The Character of Life
The Character of Life in Othello
As a representation of life, Othello
contrasts markedly with Macbeth. As
we have seen in Macbeth, the story is
of universal dimensions, a conflict of cosmic powers expressing itself in a
particular time and place through particular individuals. Human character plays
a substantial role in forging man’s destiny. The scale is grand, the figures
are kings, the stakes are a country’s future. Othello lacks the atmosphere of universality and the clear
indication of cosmic forces at work. Character is active but does not appear as
the major determinant. Though the figures are great, the setting is personal.
The casual reader feels relieved and satisfied with the fall of Macbeth, while
the conclusion of Othello leaves him
uneasy and pained.
A.C. Bradley has identified some of the sources of these impressions, of
which we shall mention three. First, the suffering and death of Desdemona
appears to be without cause and contrary to all sense of justice. Second, the
role played by deception and intrigue seems to reduce the dependence of the
outcome on character and will. Third, the part played by accident in the
catastrophe accentuates the feeling of fate. We have noted Bradley’s comments
here because in analysing the play it is essential that some intelligible
explanation be given for each of these points. If Desdemona’s suffering does
not arise from her own character and action, if Iago’s intrigues are not a
response of life to her and Othello, if key movements in the action depend
mainly on inexplicable chance, then we must conclude that in Othello Shakespeare’s vision has not
been true to the real world, for all of these suppositions are in contradiction
to the character of life.
These difficulties arise from an inadequate comprehension of the forces
of life active throughout the course of the play. We tend to overlook the real
significance of Othello’s elopement with Desdemona, the marriage of a black
Moor to the fair daughter of a Venetian Senator. We are distracted by the
presence of Iago, his bitterness at the appointment of Cassio as Othello’s
lieutenant, his desire for revenge and the beginnings of his intrigue. There is
a tendency to hold Iago fully responsible for the catastrophe that follows
without seeing the relationship between the elopement and the fatal
consequences of intrigue. But on close analysis we will discover a connection
between all the events which follow. In addition we shall find that the
characters themselves possess a keen insight into the underlying movement and
even a foreknowledge of its fatal conclusion.
When the play opens Othello and Desdemona have just eloped a few hours
earlier. But we learn first of Iago’s bitter resentment of Othello’s selection
of Cassio as his lieutenant and we fail to see that the marriage is prior to
the first stirrings of Iago’s intrigue. Later we shall see that the elopement
is not only the primary object but also the primary cause of Iago’s plotting
and its fatal consequences.
Iago arouses Brabantio with news of the elopement. “An old black ram...a
barbary horse” has stolen away his daughter. Brabantio’s response is instinct
with knowledge. “Thou art a villain.” Had others only known it as well!
Brabantio is a man of fixed mental attitudes, who will not listen to
anyone or change his mind. He does not think of his daughter’s happiness, only
her desertion and betrayal.
And what’s to
come of my despised time? (I.i.162)
He enters the council chamber shouting, “My daughter, O, my daughter!”
The response of the Senate is prophetic, “Dead?” Brabantio describes Desdemona
as a quiet, bashful, sensitive girl who could never fall in love with “what she
fear’d to look on!” unless the cause is witchcraft. Much later we learn that the
handkerchief given by Othello was sewn by a sorceress and charmed. After
hearing Othello’s story, Brabantio asks his daughter to refute it:
If she confess
that she was half the wooer,
Destruction on my
head, if my bad blame
Light on the man!
(I.iii.174)
After hearing of her willing consent to the elopement, he refuses the
Duke’s suggestion that she stay with him while Othello is at war. “I’ll have it
not so.” The last words we hear him speak are half warning and half curse:
Look to her,
Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceiv’d
her father, and may thee. (I.iii.293)
By the end of the tragedy just after Desdemona’s death, we learn that
her father has died of grief.
Thy match was
mortal to him.
(II.iii.205)
Clearly the elopement was the cause of Brabantio’s death and his intense
bitterness is a sanction and force for the catastrophe that follows. His “bad
blame” does fall on Othello. We need only recall two statements. There is the
Duke’s warning to the grief-stricken father:
To mourn a
mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way
to draw new mischief on.
