The Weave of Hatred in Shakespeare's Othello

Introduction: The Seeds of Hatred

The first sign of hatred in Othello is voiced by Roderigo, who says to Iago of the Moor, "Thou toldst me thou didst hold him in thy hate" (1.1.7). No substantial reason is ever given — merely excuses: Iago was passed over for a military promotion, and there is a rumor that the Moor has cuckolded him. Nevertheless, as Coleridge observed and Bradley echoed, the reasons do not truly matter; it is "motiveless malignity" (Bradley 228). The second sign of hatred comes from Desdemona's father, who respects Othello as a general — as do all the Senators — but wants nothing of him as a son-in-law. He despises the fact that his daughter has married the Moor without his blessing, and his hatred of their union underscores the obvious tension in their match: Othello is an outsider and black; Desdemona is Venetian and white.

These two seeds of hatred feed a spring of self-doubt and abnegation that already exists in Othello as he attempts to wed two worlds together — his soldier's world and his new domestic world. By bringing his wife to the front, however, he exposes her to the hateful plotting of Iago, which ensnares the general and turns his love for Desdemona into hate. So uncontrollable does Othello's hatred become that the play ends in murder. This essay shows how hatred is woven into Othello as a result of the seeds planted in his soul by Iago, by Desdemona's father Brabantio, and by the troubled circumstances of the lovers' own hasty elopement.

Iago's Malicious Design

Iago agrees with Roderigo that he hates Othello (1.1.171), but he notes that he puts on a pretense of love in order to deceive the general and draw him into his confidence — and, like a spider catching a fly, to drop his venom into him. Iago reiterates this hatred two scenes later, again to Roderigo: "I have told thee often, and I retell thee again and again, I hate the Moor" (1.3.407–9). He repeats himself twenty lines later — "I hate the Moor" (1.3.429) — so that the audience and Roderigo are left in no doubt of his intentions. Iago is the personification of malice in the play. His hatred is asserted constantly, and he takes delight in poisoning the lives of others. His aim, accordingly, is to cause hatred to grow in Othello, where love has recently bloomed for the fair Desdemona.

Accomplices and the Role of Brabantio

Iago does not weave this design alone. His named accomplice is Roderigo, but he has another, unwitting accomplice in Desdemona's father, Brabantio. It might even be suggested that both Othello and Desdemona themselves play a part in the dynamic, since their elopement creates serious tension at the outset and opens the door for Iago to work his mischief.

The Doomed Foundation of Othello and Desdemona's Love

The romantic love of Othello and Desdemona is, in a way, doomed from the start. There is no public courtship: he is a Moor — an outsider to Venice, though its most prominent military defender — and she is the daughter of a Senator. They elope without seeking her father's consent, and his parting words to the general are ominous: "She has deceived her father and may thee" (1.3.334). Even when they attempt to justify their secret romance before the Venetian elders, Othello describes his love in overly spiritual terms, denying that ordinary flesh-and-blood desire had anything to do with it — a denial that will be exposed as hollow once his jealousy mounts.

The newlyweds then head, essentially, to the front lines of battle — an uncommon honeymoon, made all the more uncommon because soldiers' wives typically remained at home rather than accompanying their husbands to war. There is little balance or propriety in the way their relationship begins, and through this hastily constructed edifice, Iago cuts a false floor that allows Othello's love for Desdemona to descend by degrees into jealousy and then into hate. It is Brabantio's parting words, however, that first dig up the earth into which Iago's seeds will be sown: "Look to her, if thou hast eyes to see…" (1.3.333). Othello swears his life upon Desdemona's faith — yet he himself will betray that faith when he yields to Iago's false insinuations.

As Arthur Kirsch has noted, this "extraordinary mixture of antithetical states of feeling and being" is as much to blame for the weaving of hatred throughout the play as either Brabantio's words or Iago's plotting, for it is woven into the very actions and elopement of the two central lovers (Kirsch 721). In their unsteady relationship there is also the hint of what R. N. Hallstead calls "idolatrous love," which sets the stage for Othello's later idolizing of hatred and his allowing hate to seize love's throne (Hallstead 107).

Conclusion: Hate's Final Weave

In conclusion, hatred is woven into Othello through the primary sources of Iago's malicious plotting and Brabantio's ill-conceived words forecasting suspicion. But threads of the same weave can be found in Othello and Desdemona themselves: it is above all their private wooing, conducted without anyone's knowledge or blessing, that sets them up for a disastrous fall. Not anticipating that hatred might be lurking around the corner to snatch at them for their marriage, they walk directly into a trap.

Othello demonstrates that he is unprepared for this trial. A better soldier than a lover, he does not understand how the enemy of love — hatred — operates until it is too late. Shakespearean tragedy consistently shows how human weakness and external malice combine to produce destruction, and nowhere is this more evident than here. Othello kills his wife and then kills himself, seeking to extinguish the hatred that consumed him for half the play, and hoping to "die upon a kiss" (5.2.421) — a final image that may be read as a sign that love, however belatedly, retakes its place in his heart at the end.

Works Cited

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. London: Macmillan, 1951.

Hallstead, R. N. "Idolatrous Love: A New Approach to Othello." Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 2 (Spring 1968): 107–124.

Kirsch, Arthur. "The Polarization of Erotic Love in 'Othello'." The Modern Language Review, vol. 73, no. 4 (October 1978): 721–740.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Folger Shakespeare Library. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.