love and sex

1) passioante but vulnerable love 2) possessive love 3) unconditional, sacrificial love

Desdemona and Othello’s passionate but vulnerable love

• their love is passionate, true and intense

• but they both leave themselves vulnerable: desdemona renounces her family, Othello is open to racial predjudice

• both parties are rendered blind and naive by their intense love

Othello

‘excellent wretch..’

3.3

“But I do love thee! and when I love thee not
Chaos is come again."

• hyperbole reflects the intensity of his emotions

• dramatic irony: the audience already senses their love is under threat due to Iago’s manipulation, foreshadows the downfall

→ emphasises the feelings of tragedy

Desdemona

1.3

‘I do perceive here a divided duty.’

• noun duty suggests that her romantic and familial love bind her

• ultimately she chooses her romantic love, an expression of the self: her desires, over familial

• although this leaves her vulnerable

possessive love

• both othello and brabantio demonstrate a possessive and controlling love towards desdemona

• this isn’t true love, it is conditional, dependent on her obeying their command

Brabantio

‘run from her guardage..’

1.2

‘run from her guardage to the sooty bosom’

• racist imagery: suggesting his blackness is dirty/ unnature

• contrast of ‘guardage’ and ‘sooty bosom’ suggests the disbelief he has of her betrayal

→ shows his arrogance and the shallowness of his love, he is most upset that she has defied and embarrassed him

Othello

‘I will kill thee..’

5.2

‘I will kill thee and love thee after.’

→ Juxtaposition: violent action and their love, clear example of their destructive love

→ Othello wants to make her completely passive, own her like a possession

true sacrificial love

• both female characters demonstrate true, unconditional and sacrifical love

• emilia to desdemona as she defies her husband in Desdemona’s defence

• Desdemona to Othello as she dies at his hand, remaining committed to him

Emilia

‘No. I will speak…’

5.2

‘No. I will speak as liberal as the north.’

→ simile and modal verbs, releases herself from restraints of patriarchy

→ ultimately her defiance costs her her life as iago kills her to silence her

Desdemona

‘Nobody. I myself..’

5.2

‘Nobody. I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord. O farewell.’

• fragmented syntax: shows her dying vulnerable state

• dramatic irony: we know she isn’t guilty, increases pathos

conclusion

• presents love as passionate

• although it leaves you vulnerable, open to obsession and naivety

• ultimately shakespeare warns of the dangers of all consuming love and the need for self love (in othello)