-

THE NUANCES OF JEALOUSY: A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF OTHELLO IN

OTHELLO THE MOOR OF VENICE

Daniela de Azevedo - Unimontes

Abstract: Like all William Othello,

the moor of Venice is complex and subtly nuanced. In this play, Shakespeare

weaknesses, strengths, and passions, to think about what has gone wrong and
why. Thus, we are given the opportunity to analyze human life both in the abstract
and in the particular of our own lives, since intense and universal feelings such as
love, hate, jealousy, envy, even lust are present in the play. This paper aims to
analyze Othello, the main character in the play Othello, the Moor of Venice, and
how jealousy regarding his love to Desdemona may be understood as envy.
Because Othello is such a dense character, it is proposed an analysis on how
these feelings can become one, and how they incited murder and tragedy in the
play.

Keywords: Othello, jealousy, envy, the subconscious, tragedy.

AS NUANCES DO CIÚME: BREVE ANÁLISE DE OTELO EM OTELO O MOURO

DE VENEZA

Resumo: Como todas as peças de William Shakespeare, particularmente as

tragédias, Otelo, o mouro de Veneza é complexa e sutil. Nessa peça, Shakespeare
nos envolve na vida e nas fortunas de seus personagens, permitindo-nos
compreender suas fraquezas, forças e paixões, pensar sobre o que deu errado e
por quê. Assim, temos a oportunidade de analisar a vida humana tanto de forma
abstrata quanto no particular de nossas próprias vidas, já que sentimentos
intensos e universais como amor, ódio, inveja, ciúme, até a luxúria estão presentes
na peça. Este artigo pretende analisar Otelo, o personagem principal da peça
Otelo, o Moro de Veneza, e o ciúme que ele sentia de Desdemona, que pode ser
entendido como inveja. Como Otelo é um personagem denso, propõe-se uma
análise sobre como esses sentimentos podem se tornar um, e como eles incitaram
o assassinato e a tragédia na obra.

Palavras-chave: Otelo, ciúme, inveja, o subconsciente, tragédia.

What makes a literary work occupies prominent place in the culture is its
ability to allow an identification of the reader with the character. Goethe's

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immediate passion, in reading Shakespeare, exemplifies what a text can produce

in the soul of the reader:

The first page of his that I read was an identification for life, and
when I had finished the first piece, I was like a blind man from
birth, to whom a miraculous gesture gives, in an instant, the vision.
I recognized, I felt my existence expanding in an infinity, everything
was new, unknown, and the light made my eyes hurt. Slowly I
learned to see, and, thanks to my genius for recognition, I feel ever
more vividly what I have gained.1

In Shakespeare's time, his contemporaries did not know the great writer he
was, he was not perceived as today. As time goes by, through the possibilities of
new interpretations, the author has been valued.
Mikhail Bakhtin in The author and the hero (1992) argues that literature
should not be studied only in the context of the time when it was produced, for the
world of literature is as limitless as the world of culture, allowing a multiplicity of

2
It nourishes itself in the past
umous life, the work is
enriched with new meanings, a new meaning: the work seems to surpass itself, to
3
It is because of this possibility of
being open to many significant interpretations that a work like
reaches the quality of masterpiece. Through metaphorical language in an
aesthetic way, Shakespeare brings to the surface the unconscious, justifying and
valuing the interpretative process which can give some intelligibility to human
suffering. In Othello, a work made up of tragic characters, we can interpret, in the
dimension of the unconscious, what happens to all men: confusion of feelings,
which can be expressed by their complexity, in an inadequate way, causing
greater discomfort in the external environment. It is what most strikes us in the
character of the Moor of Venice: the complexity of being, fighting against itself for
its self-affirmation.

