Some of this will probably make way in the presentation that we're giving, but some of the secondary criticism about Othello has brought a lot out of the play--more than the themes of race that has arguably given this play the longevity that it possesses. One of the more interesting points brought up in the text's intro by Russ McDonald in our big red tome (and also in a similar intro by Walter Cohen in a different edition) is the power of love.
Othello teeming with jealousy as Iago plants seeds of doubt and jealousy,
from the film version. Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh are amazing.
The real meat of this play and the downfall of the central tragic figure doesn't really revolve around political futures (as in King Lear or Hamlet, for example). What undoes the character of Othello is love and jealousy. The forces that motivate Iago to set this plot into motion may be rooted in selfish attempts for personal (and somewhat political) gain, but the power of that seed of envy and suspicion that he plants in Othello overtakes the man in an utterly all-consuming, complete fashion. The power of the love, or the goddess of love, be it Venus, Aphrodite, or any version of said goddess, is one that can cast anyone to the heavens or down into the depths of hell. It's an incredible portrait of an energy that is often only associated with the positive.
We've talked a lot about consuming myths in this class, and I never really thought I would find it in Othello. There's the drama, the deceit, and the passion that was promised, but I did not expect to find the Venus and Adonis myth transposed into this setting. Granted, it's a bit more displaced and further removed from mythology than many of the other plays we examined, but it nonetheless proved very interesting. It's always great when you have multiple lenses through which to view a timeless story.
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