- Note that example essays should be used to inform your work and inspire your form. Do not copy and paste. It is not worth the potential exam-board sanctions.
Are Desdemona and
Othello in love?
When the existence of love is questioned in a text, one
inevitably falls into the impossible task of trying to define love itself. It
is clear from the characters' words that they believe they are in love; the
structure of the play itself suggests the love between them; but to a modern
reader, something in the speed of their love's ascent and its almost immediate
downfall reads as shallow. An argument that analyses language and structure is
built empirically and a strong case can be made for Desdemona and Othello's
love that way, whereas any argument that Desdemona and Othello were not in love
would be far more subjective.
The subject of love between Desdemona and Othello is first
fully introduced by Othello in an apologetic defence of his "whole course of love" to Brabantio
and the Senate. Othello describes that what drew Desdemona to him was not
witchcraft as Brabantio accused, but war stories. He states "She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
and I loved her that she did pity them." The qualities in Othello that attract Desdemona are his bravery,
that is, physical rather than mental or moral qualities. Her love seems to be a
kind of romantic fascination, and Othello describes that she wished "heaven had made her such a man."
This implication that Desdemona lives the life she covets through Othello is a
weak foundation for love; especially a love that will inevitably face obstacles.
A marriage would never run smoothly for a mixed-race couple in an Elizabethan
play, yet it is not race that is the fatal enemy of their romance, but the
"green eyed monster" as
foreshadowed by Desdemona's father when he says "Look at her, Moor, if thou has eyes to see: She has deceived her
father, and may thee."
The
structure of Othello provides evidence of Othello and Desdemona's love, as it
the central themes are derivative of Shakespearean comedies despite the fact
that Othello is a tragedy. The play's
preoccupation with love creates a generic instability, since love, as Francis
Beacon observed, was typically regarded as the "matter of comedies."1 Accordingly, Shakespeare
bases the action of the play on familiar comic plots involving the impediments
to marriage, and the groundless frenzies of jealous husbands which he then
turns to a tragic end. It is a play that begins where comedy ends, with the
father defeated and lovers married.
But
what happens after marriage? Very little in the way of "tupping", to begin with: the
lovemaking between Desdemona and Othello is relentlessly interrupted on the only
two nights they spend together before Othello murders her on their wedding
sheets. The doubtful existence of a sexual element to their relationship
potentially answers the question of why it was so easy for Othello to believe
that Desdemona was having an affair. Othello's insecurity is tangible in his
reason for loving Desdemona; that she admired him, pitied him, was awed by him.
This affirmation of his masculinity is fundamental to their love and without a
sexual relationship he could easily begin to doubt Desdemona's attraction to
him.
It is
impossible to conclusively deny the reality of the love of Desdemona and
Othello, but their love is not strong
enough to overcome its obstacles. Under some conditions it is possible that
their love might have outlived their lives and overcome its handicaps, yet it
is to miss the art of this drama not to see that the dramatist is here showing
the fragility of the relationship by placing it in the conditions that test it
to the uttermost and that reveal its weakness and bring it to defeat.
Bibliography: 1 - Francis Beacon 'Of Love' Essay, 1962
