Othello is a love story

In his last speech in Act V, Othello asserts that he is ‘one that loved not wisely but too well’ and there is a great deal of truth in what he says. Othello loved Desdemona sincerely and the sympathetic ways in which she listened to his tales of high adventure and heroism attracted the Moor towards the charming lady:

“She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d

And I lov’d her that she did pity them.”

Desdemona saw Othello’s ‘visage in the mind’ and loved him for his noble qualities of head and heart. She had touched the springs of his very being. Her beauty had ravished him and his soul went out to her. We may witness this joy of his reunion with her at Cyprus after their brief separation. The words that emanated from his mouth at that time exhibit his deep and intense love for his charming wife.

“If it were now to die

T were now to be most happy; for I fear,

My soul hath her content so absolute

That no another comfort like to this

Succeeds 1nunknown fate”.

Othello always referred to Desdemona as ‘My gentle love’, and talked endearingly with his wife. Even when Iago had poured the poison of jealousy into the ears of Othello, he called back, in a reminiscent mood, his old love for Desdemona with an anguished wail:

“Excellent wretch, perdition catch my soul,

But I do love thee, and when I loved thee not,

Chaos is come again”.

Othello did not believe the sinful insinuations against Desdemona readily, and it was on account of his deep and intense love for Desdemona that he cried out:

“If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself,

I’ll not believe’t’’.

At a later stage he rebuked Iago for slandering Desdemona whom he loved dearly: ‘villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore’.

Thus Othello’s thoughts again and again return to her beautiful Self and had Iago not been there, his noble self would have asserted itself, and the ultimate tragedy would have been averted.

Othello himself admits that he loved Desdemona well but was not wise in his love. The truth is that he had all traits of deep love except an insight into the soul of his beloved. As a matter of fact, he has had no time to live with Desdemona and understand her child-like innocence and purity of soul. He was married secretly at night and was separated from her soon after. And Iago’s plot was a foot as soon as they were reunited at Cyprus. Had they lived together for some time, he would have gained that insight into her nature which is essential for a happy conjugal life.

Thus Othello is the tale of a man who loved his beloved excessively but not wisely.

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