Symbols abound in Othello, Shakespeare’s tragedy that centers on infidelity, envy, and jealousy. Even though no act of infidelity occurs anywhere in the tragedy, Desdemona is killed by the black Moor Othello primarily because of language and symbols. Language poured into his ear by Iago and the symbol of what he perceives as Desdemona’s infidelity, her handkerchief, are enough to drive Othello into such jealousy and rage that he fatally strangles his newly wed wife.
Symbols are important throughout Othello. Early on in the play Brabantio is woken from his sleep by Iago who even at this point is portraying Othello as a threat “Brabantio! Thieves! Thieves! Thieves! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves! Thieves! … Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white Ewe” (Shakespeare I.i.79-81; 89-90). Iago will later purposefully drive Othello to the belief that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him in order to get revenge on Cassio. He is able to do so because Othello is already perceived as a black, old, suspect foreigner and because this perception makes Othello more vulnerable to his treachery.
The play is filled with binary determinism, i.e., black versus white, good versus evil, jealousy and envy versus love and integrity. These opposing contrasts are significant to Desdemona’s fate because Othello is perceived as an outsider, black, and, because of his military experience, a brutal foreigner. This serves to engender in him a certain measure of awkwardness when it comes to the ways and manners of love, especially because he is in love with the culturally defined norm of beauty of his environment, the white, lovely, Desdemona. As he declares at the end of the play when he is talking about his life prior to killing himself “Then must you speak/Of one that loved not wisely but too well;/Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought,/Perplexed in the extreme;…/threw a...