Blog 22: Freestyle

I'm going to go back to the idea of "ocular proof" in Othello (III.iii.376). Based on Iago's clever suggestions, Othello moves from fully trusting Desdemona to seeking "ocular proof" or visual evidence that he should not trust her. In this movement, he seems to go from loving on faith in his own heart to loving based on evidence of reciprocity; he moves from what I consider to be true love to love that exists only if returned and demands evidence from the beloved. In this sense, he has already fallen out of love with Desdemona, at Iago's mere suggestion that she has been cheating on him. Maybe he is as pitiful as Iago.

The fact that he identifies visual evidence as the way he will decide plays right into Iago's hands because Iago can set him up by encouraging Desdemona to speak on Casio's behalf and by stealing the strawberry handkerchief and setting it up as evidence against her. If instead, Othello had loved Desdemona enough to just talke with her about Iago's comments, he could have cleared things up right away. But, then there would be no play!