Main Themes

various of themes & symbols: racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance, witchcraft, handkerchief, the token of love, light and dark...

• Witchcraft is prominently raised as a major theme in Shakespeare’s Othello in the first act, when Brabantio suspects that his daughter Desdemona may have been influenced by witchcraft which make her fall in love with Othello and marry him. 

• As Iago’s jealousy keeps expanding, filling his whole mind with framing Othello, by a great coincidence, Iago gets possession of the precious handkerchief accidentally dropped by the innocent Desdemona and manages to pass it into Cassio's possession. Iago knows that the fact that Cassio has the handkerchief won't be any kind of real proof that Cassio is having an affair with Desdemona, but he is pretty sure that it will be proof enough for Othello. He claims, "Trifles light as air/Are to the jealous confirmations strong/As proofs of holy writ" (III.iii.322-324).Cassio gives it to Bianca, his mistress, and Iago, by various contrivances, manages to have Othello observe Cassio handling the handkerchief and joking about it and about Bianca.  

• The handkerchief is also a token of love to Othello.For Othello, this handkerchief passed by Othello’s mother is a token of love. He believes as long as Desdemona has the handkerchief with her, her love and pureness still exists. Therefore, when Othello finds out Desdemona’s lost of the handkerchief and mistakenly believes Cassio is joking about his lewd behavior with Desdemona, he believed this only "oracular" proof Othello ever gets that Desdemona and Cassio are carrying on an affair. All this exaggerated valuation of a handkerchief and all the coincidences connected with it are very hard to swallow. They seem like a very contrived way of motivating Othello to murder the wife he adores. Except the deceiving and intentionally misguiding of Iago, it is the too strong jealousy of Othello himself finally kills Desdemona.