(I.iii.203)
And there is his comment on Othello’s assignment to Cyprus when he calls
opinion “a sovereign mistress of effects.” We can safely assume that
Brabantio’s attitude was shared by others. The Senators’ subconscious
awareness--in that initial “Dead?”--of Desdemona’s ultimate fate is indicative
that the action has touched a deep level in the social atmosphere of Venice. A
fair Senator’s daughter marrying a black Moor is a “gross revolt”, an act to
“incur a general mock.”
Desdemona is an exceptional woman. Besides the beauty and charm for
which she is revered, she possesses a marked degree of mental idealism and
emotional purity. Her love of Othello appears as a mental decision rather than
a vital infatuation. She fell in love with the idea of a bold, courageous,
romantic adventurer and her heart fully consented. “She lov’d me for the
dangers I had pass’d.” (I.iii.167) This is shown clearly in her response to the
Duke’s inquiry: I do perceive here a divided duty: (I.iii.181)
Her words are of the mind, not the heart:
I saw Othello’s
visage in his mind,
And to his honour
and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and
fortunes consecrate. (I.iii.253)
Hers is primarily an act of mental forethought and will, not an
emotional attachment, vital-physical attraction or subconscious response.
Throughout the story there is this air of purity and absolute loyalty which
come only when the heart is uplifted to follow an ideal. Her character
approximates Sri Aurobindo’s description of mental love:
There are a number
of women who can love with the mind...the heart too can be dominated by the
mind and moved by mental forces...there can be a mental love. It arises from
the attempt to find one’s ideal in another or from some strong passion of
admiration and wonder....By itself that does not amount to love, though often
it is so ardent as to be hardly distinguishable from it and may even push to sacrifice
of life, entire self-giving etc. But when it awakes the emotions of the heart,
then it may lead to a very powerful love which is yet mental in its root and
dominant character.29
But there is another aspect to Desdemona’s character that requires comment. In many ways she shows a likeness to her father. Just as he thought only of himself when she ran away and was ready to give her up forever, she seems never to have considered the grief her elopement would cause him. There is an unconscious cruelty in her action born out of indifference or self-forgetfulness which parallels her father’s unpardonable curse on the marriage. The same trait of mental fixation is there in her. Her idealism is doctrinaire and being so it is incapable of seeing how others are affected by her action. Having initiated such action, she becomes vulnerable to other forces which rush in to take advantage of the situation. This blindness applies not only to her father, but to her own subconscious nature and the social environment of Venice.
The general morality of Venice is far from pure and idealistic. We catch
a glimpse of it in the jesting conversation between Desdemona and Iago on their
landing at Cyprus. We do not even doubt Iago’s comment to Othello though we
know it is said with another motive behind it:
I know our
country disposition well;
In Venice they do
let heaven see the pranks
They dare not
show their husbands; their best conscience
Is not to leave’t
undone, but keep’t unknown. (III.iii.201)
In a climate of weak morality, Desdemona has chosen a high idealism.
When one tries to move far above the general level of life, the society
responds negatively to cancel the movement. It unleashes forces of resistance
which are expressed unconsciously in the Senator’s cry, “Dead?” As Bradley
says, “She met in life with the reward of those who rise too far above our
common level.”30
The resistance of the society finds a correspondence in the deeper
layers of her own personality which share that heritage. Her decision is mental
but it lacks the full support of her physical, vital and emotional nature. To
quote Bradley, “...she made nothing of the shrinking of her senses.”31
Brabantio calls Othello “what she fear’d to look on.” Iago reminds Othello how
“she seem’d to shake and fear your looks” and he replies, “so she did.” Othello
describes her decision as “Nature erring from itself.” Desdemona herself
reminds Othello of “so many times when I spoke of you dispraisingly” before the
marriage. For any act to succeed, a certain harmonious support is required. If
the mind overstrains without sufficient emotional or vital support, the act
which results is a violence against the lower nature and it has the character
of cruelty. Such an act evokes a violent response from life.
Brabantio’s bitterness, general social condemnation, and the revulsion
of Desdemona’s subconscious nature are negative forces active in the events
which follow. Iago’s own intrigue is not primarily an addition to this list but
an instrument or channel through which they express themselves in life.
Nevertheless the reason for Iago’s involvement must and will be considered in
the course of our discussion.
