Major Themes in Othello

 

Major Themes in Othello

The play Othello is a domestic tragedy and includes the occurrence of individual characters. The themes in Othello relate to individual characters stretching from loathing to adore, envy to vengeance, provision to treachery, and naïveté to guilty. Major themes In Othello are love, jealousy, ethnic discrimination, appearance versus actuality, anticipations versus conclusion and trickery.

Theme of love

Love is the central theme of the play but tragically the trap of conspiracies destroys it terribly. Love is the driving force of the play encircled by other themes. We can see diverse types of love in the play: Desdemona’s love for Othello, Othello’s love for Desdemona, Emilia’s love for her mistress, Desdemona’s love for her maid, Desdemona’s affections for Cassio, Iago’s love for money, Roderigo’s love for Desdemona, are the few instances of the love in the play.

The marriage of Othello and Desdemona was based on true love, but Othello fails to acknowledge love of her wife, Desdemona, before long. Primarily Othello considers that he is committed to love but he is beaten in love at the end. He has attained several triumphs in the battlefield but in his own home, he loses the battle of love. His adversary, Iago, ruined his love and he became an uncomplicated prey for Iago. It was only due to his wrong judgment and believing Iago without any approval.

Desdemona’s love in friendship for Cassio is real because she knows that Cassio and Othello are best friends from a long period, but the jealous Othello interprets it as illicit love. We examine Emilia’s real love in friendship for Desdemona. She stood up to witness for the honor of her dead mistress against her own lying husband, Iago, and was killed for her love for her mistress. Iago uses the word “love” in a broader and falser manner than the others. Iago even says he loves Desdemona, but his intentions were different from others, he could feel some sexual appeal for her. For Iago, love is nothing but influence.

Theme of jealousy

The downfall of the Othello is based on Jealousy that outcomes what Iago desires. What Iago uncovers about the jealousy is, “O beware jealousy; / It is the green ey’d monster, which doth mock / That meat it feeds on” (Act III. scene3, lines 169–170). Iago believes he understands jealousy, but his jealousy is not strong as compared to the tempest of jealousy he stirs up in Othello. Iago was not conscious that his seed of jealousy grown in mind of Othello would grow into very venomous oaks. Othello’s jealousy was like a thunderstorm from where fleeing was not feasible. The zenith of jealousy was only based on one idea, the idea that his wife, Desdemona, has deceived him with Cassio, that no other clarification or assurance can penetrate. Jealousy drives him so crazy that he cannot stop himself to kill his own lovely wife. Iago gains every opportunity to raise his jealousy by adding more lies and manipulating those lies into reality for him and he was not aware of motives of his so-called Honest Iago.

Theme of racial prejudice

Racial prejudice plays an important role in the play and one of the major themes in Othello. We can guess from the view of Brabantio when he says, a Moor (Othello) cannot win a heart of a girl like Desdemona (a Venetian girl) but she was seduced by witchcraft that shows Venetian society has racial prejudice. Desdemona is aware of racial prejudice, but she is in true love with Othello and marries him. On the other hand, Othello was also aware with this racial prejudice and he suspects how a girl can be in love with him like Desdemona when seed of jealousy grow in mind of Othello manipulated by Iago. Prejudice was penetrated deeply into the personality of Othello and this absorbed prejudice undermines him with thoughts like “I am not worthy of Desdemona,” “I am not attractive,” “It cannot be true that she really loves me,” and “If she loves me, then there must be something wrong with her.” These thoughts were fixed into the mind of Othello by intrigues of Iago. Half spoken sentences of Iago and his comments on Cassio, when he was meeting with Desdemona, mad Othello mad.

Theme of appearance versus reality

Appearance and reality are also a significant theme in Othello. Othello demands evidence and these evidences devastated his life. Othello demands for proof form Iago and say: “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, be sure of it, give me the ocular proof” (act III, scene 3, pages 365–366). How Iago makes him fool by offering fake proofs and Othello believes thoughtlessly without exploring for truth and reality. Othello did not believe on Emilia when she validates true love of Desdemona and believes on Iago thinking him his greatest friend. How Othello believes on manufactured and manipulated story of handkerchief without asking true tale from Emilia when he asks from her about Desdemona. How Iago was foe and how Othello considers him authentic friend. How Cassio was candid to Othello and what Othello considers about him. How Desdemona was pious in love with him and how Othello observes her. Othello fails to judge reality everywhere and push himself into endless jealousy. 

Theme of expectations versus outcome

We see that what prospects before marriage of Desdemona and Othello were, and how these expectations turned into downfall after their marriage. What were the motives of Iago, and how much he thrived? How Iago intends to get rid of Cassio from his post and how he obtains a good post at the conclusion? We have also noticed that how Emilia was devoted to her mistress, and what she obtains from her faithfulness. She gets terrible death by her own husband in respect of her devotion to her mistress even after her death. How Othello planned to kill Desdemona and how he kills himself after knowing the reality? How Roderigo attacks Cassio to remove him from his way, and how Iago kills him to make his own way clear? Nothing occurred in the play as per anticipations, but we witnessed that which was unpredicted.  On every scene audience were astonished to realize something different from expectancy.