1
GOETHE, s / d, p.27-28.
2
BAKHTIN, 1992, p. 364.
3
BAKHTIN, 1992, p. 365.

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Othello is one of the most beautiful and important texts ever produced. It is
the tragic story of the man who did not succeed, at least concerning his private life.
The Moor Othello conquers the Italian court for the courage, loyalty, firmness and
lucidity with which commands his soldiers. He falls in love with Desdemona, the
heiress of a senator from Venice who rejects his daughter's connection with the
Moor: an experienced man of different customs, beliefs, and ethnics. However,
Desdemona also falls in love with Othello; she was captivated by his noble
objections they run away and get
married. They return home, and in a remarkable scene, Desdemona confronts her
father before the Court, stands beside her husband without hesitation, breaking
family ties.
The antagonist of the story is Iago, a soldier who has fought beside Othello
for several years, and became his trusted advisor. At the beginning of the play,
Iago claims to have been unfairly passed over for promotion to the rank of
Othello's lieutenant in favour of Michael Cassio. Then, Iago executes a
Machiavellian plan to destabilize Othello. First he manipulates Othello into
demoting Cassio, and thereafter to bring about the downfall of Othello himself. He
has an ally, Roderigo, who assists him in his plans in the mistaken belief that after
Othello is gone, Iago will help him have the affection of Othello's wife, Desdemona.
After involving Cassio in a quarrel with the purpose of having Othello demote him
from his position, Iago develops the second part of his demoniac plan: make
Othello believe that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. Very cleverly he
convinces his wife Emilia to give him the handkerchief Othello had given
Desdemona as a gift. Later, he insinuates that Desdemona handed the
handkerchief to Cassio, planting in the heart of Othello the seed of mistrust. After
all the traps have been prepared, Iago merely observes the outcome of his plan.
Othello is led by jealousy and hatred, by the idea of having been betrayed by his
wife and decides to kill her. Then, after discovering that he had been deceived,
taken up with pain and remorse, he kills himself.
Let us now turn to the examination of Othello's personality, focusing on the
question of the love he had for Desdemona
had pass'd, and I loved her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have

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4
which soon became jealousy,

vengeance, from thy hollow cell! Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne to
5

Some definitions about jealousy and envy are necessary for a better
understanding of the theme proposed here. For psychiatrist and psychotherapist
Eduardo Ferreira Santos in Ciúme, o medo da perda (2001), jealousy is the
mental restlessness caused by suspicion or fear of rivalry in human relationships.
It is a distortion, an exaggeration, an imbalance of the feeling of zeal. Santos
reveals that such a feeling is totally self-centered in the individual. Based on this

are not ever jealous for the cause, but jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monster
6

In trying to understand this feeling, one may discover that it is fear, fear that
someday he may be expendable to the person with whom he relates; fear of being
abandoned, rejected or despised; fear of not being more important; fear of not
being loved; fear of loneliness.

psychological insecurity, low self-esteem and selfishness, which make us see

pride that does not support
7
We perceive all these characteristics in Othello, especially the low self-
esteem, probably fruit of his past, his origins. Despite his achievements, he is still
the Moor and is subjected to veiled prejudice, which can be proved through some

we come to do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll have your daughter
covered with a barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have
8

4
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 22.
5
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p.96.
6
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 108.
7
As causa interiores do ciúme são encontradas na insegurança psicológica, na baixa auto-estima,
no egoísmo, que nos faz vermos aqueles que amamos como posses, e no orgulho avassalador
que não suporta rivalidades.(SANTOS, 2001, p.42).
8
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 6

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run from her guardage to the sooty bosom of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to
9

Othello himself demonstrates that he does not accept his Moorish condition

conversation that chamberers have, or for I am declined into the vale of years,
yet that's not much she's gone. I am abused; and my relief must be to loathe
10

The insecure person blames the other for his insecurity and claims to be a

11
Furthermore, insecurity
is always an open door to obsession and an opportunity to be influenced by those
who do not wish us well. Othello's insecurities, combined with the enchanting
power of Iago's slanderousness sparked the tragedy.

ar your eye
thus, not jealous nor secure: I would not have your free and noble
nature, out of self-bounty, be abused; look to't: I know our country
disposition well; In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks they
dare not show their husbands; their best conscience is not to
leave't undone, but keep't unknown. 12

I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion:

I do repent me that I put it to you.
You would be satisfied?13

[...] For I will make him tell the tale anew, Where, how, how oft,
how long ago, and when He hath, and is again to cope your wife:
14

Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even the bed she
hath contaminated.15

According to the psychologist Márcia de Homem Mello in Inveja: que

sentimento é esse? (2000), envy is the main cause of the failures of people who

9
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 13.
10
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 8.
11
[...] quando apenas é escravo de ideias absurdas, fantasias e ilusões criadas em sua mente,
que ateia incêndios em ocorrências imaginárias. (SANTOS, 2001, p. 51).
12
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p 83.
13
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p.93.
14
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 117.
15
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p.125.

