The Progress Of The Love Of Othello And Desdemona In 'Othello'
In Othello by William Shakespeare the audience witnesses the progress of love between Othello and Desdemona. Othello is defined as a tragedy as it begins with a hero standing before us and ends with the death of an innocent. Othello and Desdemona’s relationship follows this same pattern as Othello’s nature changes from “noble warrior” to “murderous…villain” due to Iago's manipulations. Shakespeare presents the progress of Othello’s and Desdemona’s love to communicate to the audience that society's prejudice can bring about the downfall of innocent and naïve people.
In act one Desdemona has deceived her father, Brabantio by marrying a black man, Othello. Brabantio believes that Othello “corrupted [Desdemona] by spells and medicines brought by mountebanks” and enchanted her so that she would marry him. Brabantio warns Othello to “look to her, Moor if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father and may thee”. This foreshadows to the audience what is to come of their relationship in the future.
However, Othello and Desdemona’s relationship is based on true love because she “fell in love with what she feared to look on”. This brings about the idea that love is blind as Desdemona doesn’t let Othello’s race influence her heart. Good point However a reversal of fortune is brought about due to Othello’s choice of trust. Othello chooses to trust Iago because he is his right-hand man and has been there since the beginning. However what the audience is privy to Iago lying, cheating, and deceiving. Because of this Iago is considered to be a Machiavellian character because he is two-faced. The ironic use of the word ‘honest’ a lot of times changes his personality to suit the person he is trying to charm. But the person that Iago hates the most is “the Moor” and decides to “make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me for making him egregiously an ass.” The part that he plays in Othello and Desdemona’s relationship is when he manipulates Othello into believing Cassio and Desdemona have been “as prime as goats and as hot as monkeys.” This is where the first seed of doubt has been sown into their relationship. This is all brought about because Othello chose to trust Iago over his own wife. The next stage in Othello and Desdemona’s relationship is where the audience sees both Desdemona and Othello suffering. This is due to Iago's string of manipulations. Iago tells Othello that he saw Cassio use Desdemona’s handkerchief to “wipe his beard”.
At this point in the play, Othello begins to doubt himself and his relationship. This shows that the audience their relationship is strained and Othello has succumbed to Iago’s manipulations as he questions Desdemona. Othello has been poisoned by Iago’s words and this had begun his descent into insanity. The last stage of Othello’s and Desdemona’s relationship is where pathos occurs. The audience knows that death is imminent as Iago tells Othello to murder Desdemona “do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed.” However, Desdemona is innocent and Othello is just “one who loved not wisely but too well.”
In the end, Othello finally realizes this and in his final soliloquy, he outlines his downfall before he commits suicide. However, the audience is not satisfied until Iago as been killed. However, he is alive and silent at the end of the play – another irony. This is because he manipulated everyone around him to cause the deaths of innocents. He destroyed the true love relationship that Othello and Desdemona possessed all for revenge. This leaves that audience shocked and scared that just one person with inscrutable power can wheel their way through society to cause such tragedy. You have a sound argument for most of the essay – I think the trap with this question is to avoid a plot summary.
