At the start of Act III, Scene III, Othello declares his love for Desdemona, 'Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee; and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.'

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At the start of Act III, Scene III, Othello declares his love for Desdemona, 'Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee; and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.' However by the end of this scene he vows to Iago, 'I'll tear her all to pieces!' How does Shakespeare make such a changing character dramatically possible?

Shakespeare's Othello, in my opinion is one of his most cleverly written plays. It is a tragedy, similar in a way to the likes of the famous Romeo and Juliet, as there is a definite romance in the play, which quickly turns sour, due to lack of trust and jealousy, or as some might think, the tragedy is all down to manipulation and deceit, which both hold huge roles in the script. The play deals with many controversial issues which makes it unique and the way in which it was written, shows us how ahead of his time Shakespeare actually was.

Othello is a black man in the play, of extremely high authority; he is a proud army general who is looked upon with respect by the state and many leading Dukes. He first comes across to the audience as being very composed and a gentle character towards others. My first impressions of Othello were especially positive; he is a powerful figure with glowing qualities, which I detected only from his first few words. However before we hear from Othello in the text, we meet the vicious Iago and his companion Roderigo, who appear in the opening scene.

They both begin by discussing an unknown character that we later learn is the greatly regarded Othello. You can tell their anger towards him almost instantaneously from their speech, it is very harsh and the line structure is indifferent and has no specific order. They refer to Othello negatively, using racist comments and horrible images; once they even label him with being the devil. Iago is infuriated that he failed to gain a promotion that was given to the handsome Michael Cassio instead, by none other than Othello. Iago vows to Roderigo that he was better suited for the position and Othello had definitely chosen the wrong man. Iago swiftly suggests that they both call up to Brabatio's house to gain some revenge over Othello. Brabantio is the proud father of fair and young Desdemona, who both Iago and Roderigo know is having a relationship with Othello, unbeknown to Brabantio. After awakening Brabantio from his sleep to let him know of this awful news, Iago cunningly slips away from the commotion, unnamed to Brabantio, leaving Roderigo to go with Brabantio in search of his daughter. This is the first point in the play where we see Iago's devious side, however the audience are still not yet sure why he is doing these things to disrupt other people's lives, especially Othello's. By exiting from the scene in this scheming way, we see the true Iago already unfolding.

Luckily for Desdemona, Brabantio grudgingly consents to his daughter having a relationship with Othello over much debate. However when Brabantio discovers that they are both already married, he feels he has had no choice in the matter anyway! Brabantio listens to Othello affectionately declare his love for Desdemona, and he can do nothing else but agree, and give up on any silly accusations he had against Othello, for him bewitching his daughter, because Desdemona clearly stated herself, that she now obeyed Othello before her father.

Towards the end of the first act we can undoubtedly see this pure and deep love that Othello and Desdemona have for each other and it appears to be unbreakable. The audience today would see this as being a remarkable act of love and would probably sympathise with both Othello and Desdemona as a couple, promoting their romance. However during the time the play was written, audiences would be opposed to their love, thinking it to be immoral.
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Desdemona was attracted to Othello mainly because of her sheer fascination with the tales of his captivating life, the battles, sieges and his mere fortunes. Desdemona's love is shown to be pure, and does not display any signs of Othello enchanting her as implied by Brabantio. Othello is also shown to be a great deal older than Desdemona, and this is one of the many reasons some frowned upon their relationship, another one being their difference in race. Othello, we see treats Desdemona with the uttermost respect, he loves and cares for her sincerely, which makes them look ...

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