The variety of themes in OthelloIn the Shakespearean tragedy Othello the number and description of themes are open to discussion. With the help of literary critics we can analyze this topic in detail. In the essay "Wit and Witchcraft: An Approach to Othello" Robert B. Heilman discusses the ancient's instinctive reaction to the play's love theme: Before getting directly to the formation of the love theme that differentiates Othello from other plays of Shakespeare that use the same theme, I arbitrarily turn to Iago to examine one of his hallmarks, that relevance to thematic form in the play will appear a little later. When Iago reminds Roderigo, attracted by a ruthless attraction for the unattainable Desdemona, with imperceptible mockery, that love produces an unusual nobility in men, he enunciates a doctrine that he "knows" to be true but in which he cannot "believe" . Ennoblement through love is a real possibility in men, but Iago must view it bitterly and try to undermine it. (333-34)The theme of hatred is the theme on which the work opens. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes indicates this hatred in the opening scene: It is therefore on the theme of hatred that the play opens. It is a hatred of inveterate anger. It is a hatred linked to envy. Othello preferred a military theorist, Michael Cassio, to be his lieutenant, rather than the expert soldier Iago, who instead took the position of "ancient of his Moorship". Roderigo questions Iago: You told me you hated him. And the answer is a torrent of evidence of hatred for Othello that has almost surpassed Cassio's envy because he possesses the... middle of paper ......Gardner, Helen. "Othello: a tragedy of beauty and fortune." Readings on tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprinted from “The Noble Moor.” Lectures of the British Academy, n. 9, 1955. Heilman, Robert B. “Wit and Witchcraft: An Approach to Othello.” Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. Ed. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10; and Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16.Jorgensen, Paul A. William Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985.Mack, Maynard. Everyone is Shakespeare: reflections especially on tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.Shakespeare, William. Othello. In Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No lines n..