so he doesn't communicate enough with Desdemona. This contributes to their tragic end.
The play also shows the pitfalls involved when good, pure-hearted people go up against an evil manipulator who will tell any lie or stoop to any level to achieve his ends. Desdemona and Othello fully expect that the people around them will share their own sense of truth and honor. They can't see what a vile person Iago is and are not prepared to defend against him.
The play shows that love is not only an isolated quality shared between two people but plays out in the context of a larger social reality, in which hate can be a destructive force. In this way, the play is similar to Romeo and Juliet, where larger hatreds contribute to the deaths of the main characters.
William Shakespeare explores love primarily through the characters of Othello and Desdemona, and hate primarily through Iago. Othello and Desdemona have a deep, passionate, committed love for one another. Desdemona has defied convention in order to marry Othello. Her father, Brabantio, loves his daughter and wants to see her happily wed. His racial prejudice, however, makes him suspicious of Othello’s motives and methods. While he never grows to love Othello, he begrudgingly accepts him as Desdemona’s husband. Othello’s love for Desdemona leads to such great jealousy that he cannot stand the idea of her being with another man or betraying him. Distraught when he realizes he has killed her, he takes his own life rather than live without her.
Iago seems to be what today would be called a sociopath, and he is possibly also a narcissist. He is incapable of loving anyone and treats his wife, Emilia, with contempt; he is totally self-centered. His motivation for hatred seems to be envy combined with arrogance, along with elements of racism. Iago’s resentment at serving a black superior officer feeds into his negative feelings, which are compounded when Othello rejects him for a promotion. It may be as well that Iago hates the idea of a black man marrying a white woman. Factors that might seem minor to another man seem major to Iago, who develops such hatred for Othello that he is determined to destroy him. Paradoxically for a man who cannot love, he understands the kinds of passions love can stir up and uses them against Othello.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare illustrates the passionate and often misguided emotions of love and hate. Love is illustrated by Othello's strong affection for Desdemona. Despite Othello's passion for Desdemona, his love quickly turns to hate once Iago convinces him that Desdemona is having an affair with Michael Cassio. Othello's capricious disposition emphasizes how easily love and hate can transform into one another. Since both emotions are manifestations of deep desires and unaffected by logic, love and hate are portrayed as interchangeable throughout the play. Othello's unhinged jealousy manifests into hate as he loses the ability to control his emotions. While his strong passion remains constant, Othello alters its direction towards hate as he brutally murders his beloved Desdemona. Overall, both emotions are represented as fickle, unreliable manifestations of passion; they can be easily interchanged and are in no way connected to logic.
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