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cultivate it and may even be directed towards non-material aspects, being the
most serious form of this feeling, the most destructive and fatal, since it can cause
the greatest pain in human being. Envy is born of comparisons; it is the self-
loathing for not being as others are.
The feeling of envy is commonly associated with the color green, as in the
expression "green of envy". The phrase "green-eyed monster" refers to an
individual who is motivated by envy. The expression is taken from a phrase of

16
the green-
Semantically, the words jealousy and envy have close meanings. The
Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1996) has the following definitions:
Jealousy: n. jealousy is a feeling of unhappiness and anger because someone
has something that you want. Compare envy.
Envy: n. a wish that you had (a quality or possession) what another person has.
By the above mentioned definitions we perceive a subtle link between
jealousy and envy, for feelings of ownership are intimately bound up with the
desire to be what we are not, to possess what is not possible; in the case of
Othello, to have his beloved one only for himself. It is as if his love for Desdemona
was greater than anything else and the need to merge with her, to become one, so
great that Othello ends up seeing Desdemona as his alter ego. But what he sees
does not appeal to him (the question of low self-esteem), then he wants to be his
own beloved. If that is not possible, envy becomes jealousy. Therefore, duplicity of
feelings (love x jealousy, envy) has a disastrous effect on the personality of the
individual.
According to the Dicionário de Mitos Literários organized by Pierre Brunel
(1988), the divided Freudian subject appears in the literature before being
theorized; the heterogeneous is, in one of its components, the duality of being: the
subject of desire comes into conflict with the personality imposed by society. Every
story of the double reveals that it is dangerous to give an expression to evil. The
antagonism between the being of desire and the social self, that is, the image of
an adjusted self that is demanded of one who pursues certain ambitions in society,
is the theme of three variations on the double which has the destruction of the self,
16
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 82.

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madness or death as tragic outcomes. When Othello discovers that he has fallen
into Iago's trap, it is too late, for his beloved is dead. Othello suffers for the crime
he committed, he is tortured to the point of taking his own life, for he can not resist
the idea of having murdered an innocent. Even when confrontation with the double
results in the death of the hero, by killing himself, he attains moral regeneration.
Death is a second birth by the affirmation of the best self even in self-sacrifice
the antithesis of the man who sees himself through the mirror, whose self-
indulgence allows the emergence of monsters (BRUNEL, 1988, p. 280). This is

Soft you; a word or two before you go. I have done the state some
service, and they know't. No more of that. I pray you, in your
letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me
as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then
must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well; Of one
not easily jealous, but being wrought Perplex'd in the extreme; of
one whose hand, Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away. Richer
than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes, Albeit unused to the
melting mood, Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees Their
medicinal gum. Set you down this; And say besides, that in Aleppo
once, Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk Beat a Venetian and
traduced the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog, And
smote him, thus.17

The double is seen as a persecutor because it has the qualities required for
18
Othello is
considered and praised by the Court of Venice, and Desdemona considers him a
man of noble sentiments, incapable of acts vis-a-vis
19

20

21

17
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p.186-87
18
À margem. (BRUNEL, 1988, p.276).
19
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 100.
20
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 80.
21
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 80.

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Vygotsky also addresses the issue in terms of literature in his work

Psicologia da arte (1999). When talking about the construction of the hero in the
tragedy, Vygotsky mentions Tolstoy commenting Shakespeare. According to
Tolstoy, the character of the hero in the Shakespearean tragedy is "[...] only the
passing of the unifying moment of the two opposing emotions."22
Taken to Othello's analysis, Vygotsky shows how Shakespeare constructs
the character of Othello as the gullible, quite opposite to the character of the
jealous, the envious. What Othello said to Iago illustrates this analysis well: " By
the world, I think my wife be honest and think she is not; I think that thou art just
23
The non-jealous person kills by
jealousy th
say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, is free of speech, sings, plays and
24

For Vygotsky (1999), the tragic effect lies in the concatenation of two
opposing elements that arouse in us two diametrically opposed emotions. The
crisis of identity gives access to the acceptance of human nature with its double
postulation of the angel and the beast. To escape despair, heroes are torn
between appeals for good and evil. In his reencounter with Desdemona after the
battle, Othello makes him oaths of love and the simple image of his beloved is
reason to delight. Later, in the course of the tragedy, Othello voices vulgar words
against Desdemona, calling her a prostitute and going so far as to slap her in
public. It is the loving angel transfigured by the pain of the possibility of having his
name dishonored, seized by blind jealousy.
The Dictionary of literary myths teaches us that the heterogeneous is part of
the human condition, and the other of the subject is never where he imagines it is,
by virtue of the unconscious. The pursuit of true identity is, in one way or another,
the object that pursues the stories of the double view of the Freudian perspective.
The approach of the unconscious is in such cases "the discourse of the other,"25
provided by the double.

