Love And Desire In Othello

Love and desire are presented by the writers as motivation for the main protagonists of all three texts. However, again in all three the destructive forces of obsession and jealousy damage and ultimately destroy the protagonists in some way, either through their own pursuits of love and desire, or through the manipulative and destructive actions of antagonists.

It is arguable all three writers used their protagonists to represent the error of being in love with the idea of being in love, respectively; and in turn being destroyed through pursuits of ideals. Gatsby, Blanche, and Othello don’t see their love interests as they really are as people; however, they see them as the representation of what they desire most. For Gatsby, Daisy represents the life of the high classes and wealth that Gatsby, from his working class background had always dreamed of, blinding him to her materialistic nature and flaws. Mitch for Blanche represented an escape from the past she was running from, a chance for a fresh start, so despite not viewing him romantically, she agrees to marry him. To Othello, Desdemona represented the ideals of purity and loyalty expected of a woman In Elizabethan England. For him she was the ideal wife, so much that the idea of her purity being corrupted led him to feel the need to ‘cleanse’ her in order to restore that purity “If I quench thee…I can again thy former light restore”

In both The Great Gatsby and Othello, it is arguable that Gatsby and Othello had opportunity to avoid their destruction, however they both desired love so much it consumed them, and the loss of it, or perceived loss of it in Othello’s case led to their destructions. Shakespeare presents Othello’s love as so potent, that the thought of loss of this ...

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...m, to an extent their love and desire might be seen as a catalyst for their own self-destructive traits. Othello was insecure because he was a ‘moor’ and already most likely scarred from years of war. Gatsby was always chasing the materialistic ideals of the American Dream, even from a young age to try and escape the life he was born into; even his name ‘Jay Gatsby’ is a result of his own need to reinvent himself. And Blanche became tangled in her own web of lies in pursuit of affection and financial security. Blanche needed to feel desirable, in a way like Gatsby she sought to reinvent herself when she came to Elysian Fields. All three protagonists in all three texts made the same mistake. As explored by all three writers, the tragic destruction of the characters was brought about by their similar natures. All three were “one that loved not wisely, but too well.”