The chain of events following the elopement is highly significant. The
news of war, the council meeting, Othello’s departure, the storm and the
landing at Cyprus follow in quick succession. It is as if life were hurriedly
taking Othello and Desdemona away from Venice. The social consciousness of the
society has virtually ejected them. In this light it is not surprising that
Lodovico’s arrival at Cyprus as the Venetian Senator’s representative coincides
exactly with Othello’s decision to kill Desdemona. He is unknowingly present to
witness the retribution. The violence of the elopement--it is in the nature of
an attack on the sanctioned social consciousness of the country--expresses
itself as a father’s anger, the threat of war and a violent storm. Iago was
right, “it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable
sequestration.” (I.iii.348)
When the storm subsides, it takes an inner turn leading to fatal
consequences. In Hamlet also the
threat of foreign war appears serious and suddenly resolves when the inner
conflict begins. This chain of correspondence reveals the line of causality
leading from Desdemona’s character and action to her death. It is not a mere
dramatic device of the past but a movement of forces flowing through the
channels of individual and social character and finding expression in life
events.
Othello is a man of the world, a soldier and adventurer. He has lived a life outside of civilisation and has a “prompt and natural alacrity” for hardness and warfare. He is past youth and has an air of maturity and calm strength which comes from innumerable experiences and recognition by those around him. In addition he has a tendency to romance in the broadest sense of the term. His speech and imagery express a colourful vision of life. He sees himself and others see him as a great romantic hero. His personality is supported by a tremendous vital energy. It is the energy of a warrior not that of a civilised man:
...for I am black
And have not
those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers
have...
(III.iii.262)
He is a man of passion who has gained a certain self-mastery but
frequently his self-control reaches its limits:
My blood begins
my safer guides to rule.
(II.iii.205)
Only Iago seems to have seen beneath Othello’s romantic image the rough,
crude energies of a man of nature expressed in such statements as “my heart is
turn’d to stone,” “I’ll tear her all to pieces” and “Arise, black vengeance.”
Everyone else is surprised and confused. Lodovico asks, “Is this the nature
whom passion could not shake?” and Desdemona, “My lord is not my lord; nor
should I know him.” Iago recognises his weakness and sums it up well:
If the balance of our lives had no tone scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our nature would conduct us to preposterous conclusions. (I.iii.329)
In Desdemona, Othello has found a perfect complement to his romantic
self image. The warrior is fulfilled as the lover. His romanticism is matched
by her idealism. His passions can find expression in the intensities of sexual
love.
Othello’s reunion with Desdemona on Cyprus is the ecstatic fulfilment of
his life, beyond which he can imagine no greater joy. His words are prophetic:
If it were now to
die
‘Twere now to be
most happy, for, I fear,
My soul hath her
content so absolute
Succeeds in
unknown fate.
(II.i.191)
and
I cannot speak
enough of this content;
It stops me here;
it is too much of joy. (II.i.198)
Othello has achieved the highest intensity of satisfaction which his
being can sustain. As when the soul achieves the purpose for which it took
birth and then quickly retires. Othello has exhausted the potentialities of his
nature. As John Bayley writes, “having achieved his desire, Othello turns
naturally to the idea of death as the only fit and comparable peer of love. How
can the tension otherwise be kept up and the lover remain at the summit of his
happiness.”32 There is a subtle awareness in traditional societies
like the Indian that somewhere an act must be incomplete for it to continue. If
the force behind the act fully realises its goal, the tendency to repetition is
lost, the force dissolves. If the full joy is received from an act, the act
comes to an end. For Othello not only is the act of union fulfilled but his
entire life as well. He knows within himself that both must soon end. We recall
his words before the Senate, “Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour/Of love, of
worldly matters and direction,/ To spend with thee...” (I.iii.299)
By itself this does not explain the consequences which follow. Othello
may as well have been called off again to war or died in a storm or been
murdered by Iago. But his fortunes are linked here with his wife’s and the
outcome is an expression of both their natures. Desdemona overlooks her
father’s feelings in marrying Othello. The result is Brabantio’s death.
Correspondingly Othello overlooks Iago in selecting Cassio as his lieutenant.
The result is that Iago plots a revenge which falls on Desdemona and Othello.
According to Othello, it is Desdemona who first comes forward to hear his
story. In Brabantio’s words, “she was half the wooer.” It is his “bad blame”
which follows them and his warning to Othello, “She has deceiv’d her father,
and may thee,” that is the seed of tragedy. Desdemona’s initiative in the
elopement is a sanction for her suffering. Their marriage is a forceful coming
together, a transgression of the social moorings of Venice, and thus it leads
to a violent end.
