OthelloEssay title: OthelloWithout Trust, Love Cannot PrevailTrust can be defined as assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something (Webster’s 1246). In life many people are faced with the decision on who or who not to trust, especially in the realm of love. Trust is one of the main factors needed to determine a healthy, loving relationship. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, the main character Othello is unable to trust his new bride Desdemona. In act one, scene three, Desdemona professes her love for Othello in front of her father, as well as the court. Regardless of Desdemona’s professed love for Othello, Othello fails to see her honest love and becomes blind of her devotion for her husband, when he should have had trust. Since Othello failed to have confidence in himself, when it pertained to love, he failed to have confidence in his wife and marriage, which led Othello to not trust his new bride. In society today lack of trust in one’s partner is able to ruin a good relationship just as Othello did with his new marriage. Trust is a key factor in a healthy relationship, without it love is unable to prevail.
In act one, scene three, Othello calls in his new bride to allow her to speak on behalf of their relationship. Without hesitation Desdemona speaks on behalf of herself and her love for her husband.
“That I (did) love the Moor to live with himMy downright violence and storm of fortunesMay trumpet to the world. My heart’s subdudedEven to the very quality of my lord.I saw Othello’s Visage in his mind,And To his honors and his Valiant partsDid I my soul and Fortunes consecrate.So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,A moth of peace, and he go to the war,The rites for why I love him are bereft meAnd I a heavy interim shall supportBy his dear absence. Let me go with him.”(Shakespeare 45, line 283-293).Desdemona professed her love for Othello in front of her father and the court. By doing so she reinforced the fact that no magic or mystical powers were used and she explained how she went with Othello freely, by doing so she redefines her own status as Othello’s wife (Calderwood 29). By confessing her love, Desdemona is presenting to Othello her faithfulness to him because she is allowing all of them (those in the court) to know about her love, which should allow Othello to see her love for him is real and that he is able trust her and love her.
Regardless of Desdemona’s professed love for Othello, Othello fails to see her honest love and becomes blind of her devotion for him. During this time Othello becomes consumed by jealousy, and is unable to trust Desdemona due to Iago’s deceitful lies about Desdemona committing adultery. Throughout the play Iago is antagonistic and fabricated views are constantly placed in front of Othello. An example of this is in Act three, scene three.
Iago:“….I speak not yet of proof.Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;Wear your eyes thus, not jealous nor secure.I would not have your free and noble nature,Out of self-bounty, be abused. Look to ‘t.I know our country disposition well.In Venice they do let (God) see the pranksThey dare not show their husbands. Their bestConscienceIs not to leave ‘t undone, but [keep’t] unknown.”Othello: I am bound to thee forever.(Shakespeare lines 224-236 pg 131)Here Othello has fallen into Iago’s trap of treachery about his wife committing adultery without even questioning Desdemona, who has only displayed unconditional love. Iago plays on Othello’s emotions to the point where Othello is unable to take the pain, which was put upon him by Iago’s lies and goes to the extreme of killing his wife. By allowing Iago’s words to control his (Othello’s) thoughts and emotional feels toward Desdemona, Othello was unable to trust his wife and in return destroyed their love.
Iago: When I came back from Italy a week before, I was at the station, on a ship full of Jews. In Sicily an old doctor called Moli and gave you a tour of the city—where the Jews came and tried all kinds of drugs. And I was asked to tell you about them and, having told him about the Jews, he told me his story of how he arrived in Sicily along with thousands of their people and how they took the lives of many of his people. Moli gave you, I remember it, some of his most sensitive evidence that you might find from the story of Desdemona. He’s now making a speech in the church, and all the Jews go and have their affairs at a profit. He says that they must all go home and then have the Jews come to kill them, and not only that but they have this idea that they were just looking for a good opportunity to kill his wife, for it’s a very hard thing to do. Iago says that he’s coming to tell you, but it’s so too late to do anything now, this is too late. He takes up all his talk, but he just walks off in the wrong order. [Iago adds that] you were going to listen, and be quiet even though there was no harm done to you. He says he was saying that because he was thinking of betraying people, it would never be right for anyone to kill everyone he meets in one night.Moli: This whole time I thought of just killing everybody. If that can help you in some way the devil could do it too. So, in order to get rid of one of your many enemies, he put you in the same position you were and tried to kill you all. So, all the good people go and lie in wait and just kill until your last breath, or until I tell this story of the Jewish people and Desdemona, or at any rate the entire land. [Shakespeare ends with a scene with Iago’s eyes shining in sympathy.][Iago was speaking to Moli from the hotel to which he was going at the time, and was sitting in the middle of the room with a big, green suitcase that he had stuffed and a very small, leather bag under his seat.]Moli: You remember my mother; when I was two there came out to me and said you’d better show up one day and we’ll talk about it. (Shakespeare starts to walk toward his room at the time.)Then I went and sat with Desdemona there. I said, “How can I say this. Why am I here? I’ve only visited one town, so I can’t know how many? I want to give you all credit for telling us. I want you to take the time you need, because no man’s going to come to try to kill you.” It turned out that his daughter was about to leave when Moli came over. She called Moli’s phone and gave him one of those little telegrams where he would just stop saying what he did when he didn’t actually say anything.I thought, Well I have something to tell you. She brought her daughter back, and said it wasn’t about his daughter. So, she left. The girl’s only children were then in her care. She never saw me again. “Where are those you don’t want to see?” that’s the one I just kept saying, not knowing how to say it even though