Destructive Effects of Jealousy
Perhaps the single driving theme of Othello is the devastating potential for jealousy to wreak havoc. Othello is, of course, manipulated into the murder of his wife by suspicion of her infidelity planted by Iago. Iago is traditionally afflicted by jealousy as well in that his motivation for planting the seed of jealous suspicion in Othello’s mind is the envy toward the promotion of Cassio. In this particular telling, however, Welles ends a surprising psychological subtext that takes that envy to another level: here Iago is jealous not merely of Cassio, but also Desdemona. This Iago is driven to evil by repressed homosexual desire. Everyone suffers as a result of this jealous monster.
Appearance and Reality
Another major theme in the story is the difference between what is real and what merely appears to be real and how the confusion sometimes makes the difference meaningless. The story is deeply ironic because the audience is made privy to Iago’s machinations while Othello is not yet he acts upon this deceptive appearance of reality. The singular scene that brings this theme to life is the one in which Othello seems to be acting upon good faith of needing reality to be proven to him by demanding evidence of Desdemona’s infidelity. Yet even as he receives evidence that can only be termed specious at best, Othello’s monstrous actions are set in motion by the appearance of reality that specious evidence provides.
Honor
Honor is primarily applied to the men of this story as is usually the case. Honor for a woman in Shakespearean literature essentially comes down to matters of fidelity. In this case Desdemona rises to the cream of the crop because despite all the machinations of Iago and despite the fact that her husband displays a supreme lack of honor with his willingness to believe the worst about the person should love the most, she remains stubbornly faithful. Honor within the world of masculine adventures is ironically shown to be fully within the domain of hysterical emotion supposedly occupied by women.
