OTHELLO - Wordsworth

The destructive effects of jealousy underlie the drama of Shakespeare's first mature tragedy. Othello, a man of quality and superior intelligence, is brought down by his suspicious wife, the lovely Desdemona. Never before had Shakespeare so vividly pointed to the moral contradictions of love and jealousy and Othello's feelings for Desdemona are tellingly paralleled in the perverted love and jealousy of Othello's lieutenant, the 'honest lago.' Th play, whose characters display attributes common to the least of mankind, remains perhaps the most approachable of Shakespeare's four great tragedies.