cherub or madman?

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.

Why could Othello not contain his feelings though he loved Desdemona so much? Iago might have acted catalyst but the insecurity which drove Othello was there from the very beginning. Desdemona was loyal. She had not for once given Cassio a thought which would perturb Othello in any fashion.

Cassio was an excuse. Also a poor soul at that. He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He had no fault. Circumstances conspired against him. He was killed mercilessly and he could never understand what sins he was penancing for.

What was Desdemona’s fault? That she loved Othello? That she rebelled against her father Brabanzio and walked out with the man she loved?

Such is the beauty of the Shakespearean tragedy, it is really no particular person’s fault at all.

Iago is driven by ambition, Othello by great jealousy. It is the fault of this last mentioned emotion which becomes greater than everything else.

For Othello jealousy is like an all pervading tide, which makes any monument of love and geniality it finds in its way fall. Like a wild wanton urchin it uproots the emotion of love from the heart of Othello and crowds it with jealousy, envy, vengeance, anger and revenge. He is blinded. Neither can he see the friendship of Cassio nor the love of Desdemona.

But is Othello wrong? He has loved, he has loved Desdemona too much. He is extremely possessive of her. The mere thought of her betraying him irks him. Critics have evaluated the play as the inferiority complex of a dark skinned moor. Would it have been any different had Othello been a white man? Does not a white man have insecurities, or is he incapable of such passion? Conflating the Appolonian and the Dionysian may or may not be one of Shakespeare’s agendas, but the idea is interesting.

Reading the play on those lines is not what is on my mind. I simply want to clear the name of one of my favorite literary heroes. A lot of loose words are said about the flippance and insecurity of Othello. The love, and the almost wild passion which Othello has is overlooked. He is not a great man. He is the perfect tragic hero. He has the shortcoming of common men. He isn’t God-like , nothing of Oedipus shadows him. He is a common man, who loves his wife too much to see or even think of her with someone else.

How many of us have not had similar feelings? All those Archies Card quotes of letting your love go is as I said effervescent as Archies’ Cards. The love, and degree of love of Othello is quite another thing, perhaps to be understood only by people who feel similarly. Cupid is not the blind cherub, but a blind raging madman.