22
apenas o transcorrer do momento unificador das duas
VIGOTSKY, 1999, p.289).
23
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 93.
24
SHAKESPEARE, 2014, p. 83.
25
(BRUNEL, 1988, p.279).

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Unconsciously, Othello is not accepted. Watching closely, we find that

Othello and Iago are the same person. It is the two faces of the same man divided:
one who is capable of loving his wife, honoring her, and at the same time hating
her, envying her. Othello is the man who did not succeed because he was weak,
dominated by his own envy acting sneakily within himself. The unconscious
jealousy he feels about his wife is for knowing that she would not be socially
accepted in Venice as she always was, were it not for her position, and worse, that
she would never have the ability to respect Desdemona in the same way she
respected him; slandered and humiliated died subserviently. The more
Desdemona was humble and faithful to her beloved Othello, the more her jealousy
and hatred grew, because she was not capable of such noble sentiments. Iago is
nothing but the envious side of Othello. If his feeling was only jealousy, he would
kill Cassio and not Desdemona. He assassinates Desdemona because his desire
to control and possess the loved one, his envy, is greater than his love. There is
undoubtedly a jealousy of Cassius, seen as a rival, but of Desdemona envy. If he
could not possess it exclusively, he attacks it and, mischaracterizing it in fantasy,
turns it into a prostitute.

Final considerations

From this analysis we can infer that the double symbolizes the doubt about
the real. When that which demonstrates a fixation of the self on the real
disappears, the imaginary prevails over reality; it is no longer known who the
original is, who the double is. One can perceive the social concern in works like
Othello, where the confrontation with the double represents the awareness of what
is important for the self and, at the same time, the role played by the person in his
environment. The problem that then arises is the following: how does one manage
to accept oneself and be oneself in society.
The envious side of man acts without any ethics, as we see clearly in the
attitudes of Othello, when deciding on the destiny of Desdemona based on
suspicions born of its ambiguous personality.

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The play Othello is classically known as the tragedy of jealousy. The

greatness of Shakespeare can be seen in the transformation of the character
Othello, composing the eternal and universal tragedy about the destruction of the
human spirit by envy. The tragic hero is committed to action in the face of the
consequences of his acts. He is aware of the facts that the work evokes, the
struggle for power, jealousy, betrayal, hatred, envy and honor.

References

BAKHTIN, Mikail (1920-1930). O autor e o herói. In: Estética da criação verbal.

Tradução feita a partir do francês por Maria Ermantina Galvão G. Pereira. São
Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1992.

BRUNEL, Pierre (Org.). Dicionário de mitos literários. 2ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Ed.
UnB José Olympio Editora,1988.

GOETHE, J. Wolfrang. Escritos sobre literatura. Rio de Janeiro: Sete Letras,1997.

MELLO, Márcia Homem de. Inveja: que sentimento é esse?. Publicação

ABRAPSMOL, 2000. Disponível em:
<http://www.homemdemello.com.br/psicologia/inveja.html>. Acesso em: 16 de
junho de 2006.

PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. Cambridge

International Dictionary of English. 1ª ed. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1996.

SANTOS, Eduardo Ferreira. Ciúme, o medo da perda. São Paulo: Claridade,

2001.

SHAKESPEARE, William. Othello, the Moor of Venice. E-book. Global Grey, 2014.

VIGOTSKY, Lev Semenovich. Psicologia da arte. Tradução de Paulo Bezerra.

São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1999.

Breve currículo da autora

Daniela de Azevedo é mestranda em Estudos Literários do Programa de Pós-

graduação da Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros Unimontes. É graduada
em Letras Inglês (ISEIB) com especialização em Línguas Estrangeiras Modernas
(Unimontes/UFMG). Professora efetiva do curso de Letras Inglês da Universidade
Estadual de Montes Claros Unimontes.

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