We have yet to consider the role of Iago and his intrigue, to which
Bradley ascribes a major place in the tragedy. Granted that there are forces in
life moving to cancel the relationship between him and the Moor, we may still
ask why a man like Iago should be drawn into the tragedy as a key figure. One
observation bears reflection. We notice some marked similarities between
Othello and Iago. Both men are fearless. Both take joy in a sense of power,
self-control, execution of will. Both have an artistic tendency--Othello for
poetic language and romantic images, Iago for clever plots leading to tragedy
in life. Furthermore, the two possess certain character traits which are not
merely different but diametrically opposed to each other. Othello is intensely
passionate, sensual and emotional. Iago is passionless, cold, without sympathy
or affection or feeling, lacking even strong desires. Othello’s mind is simple,
open, trusting and frank. He lacks insight into human nature. He has a romantic
view of life--men, love, war--an attitude affirming the value of life. Iago has
a developed intelligence without the corresponding support of emotion. He is
clever, deceitful, secretive and perverse. His insight is subtle and keen. His
view of life is cynical. He questions the value of good, virtue, love, etc.
Othello is extremely self-confident. He has the mellowness which comes with
great achievement and recognition. Iago asserts superiority but is driven by a
damaged pride and self-esteem. In summary, the similarity in their characters
is the basis for an extreme contrast. Iago, who is limited, destructive and
evil, appears as the very negation of Othello who is expansive, creative and
good-hearted.
The relationship between Othello and Iago is highly significant. It is
as though life has presented Othello with a man who embodies all the elements
he lacks in himself and which must be gained or mastered in order to continue
living. Othello has created a romantic world in life around himself and
Desdemona. It is idealistic in the sense of being far above the dross and
pettiness of normal human existence and their own human natures. Desdemona
responds to his world with a mental idealism. Both lack a realistic
comprehension of themselves, each other and the world around. Life presents
them with the realities they overlook. Neither one recognises the challenge or
possesses the necessary capacity to meet it. What Othello needs to support his
romantic idealism is Iago’s intelligence and knowledge of human nature.
The role of Iago can be closely likened to that of the evil persona in
yoga, for all principles of yoga have their versions in life. When man makes a
yogic effort to exceed himself and do spiritual work, it happens that another
being comes “which is just the contradiction of the thing he centrally
represents in the work.... Its business seems to be to oppose, to create
stumblings and wrong conditions, in a word, to set before him the whole problem
of the work he has started to do.”34 In this case the work was
Othello’s attempt to live a romantic dream and, indeed, we may say he succeeded
in some measure if only for a moment, but it could not last because the
intensity of the experience was too much for his being to sustain. Furthermore,
it was established on a basic ignorance of life and civilised man. Life
hastened to present him with the realities he had overlooked in the form of
Iago. To quote F. R. Leavis, “Iago’s power... is that he represents something
in Othello.”35
Iago is similarly related to Desdemona. She takes positive action in
life based on mental decisions which have negative results because her mind is
fixed and limited. She fails to consider the effect of her action on her
father, the social consciousness of Venice or her own nature. The same quality
of mind is there in Iago but as its negative complement. Destruction is the aim
rather than an unintended result. But he too shows traces of her limitation and
lack of insight. He fails to consider Emilia’s love for Desdemona and he never
reflects on the fatal consequences which he inevitably brings down on himself.
Hers is the joy of an idealistic pursuit regardless of the result. His is the
joy of intrigue and exertion of will.
Two more things need be said of Iago. First, he is the primary agent for
the expression of the life forces already identified. These forces flow through
the channel of his negative personality. His “good fortune”, as Bradley calls
it, i.e. the ease with which his
intrigues succeed, is a further expression of these forces. The predominance of
strength is on the side of the established social order. Neither Othello nor
Desdemona possesses the power to successfully oppose it.
