The Meaning of Love in Shakespeare's Othello

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The Meaning of Love in Othello

The Bible says that 'all else is redundant without love', a most profound and relevant statement underlining the tragedy of Othello; in the absence of love, the Moor's fortunes plummet, so that he loses not only his respect and his posting but his life and that of his wife also. However, to truly understand the depth of this tragedy, it is essential to understand from where Othello, the protagonist, is coming before the arrival of his peripiteia, his falling out of love and into jealousy. It is therefore vital to understand the meaning of love in Othello, not only to fully portray Othello's fall from grace, but to understand many of the actions and views of the other characters in the play. It also enables the reader to understand what Shakespeare is trying to say about the world in general through his use of love.

There are in Othello, as in life, many different types of love, with some characters displaying different sorts of love depending on with whom they are sharing their love. Probably the most obvious love is between Othello and Desdemona, characterised by their happiness to see each other after Othello's separation due to the storm:

Othello: O my fair warrior!

Desdemona: My dear Othello!

Othello: ... O my soul's joy,

If after every tempest come such calms

May the winds blow till they have weakened death.

The emphatic language and hugely powerful imagery (the calm after the storm, the winds blowing until they weaken death, the examples) employed by Othello, as well as the short exclamations on first seeing each other indicate a feeling of true delight to once again be in one another's presence. However, and this is evident in the extract above, Othello and Des...

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...ty and Fortune.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego:

Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from “The Noble Moor.” British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955.

Kermode, Frank. “Othello, the Moor of Venice.” The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.

Mack, Maynard. Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.

Muir, Kenneth. Introduction. William Shakespeare: Othello. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996.

http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.

Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. “The Engaging Qualities of Othello.” Readings on The Tragedies.

Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven

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