Free Essay on the Relationship Between Love and Hate in the Play Othello

In the play Othello, William Shakespeare integrates romanticism and tragedy to demonstrate the relationship between love and hatred that existed among different characters. The entire play illustrates Shakespearean perception of the strong relationship between the bonds drawn from love and hate. The author is also able to bring to light how interpersonal relationships between the characters in the play made them the love or hate others. Therefore, Shakespeare's dramatic representation of the two sides of interpersonal relationship showing the relationship between love and hate, he was able to bring out the literary devices of imagery, symbolism, sarcasm, irony, and/or metaphor to connect the conventional and contemporary representation of love and hate. Again, Shakespeare use of rhetorical appeals was able to distinguish the line between love and hate in inter-human relations to show what brings or drives the other. This paper will make a detailed representation of the different literal illustrations of the relationship between love and hate in the play "Othello" by William Shakespeare.

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The theme of love and hate is the principal driving force in the play "Othello". Shakespeare uses the interpersonal connections that are driven by the passion of love shared by the characters or the rage of anger emanated from the hatred held by the characters. Throughout the play, the protagonists and antagonists demonstrate their feelings towards each other to show the relationship between them. Using the theme of love and hate, Shakespeare is able to show other elements in life like bridging the social stratification gaps, personalities, and conflict. Love and hate are seen to make the characters behave in certain natural and superficial ways to show the interconnectedness in the relationship between the two aspects of interpersonal feelings. For instance, the relationships in the play like the marriage and love relationship between Othello and Desdemona evoke passion and social class bleach. The strong passion between the couple makes them fight for their marriage at the beginning of the play. Although, her father is devastated by Desdemona's decision to get married to Othello the passion of the love between them helps them to overcome all odds and pursue in strengthening their relationship. Desdemona loves Othello wholeheartedly and has no doubts about their relationship status, however, Othello is insecure and he holds immense hatred towards any man who shows interest in his wife causing her tragic death. In this relationship, Shakespeare tried to show how both feelings are the driving force of any relationship. The passion of love helped the two, Othello and Desdemona, to overcome the negativity of their social classes that was against their relationship. The same zeal was used to show how the rage of hatred leads to extreme destruction. In this exemplification of the relationship between love and hate shows that love helps people perceive continuity and courage in life while hate brought with it destruction and termination of life. The relationship thus, shows that love and hate are the driving force of destiny.

Another interpersonal relationship between Othello and his junior co-worker Iago demonstrated the relationship between love and hate in the perpetration of refuge, deception, jealousy, and revenge. Iago's hatred for Othello was attributed from their difference in a lifetime achievement. Although, initially Othello was deceived of the relationship they had with Iago because he pretended to be friendly yet he was obsessed with the urge to see Othello's downfall. The hatred he held for Othello was not remorseful in conspiring with anyone to help bring Othello down. Iago was consumed with rage when he supposedly thought that his 'friend' General Othello would honor their supposed friendship to offer him the promotion slot in the position of lieutenant, which he gives an inexperienced soldier, Michael Cassio. In this relationship, the two friends deceived each other that they valued and loved each other as workmates but actually they hated each other. Shakespeare uses this relationship to depict the correlation between love and hate. The two positions held in any interpersonal association, love, and hate help the parties build or destroy each other. The connection between love and hate in the interpersonal association of Othello and Iago shows that hatred contributed to negative energy in life while love drives to the contrast of the same. Hatred was used by the author in the play to show how interpersonal relationship suffered deceit, jealousy, and revenge while love brought transparency, compassion, and understanding between two or more people. This demonstration of the relationship between love and hate helped Shakespeare bring to light the hypocrisy manifesting itself in the interpersonal relationship between the characters.

The unhappy marriage relationship between Iago and Emilia is an exemplified demonstration of Shakespeare on the uneven ties of love and hatred. Iago's cold-hearted personality stops him from loving anyone including his wife whom he only uses as an object for his pleasure to satisfy his desires. Emilia is consumed by hatred for her husband due to the ill treatment he gives her and revenge by exposing his scheme but he kills her without hesitation. The reaction of Iago shows that he did not love his wife though Emilia loved him and made considerable efforts to make their relationship work. In the relationship between these unhappy couples, the author of the play was able to demonstrate the relationship between love and hate as contrasts of each other. Although Iago treated Emilia badly her love for him helped her to forgive him and try to do even the little things that can bring them closer to each other like the instance she steals his handkerchief. On the other hand, the hatred possessed by Iago blinds him into anger and unforgiving attitude that leads him to kill his wife and drive Othello to kill his wife. The twisted irrevocable deterioration of love between the relationships held by the different characters drifted them from love to hatred and jealousy.

