¶ … Weave of Hatred in Othello The first sign of hatred in Othello is made by Roderigo who says to Iago of the Moor, "Thou toldst me thou didst hold him in thy hate" (1.1.7), though there is never a substantial reason given -- merely excuses (he was passed over for a position, and besides it is rumored that he has cuckolded Iago ... nevertheless, the reasons do not matter -- it is "motiveless malignity" as Coleridge called it (Bradley 228). The second sign of hatred in the play comes from the father of Desdemona, who respects Othello as a general (as do all the Senators), but as a son-in-law, he wants nothing of him. He despises the fact that his daughter has married the Moor without receiving his blessing, and his hatred of their union underscores the obvious tension between their match -- he is an outsider and black; she is a Venetian and white. These two seeds of hatred will both feed a spring of self-doubt and abnegation that already exists in Othello, as he attempts to wed two worlds together -- his soldier world and his new, domestic world. But by bringing his new wife off to front, he exposes her to the hateful plotting of Iago, which ensnares Othello and turns the general's love for his wife into hate. So out of control does Othello's hatred become, that the play ends in murder. This paper will show how hatred is woven into Othello as a result of the seeds of hate planted in his soul by Iago, Desdemona's own father, and the troubled spring of their own hasty elopement.

Iago agrees with Roderigo that he does hate Othello (1.1.171), but he notes that he puts on a pretense of "love" in order to deceive him and draw him into his confidence ... and like a spider when it catches a fly drop his venom into him. Iago reiterates this hatred again two scenes later, again to Roderigo: "I have told thee often, and I retell...

He repeats himself twenty lines later: "I hate the Moor" (1.3.429), so that the audience (and Roderigo) are sure of his intentions. Iago is the personification of malice in the play. His hatred is asserted constantly and he takes delight in poisoning the lives of others. Thus, his aim is to cause hatred to grow in Othello, where love has recently bloomed for the fair Desdemona, his new wife.
Iago does not work this weave alone. His accomplice is Roderigo -- but he also has another (unwitting) accomplice in Desdemona's father. It might even be suggested that both Othello and Desdemona themselves play a part in the dynamic, as their elopement causes serious tension at the outset and sets up the possibility for Iago to work his mischief.

Indeed, the romantic love of Othello and Desdemona is, in a way, doomed from the start. There is never any public courtship: he is a Moor -- an outsider to Venice (though its most prominent defender); she is the daughter of a Senator. They elope without seeking consent from her father, and his parting words to the general are ominous and foreboding ("She has deceived her father and may thee") (1.3.334). Even when they attempt to defend their surreptitious romance to the Venetian elders, Othello refers to his love as being overly spiritual, denying that normal flesh and blood sexuality had anything to do with it (a denial that will be revealed as hollow later as his jealousy mounts). Finally, the newlyweds essentially head off to the front lines of the battle field (an uncommon honeymoon -- all the more uncommon in that soldiers' wives typically stay at home, not on the front with their husbands). Thus there is little balance or propriety in the way that their relationship begins and through this hastily-constructed edifice, Iago cuts a…