Secondly, even though Iago is an instrument of these forces, his own end
follows the rules of life. Bradley notes that Iago’s egoism is not absolute,
that “traces of conscience, shame and humanity, though faint, are discernible.”36
Bradley cites Iago’s admiration of the “beauty” in Cassio’s life, his momentary
doubt whether Cassio must die, his avoidance of Desdemona during the intrigue,
and his discomfiture-cum-indignation
at Emilia’s exposure of his villainy. These traces of conscience or morality
are sufficient to assure Iago’s eventual fall. Had he been totally sincere to
the evil course he took without any hesitation or remorse, it is likely he
would have succeeded without being discovered. In the end he is betrayed by the
thing he tried to destroy, the power of love, Emilia’s love for Desdemona.
Thus far we have made frequent mention of Desdemona’s subconscious
reaction against her conscious choice of Othello. This can be most clearly seen
in her persistent--almost compulsive--defense of Cassio to Othello. In the heat
of his anger she continues to pursue the very topic which has enraged him.
Consciously she is unaware, but subconsciously there is a strong will to end
the relationship. Cassio represents all that her normal Venetian nature can
appreciate. She tells Cassio:
For thy solicitor
shall rather die
Than give thy
cause away. (III.iii.27)
We admire the goodness of her heart but wonder that she could be so insensitive
in speaking to Othello of “the love I bear to Cassio”. When she asks the clown
where Cassio is lodged, she uses “lies” instead of “lodges”. The clown makes a
jest of her usage. The same word is used by Othello and Iago shortly
after--“Lie with her. Lie on her: We say lie on her--” in reference to the
suspected illicit love of Desdemona and Cassio. Even on her deathbed, Desdemona
is only conscious of loving Cassio:
But with such
general warranty of heaven
As I might
love; (V.ii.60)
But yet that love has been her undoing and could not have been so had it
not been supported by another motive unknown to her, the drive of her lower
nature to cancel the relationship forged by her mind and heart.
Besides her defence of Cassio, there is one other incident which seals her fate and in it can be seen a representation of her entire relationship with Othello. It is the dropping of the handkerchief given to her by Othello when they eloped. We noted earlier Brabantio’s claim that Othello has captivated his daughter by means of charms and witchcraft, but we find the idea absurd and along with the Duke we demand better proof than surmise. Yet in his speech before the Senate, Othello tells how he “often did beguile her of her tears” in weaving his fantastic stories of cannibals and “men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders”. But the truth of Brabantio’s suspicions is confirmed only much later when Othello relates the history of the handkerchief. It was given to his mother by an Egyptian charmer, the purport of whose speech Othello reports:
’Twould make her
amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her
love, but if she lost it
Or made a gift of
it, my father’s eye
Should hold her
loath’d.
(III.iv.59)
It was sewn by a sibyl from hollowed worms and
there’s magic in
the web of it...
(III.iv.69)
All this can be taken as Othello’s imagination or witchcraft but it has
a more profound basis. The power with which Othello woos and possesses
Desdemona has the nature of the handkerchief. It is a power and charm from the
vital world. This power expresses itself through Othello’s character as the
colour, grandeur, and wonder of his life and personality. His romantic nature supports
and thrives on it. He projects an image which is almost superhuman, but the
force is the vital force of life. Contrast this with Iago who works “by wit,
not witchcraft”.
Earlier we saw that Desdemona’s response and attraction to Othello was predominantly mental idealism with the heart’s consent. The two are separated by the wide gap between mind and vital being. They are bound to each other at different points with little common ground. It is a tenuous hold which cannot withstand the pressure of life. Furthermore, the giving of the handkerchief represents an attempt to bind Desdemona’s mental commitment with a vital force. The introduction of the vital elements undermines and cancels functioning at the higher level. When Desdemona hears the story of the handkerchief, her response is:
Then would to God
that I had never seen it!
(III.iv.76)
We come to the scene in which the handkerchief drops. Desdemona offers to bandage Othello’s head with it but he pushes it away and it falls. The act is by joint initiative and omission. It is a subconscious recognition by both that the relationship is over. On her part it is a rejection of the vital force which binds her, a repulsion from the vital-physical relationship with Othello. On his part, there is a subtle awareness of her repulsion. When they meet again this awareness has become conscious. He wants to look into her eyes and confirm his suspicion. She also is more conscious of the repulsion, “What horrible fancy is this?” (IV.ii.26) For the first time she sees and feels his capacity for violent passions and she is frightened. The next moment she thinks of her father and regrets having deserted him: “Why, I have lost him.” Othello is in a violent rage. Her response is both a question to him and a realisation of the error in her action. “Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?” The answer comes to her fully just before dying.