The whole play "Othello" was a clear demonstration of the author's perception of the relationship between love and hate in causing conflict between people. All the relationships that were portrayed in the play showed how both love and hate contributed to the conflict between the characters. The continued love and hate obsession between the characters helped the author depict the relationship that exists in the two sides. The two are consuming and provocative making the characters act without remorse of the consequences that will follow their actions. The interconnection between love and hate is demonstrated throughout the play on how the characters transformed from love to hate whenever indifferences occur in any close ties. The obsessive nature of both love and hate was witnessed when Roderigo claimed he loved Desdemona making him to hate any man he thought she loved. His obsession of love for Desdemona is depicted in the play in scene II when he tells her: "...It gives me wonder great as my content to see you here before me. O my soul's joy!" and " If it were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy..." (1168-69). In the obsession emanating from both sides of the character's feeling love and hate attribute to their conduct. For instance, Roderigo's obsessive love for Desdemona makes him fall into traps and manipulation from Iago who gives him false hope on a possibility of him getting closer to Desdemona (1162). Desdemona's love for Cassio angers Roderigo and attempts to kill him. From the incidences Roderigo is consumed by hatred for all men in the life of Desdemona because he perceives them as the hindering block to his happiness with the love of his life (1160 - 75). The relationship between love and hate is shown to be protective approaches. The characters who perceive to love people in their live were ready to make considerable efforts to protect their love while those who held hatred towards others were protective of the threats posed by their competitors and the people they perceived to hate. Shakespeare is able to demonstrate the consuming connection between the feelings related to hate and love to have strong impact on how a person reacted to situations and eventualities.

In developing the theme of love and hate Shakespeare used different literary devices to draw the line between love and hate to bring out their relationship as portrayed in the play "Othello". Shakespeare uses imagery, symbolism, metaphors, sarcasm, and irony to show the relationship between love and hate in the play. The use of the metaphoric illustration of the similarity of the feelings different characters possess of others showed the relationship between love and hate in the play. For instance, Roderigo uses symbolism to show Iago the illusion of his hatred towards Othello by saying "Will wear his heart upon his sleeve for daws crows to peck at" (66 - 68). The hypocrisy in the love-hate associations shows that both feelings are an illusion and can change at any time. Shakespeare uses sarcasm throughout the play to show the irony used by the characters to hide their true feelings of love and hate. The use of imagery representation like the handkerchief, gardens, war, songs, and candle make a symbolic representation of both love and hate to demonstrate the thin line between them and the interdependent relationship that love and hate are the two sides of a coin.

The application of rhetorical appeals throughout the play helps the author to depict the relationship between love and hate. Shakespeare used logos, pathos, and ethos to portray the relationship between love and hate in the play. In the logical appeal, Iago demonstrates his dissatisfaction with Othello's decision to deny him the promotion post of lieutenant using argumentative facts to show his friend Roderigo why they should hate Othello. This demonstration that people have internal or external debates to determine their position in loving or hating others has a logical relationship. The love relationships and hatred insinuations held by the characters portrayed how pathos appeal helped the author to show the emotional relationship between love and hate. The two are derived from the intense emotional appeal of the characters' life situations. Shakespeare uses the persuasive appeal (ethos) to convince the audience on the interrelationship between love and hate. Both love and hate can emanate jealousy and can lead people to act without thinking of the act of revenge and self-defense. Different characters are persuasive on their justification of their love or hatred towards others. This persuasive appeal shows that love and hate have similarities in their relationship to demonstrate justification and reasoning of their beholders. One person is persuaded to his or her own reasons for believing that their loving or hating another person is justifiable with how they feel, perceive, or think. Shakespeare was, therefore, successful in demonstrating that love and hate are closely related using rhetorical appeals in the entire play.

In conclusion, Shakespeare's play "Othello" makes considerable efforts to demonstrate the relationship between love and hate in the lives and interpersonal interactions of the characters. Shakespeare tried to show how both feelings are the driving force of any relationship. The obsessive feeling of either love or hate possessed by the characters made them handle issues in their life without thinking of the consequences of their actions. Different characters like Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Emilia, Roderigo, and Cassio are obsessed with love and disappointment makes them drift into the obsession of hate.