An Essay: A critique on jealousy

Between the three plays I have studied, the two plays which I am most amazed by are Othello and Winter’s Tale and the theme which had made the strongest impression on me is jealousy. There are also other themes in the plays such as forgiveness, youth and age, race and gender but if the other themes are the co-star then jealousy is the main star. Without the main actor a play cannot develop and without this theme, the play has no conflict. Since jealousy is the most evident theme in both plays, I will compare both plays to see how jealousy as the main actor developed the plays.

            Quoting FranÁois de la Rochefoucauld, “In jealousy there is more of self-love than love” which I think mean the jealous person is more concern about them self than their lover. Based on my meager experience in love, I think to love is to be able to put others before our self and the person’s happiness become our happiness. In addition, William Shakespeare also said, “And oft, my jealousy shapes faults that are not”, which means the jealous person could not see the truth anymore and started believing the lies. I believe the greatest fear a lover do not want to face and dread is the betrayal from their loved one. Thus, when they are jealous they tend to see any particular actions from their lover as suspicious and began to assume the worst. In a way, jealousy can be seen as a poison and once it started to creep into the mind the relationship is in danger.

            In order to show the importance of this theme, I will analyze how the jealousy play the part to poison and affect everyone in the plays. In both plays, at first we were displayed the strength of love between lovers and families. In the play Othello, Othello and Desdemona were faced with a challenge to separate them when Brabantio disapproved of their marriage and accused Othello for bewitching Desdemona with black magic. Here, we saw the strong feeling of love and trust between Othello and Desdemona especially when Othello asked her to come to the trial and speak for herself. It was the evidence that Othello was confident of the bond between them and know she will chose him. Then, we heard about their love story which started from Desdemona compassion and also Desdemona’s speech where she chose Othello over her father. Similarly, in Winter’s Tale, we were also displayed with a picture of a happy royal family which was receiving a visit from a very good friend. King Leontes and Polixenes had been good friend since  a boy and that friendship was strengthen until they were older with long visits and frequent meetings with each others. Since, their relationship was so close, it was easy to assume each other family members as their own and thus, Polixenes was very familiar with Queen Hermione. From my point of view, Shakespeare deliberately painted for us a picture of a happy family and great love story as the introduction to emphasize the impact of what jealousy can do to destroy the happy picture.

              Although jealousy comes from within ourselves, there are many ways the seed of jealousy can be planted in our mind. For example, in Othello, Iago was the one who planted the seed in Othello’s mind by suggesting that Cassio is very close to Desdemona. At first, Othello’s love was strong so he denied it but then seeing how eagerly Desdemona ask him to restore Cassio’s position he started to see the kind act as suspicious. This slight suspicion gives way for jealousy to spread its poison and corrupted the sacred trust between Othello and Desdemona. Love is a powerful force yet it is unseen and although we can display our love by hugging and caring it does not show the real love. Therefore, trust is important in relationship where you have to trust your lover no matter what happen. Othello started to mistrust Desdemona when Iago told his baseless suspicion and use the missing handkerchief as the prove of Desdemona disloyalty. If Othello’s love is as great as he claim he will not fall into jealousy only because Desdemona carelessness for dropping the handkerchief. On the other hand, King Leontes planted the seed of jealousy himself and was triggered when Queen Hermione was able to persuade King Polixenes to stay. I am quite surprised when Leontes instantly felt jealous during the play’s introduction so I suspected that he must have been keeping the jealousy inside for quite awhile and was just observing the interaction between his wife and friend to find evidence of their affair. The jealousy must have been pestering inside his mind for a long time which made him see red in every single action. If Leontes was in right mind he must have concluded that Hermione was able to convince Polixenes because she was a better persuader that himself and let the matter pass. Despite faced with jealousy, both plays ended differently.

In Othello, to make the play as a tragedy, Desdemona was killed by Othello and at the ending Othello took his own life out of regret. There was no happy ending for the newlyweds and they died without fully love one another. Although they both died at least I know their great love still remain for Desdemona still loves Othello until the last moment, and Othello died because of his regret for killing his wife. In Winter’s Tale the play have developed into more conflict due to the jealousy. Blended by jealousy, Leontes felt betrayed by Hermione and Polixines and ordered Camillo to kill his best friend with poison. When Polixenes ran away, he decided to put the blame on Hermione and accused the innocent Queen to be disloyal and put her in prison despite her heavy pregnancy. He even cruelly cast his daughter away and refused to believe the prophecy. That is how dangerous and lethal jealousy can be poisoning one’s trust and clouding his judgment. I see Leontes as a pathetic person who made blind judgments and hurt his loved one to satisfy his ego. As the result of this raving jealousy, Leontes lost everything dear to him. Although it seems like a tragedy, the play did not end badly because after 16 years Leontes was reunited with his daughter, wife, best friend, Camillo and gain a son in law. In contrast with Othello who lost everything even his life, fate was kinder to Leontes.

As the conclusion, I can see the clear affect jealousy bring to stable relationships.  Quoting another person, Robert A. Heinlein, “ A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity”. If both Othello and King Leontes were excellent and wise leaders they will trust their loved one and would not entertain jealousy. The play successfully proved that love cannot be assume as strong enough until it was tested with jealousy.

Works Cited

Finest Quotes. Jealousy Quotes. Retrieved Feb 9, 2011, from

http://www.finestquotes.com/select_quote-category-Jealousy-page-0.htm

Maurer K.(2000). Cliffs Complete Shakespeare’s Othello. USA: IDG Books Worldwide Inc.

Shakespeare W.(2007). The Winter’s Tale. New York: The Royal Shakespeare Company.