Oth: “Think on
thy sins.”
Desda: “They are
loves I bear to you.”
Oth: “Ay, and for
that thou diest.” (V.ii.39)
As Othello and Iago plot murder, Lodovico arrives from Venice. Desdemona
pleads on Cassio’s behalf “for the love I bear to Cassio” while Othello reads a
letter from the Senate, “This fail you not to do, as you will--.” It is the
sanction of the social consciousness for what follows. Alone with Emilia,
suddenly Lodovico comes to Desdemona’s mind. “This Lodovico is a proper
man....He speaks well.” This is a man her whole nature, her father and the
society can accept. She feels her end is near but does not blame Othello, for
the decision to marry was hers, “Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,--”
and the decision to cancel the marriage is also her own.
Desdemona’s death follows shortly. As we asked why Iago should have
become an instrument for her destruction, we may wonder why Emilia, who bore
her a deep loyalty and affection, could not have come a moment earlier and
saved her. The answer is that Emilia’s goodness and love are not supported by
the strength of purity. Her consciousness is too low to save Desdemona’s perfection.
In fact, it is she who gives the handkerchief to Iago. All she can do is yell
bravely at Othello after the fact and expose her husband’s villainy. A parallel
role is played by Macduff in Macbeth
and Kent in King Lear. Each time the
loyal friend is unable to prevent tragedy.
In the last scenes, the complex field of forces works itself out.
Othello prefaces his murder of Desdemona with attempts to reaffirm his heroic
self-image. He refers to his act as a holy sacrifice of love to save Desdemona
from further sin:
It is the cause,
it is the cause, my soul--
Let me not name
it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the
cause.
(V.ii.1)
Yet his vital passion breaks through the poetic cover and reveals the
true nature of his act. “Out, strumpet.... Down, strumpet” are cries of pride
and anger.
In her last words Desdemona proclaims that she is “falsely murder’d” and dies “a guiltless death”; then she accepts full responsibility for her fate and confirms the purity of her heart and mind:
Nobody; I myself.
Farewell:
Commend me to my
kind lord: O, farewell! (V.ii.124)
Many readers may find it hard to reconcile the fact that Othello’s rage
should still continue after these words and her death.
She’s, like a
liar, gone to burning hell.
(V.ii.129)
She turn’d to
folly, and she was a whore. (V.ii.131)
Clearly, his power is not that of love seeking to save her soul. If it
were, he would immediately recognise Desdemona’s innocence from her parting
words. The heart is capable of such instant recognition and reversal of its
emotion. Mind also is capable if it does not cling to its own understanding.
But the vital man acts by a power that possesses and controls him. When it
reaches a peak of intensity, he becomes blind. Only after the force of passion
is spent can understanding come. Othello ignores Emilia’s words. Even after
Montano and the others enter and Emilia exposes Iago, he stands dumbly in
confusion. When finally understanding begins to dawn on him, he cries, “O! O! O!”
and falls on the bed. Still passion reasserts itself: “O, she was foul!” and
“she with Cassio hath the act of shame a thousand times committed.”
When finally the truth is evident even to Othello, it is not love nor
grief that expresses itself but still more anger. This time it is directed at
Iago:
Are there no
stones in heaven
But what serve
for the thunder?--Precious villain!
(V.ii.234)
Then Othello stabs him.
In his final speeches the passion subsides and for a moment he openly
expresses his pitiful human condition:
Whip me, ye
devils,
From the
possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in
winds! roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in
steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
O Desdemona!
Desdemona! dead!
Oh! Oh! Oh! (V.ii.277)
It is the cry of a man, not a demi-god. Then as his last act he attempts
to recreate his romantic image and to die with it. But what he says is a sad
contrast to the heroic story he told Desdemona in her father’s house. Now he is
a man who has done some service to the State, who loved passionately and was
carried away by passion to destroy the greatest treasure he ever had.
NOTES
29. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga
(Cent. Ed., Vol. 24), p. 1526.
30. A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean
Tragedy, p. 165.
31. Ibid., p. 164.
32. John Bayley, Casebook on
Othello, edited by John Wain, Macmillan Co. Ltd. p. 181.
34. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga,
p. 1660.
35. F. R. Leavis, Casebook on
Othello, p. 128.
36. A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean
Tragedy, p. 191.