The Theme Of Good And Evil In Shakespeare's Othello

In William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, he shines light on the extremely popular theme of literature, good versus evil. In Othello the forces of goodness and nobility, Desdemona, Emelia, and Cassio, go up against the forces of evil, Iago and eventually Othello. Despite the audience constantly hoping that the pure innocent and side of the conflict will prevail, however the audience is left with a dismal of despair when Iago’s malicious doings and Othello’s irrational actions prevail with the murder of Emelia and Desdemona and the suicide of Othello. Throughout the play Shakespeare reveals the true purity and grace of Desdemona. Desdemona, Othello’s love interest, first began to fall in love with Othello after listening to his war stories and Othello fell in love with her because “she did pity them”(Act 1, Scene3). Desdemona is accused of having an affair with Cassio, Othello’s Lieutenant, by Iago for reasons not disclosed by Shakespeare. Throughout the play her goodness and loyalty to Othello is steadily revealed especially in the end. In the beginning of the play she openly admits to her great loyalty to Othello when she chooses him over her own father, “I do perceive here a divided duty…But here’s my husband”. Even after being married to him only for a couple of hours Desdemona has sworn her loyalty to Othello because she loves him so …show more content…
Othello is able to do this through his characters. On one side is the pure, loyal, and innocent Desdemona, Emelia, and Cassio who go against the dark side with the maleficent Iago and the prideful Othello. Unfortunately Shakespeare illustrates that in the theme good versus evil that the forces of good don’t always prevail with the death of Emelia and Desdemona and the suicide of Othello. As a result leaves the audience with the feeling of