The story of Othello is, as said by Phillip Mason is a “great Shakespearian tale” of that involve the audience to have a feeling of sympathy that comes from the deceit, hurt, and death of the play. However, this tale was more than just a tragedy it was also tale of a doomed love from the moment it started to its bitter end between the respectful moor Othello and fair the Desdemona. Now right about now your thinking what is moor and how is this important to this story? Well, to make this simple for everyone a moor is a reference to a black person, in Shakespearian language, and in this story it is important to know what a moor is because the moor is Othello, who is a black man and a highly respected soldier.
Now a piece of evidence that proves that Othello’s and Desdemona’s love was doomed from the start is that fact that Othello was a solider. Now being a soldier, you are required to travel to many places. While traveling your is bound to have several stories of heroic deeds and what not, right? So what better way to swoon someone then by telling them stories of adventure and heroism. This my friends is how Othello won the heart of the fair Desdemona. By Othello being his sweet innocent self and telling Desdemona of his adventures she begins to fall in love with through his stories. This is not a good way to fall in love with someone because you fall in love with their adventures and not with the persons themselves. After Desdemona falls in love with Desdemona and vice versa they decide to elope and get married in the middle of the night. The only people who knew that Othello married Desdemona was originally Iago and Roderigo. Eventually more people found out.
CASSIO
“I do not understand”
IAGO
“He’s Married”
CASSIO
“To who”I.II.50-53
Now after all this both Othello and Desdemona are in a state of innocence, being that they are madly love with each other, and have just been married. However, unbeknownst to them their love for each other is a conspiring factor in their unification of love because the moment that they are married they become advocates in other death’s. Now, in this sense I use the would “advocate” to describe someone who is like a puppet in a puppet show. They do everything that the puppeteer tells them to so without question or cause. But now your probably asking yourself that if Othello and Desdemona are the said “puppets” then who is the puppeteer that is leading them or making them be advocates? Well, that would be non other than Iago, the main villain to this story, and in a sense of irony, Othello’s ancient, or counsel man.
Iago is the main evil conspirator in this story for many reasons. However his main reasons for being the villain is that he hates Othello, because of his race, he hates working under him, and is upset that Othello decided to promote Cassio as and lieutenant over him. When he decides that he has had enough Othello, Iago decides to come up with a plan to get rid of Othello. When Iago decides to this he unknowingly becomes the puppeteer that will steer Othello and, unknowingly, Desdemona to their deaths. To do this, Iago tells a lie to Othello that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio, Othello’s lieutenant. To prove this to be true Iago puts Desdemona’s handkerchief, the one that Othello gave her, in Cassio’s room, and plants a seed of doubt in Othello saying that Desdemona gave to Cassio to symbolize their love. Iago then later tells Othello to question Desdemona about it’s where a bouts, already knowing that it is with Cassio.
OTHELLO
” That handkerchief which I so loved and gave thee
Thou gav’st to Cassio” V.II.52-53
Now, your probably thinking how could Iago’s plan bear fruit so quickly when he was around Othello and Desdemona often? Well, Harry Berger Jr. made a valid point in saying that Iago’s plan wouldn’t have been able to happen so quickly without their help. Iago already knew right off the bat that Othello was way to trust worthy. So he used that to advantage to plant seeds of doubt in Othello, and Othello, being the kind of person he is, listens to the lies that Iago tells him, because he trusts Iago and believes him to know how to handle situations like this. By having so much faith in Iago, this becomes another piece of evidence that proves that Othello’s and Desdemona’s love was doomed, because Othello choose to listen to Iago’s lies instead of confronting his wife, like he should of, and asked her for the truth. This proves that he had more faith in Iago than Desdemona.
In the end Othello and Desdemona’s love was doomed from the start. The first piece of evidence being that Desdemona was easily swooned by Othello’s stories. Instead of listening to his stories and getting caught up in them she should have taken the time to get to know him before marrying him out of wedlock. The other piece of evidence being that they just couldn’t think for themselves. Othello, being especially guilty on this, because he chose to listen to Iago’s lies instead of confronting and asking for his wife’s side of the story. So looking at play’s entirety we see that it has many aspects that make us think that this was just a regular old tragic tale of “some guy” dying. However, as Peter Hollindale explained this play has, in itself, it’s own beauty when telling us a story of tragic love that can be compared to other great Shakespearian works.
Othello & Desdemona's Love 