Comment on the love-story of Othello and Desdemona in Othello?

The love story of Othello and Desdemona begins in an atmosphere coloured by the brightest hues of romance. Othello has about him all the glamour of a true romantic hero. According to Professor Gordon, "Othello is a hero". The story of his adventures stirs the imagination of Desdemona. She falls in love with him because he represents to her a strange and unknown. She loves him for the dangers he has passed through.

To Othello, Desdemona represents a world equally unfamiliar and strange. She is the daughter of a venetian senator. Throughout the play Othello does not show any evidence of possessing any insight into the minds of woman. He had led the wild, stormy life of a soldier of fortune. Desdemona represents to him a vision of beauty. He himself says that he began to love her.

War is to him his first love. Desdemona occupies only a place next to war in his heart. The new love for Desdemona suspends for a while the old love of war. The world of love is to him like a new country in which he is not sure of his bearings. The rapture of passion has transported him into an ecstast of bliss. Othello had no definite feeling of dissatisfaction with his love. He loves Desdemona intensely and wholeheartedly. He has of course absolute faith in Desdemona, but it is a blind faith.

Othello's confidence in Desdemona is not able to withstand this assult. He becomes jealous and behaves abnormal towards her. He strikes her and abuses her in the most filthy terms. But during all this degradation, his love for her still continues. When he finally murders her, he behaves like an honourable murderer, that is say, one who kills for the sake of honour. He feels that it is his duty to kill her for the sake of justice. He fears that her beauty may persuade justice to break her sword. He is suffering from a heavenly sorrow, which strikes where it doth love.

However, on Desdemona's side there have been no such restlessness in love. Her love for Othello never wavers or flatters. Her faith in him is absolute. He has no feelings of insecurity. Othello is essentially a love story of Othello and Desdemona. There can be no doubt about Othello's profound love for Desdemona but at last murders her because of the intrigue of lago.