Othello and Oxford English Dictionary

Othello and Love

Love and Othello

Love is a fleeting, passionate, agonizing, and steep theme to William Shakespeare's tragedies. Chief among these tragedies is Othello, which portrays the aspect of love in different ways. Through the eyes of the varied characters, the audience can see that love is easily thrown about to mean a number of things; true love, a phrase that seems to be used only by one character -- or one character type -- hardly figures into the picture. In fact, the presence of a clever and vengeful Iago and that of the easily-duped Othello has covered the play with uses of love that are not what the readers usually attach to Desdemona's "true love."

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word "love" in four different ways. Love is: (1) a "strong feeling of affection, a strong feeling of affection and sexual attraction for someone"; (2) a "great interest and pleasure in something"; (3) a "person or thing that one loves"; and (4) to "feel deep affection or sexual love for (someone)" (Oxford). In Othello, all four definitions are used to mean "love" for different characters. The first definition is broken into two categories, one that signifies a stronger love than the other -- this love seems to afflict Desdemona and Bianca the most; both females gained "strong [feelings] of affection" for their respective significant others -- Othello and Cassio, respectively. The latter part of the first definition and the second definition seem to define what Iago thinks of regarding love itself. Othello embodies the third definition, while Roderigo falls into the last definition of love. Instances in the play show these characterizations of love, whether through conversation, monologue, or through actions.

Desdemona is a straight enough individual with regards to the aspect of love. In all respects, Desdemona shows that she truly loves the Moor, stating that "I love the Moor to live with him, my downright violence, and storm of fortunes, may trumpet to the world" (Act I, scene iii). In her statement of defiance to her father, Desdemona shows that she is willing to sacrifice even her very fortunes and her father's love to be with Othello. Even at the very end, as Othello yells and berates her, she continues to be filled with such love that she forgives her husband everything, even murder. In her final statement to Emilia, Desdemona says: "My mother had a maid called Barbary. She was in love; and he/she loved proved mad and did forsake her" (Act IV, scene iii). Here we see that she continues to love Othello, even when it looks like Othello is prepared to leave.

The concept of love is perverted by the men in the play. Cassio and Roderigo provide some sort of misconception of love, likening it to an infatuation, a mere fancy at the time. Cassio is the lesser evil, for his infatuations only reach a certain level of physical attraction. When Iago asks him if Desdemona speaks "an alarum to love," Cassio merely agrees with "she is indeed perfection" (Act II, scene iii). His sexual attraction does not go further than that, though Iago would later push otherwise. Roderigo, however, begins to relay his obsession with love on Desdemona, even though, throughout the play, he does not utter the word "love" in any case. Iago refers to Roderigo as a "sick fool," "whom love hath turned almost the wrong side out," an indication that Roderigo is merely infatuated (Act II, scene iii).

This further deepens the perversion of love to Iago's perception of it. As one of the center characters of the play -- and perhaps the most vocal, second to Othello -- Iago's thought process is the most constantly visible. He proclaims that love is a mere synonym to lust, to carnal pleasures. He finds it a distraction, a means to an end. In this way he uses "love" so lightly in his conversations that he begins to twist the characters around his fingertips with ease. "That Cassio loves her, I do well believe 't," Iago says as an aside, observing the slight admiration Cassio has to an attractive female (Act II, scene i). Likewise, Iago also admits that "I do love [Desdemona] too; not out of absolute lust…" (Act II, scene i), signifying his overall exchange of love for lust.