The hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is driven to murder by his passions. What passions? Jealousy? Sexual jealousy? In this article we examine these questions. In Shakespeare and Tragedy John Bayley denies that jealousy is an important causal factor in the play: The play easily escapes any attempt to fix it into a solution: why it happened, what caused it, what weakness was involved in Othello? Even jealousy as such is not the reason. Jealousy is a long-term affair, with its rules and customs, its underlying animosities and resentments. (204) This critical judgment is contrasted with that of another esteemed critic. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes definitively classifies Othello as a “study in jealousy”: Othello has suffered less in its modern interpretation than any other of Shakespeare's tragedies, it seems. Shakespeare so insistently kept this tragedy around the theme of jealousy and the central victims of passion, so obviously he shaped his plot on the Black Moor and the cunning Iago and the victims of their jealousy that no interpreter could ignore. the clear intention of the author. However, if we study contemporary interpretations of the Passion depicted here, we find that Shakespeare was following in detail a broader and more significant analysis of the Passion than has been understood in the present day. The play, however, is clearly a study in jealousy and jealousy as it affects people of different races. (148)Can we narrow down the concept of jealousy in this play to a specific type? Helen Gardner in “Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune” sees this play as a study in sexual jealousy: Othello is no proud study......center of paper......vington, David, ed . William Shakespeare: Four Tragedies. New York: Bantam Books, 1980. Campbell, Lily B. Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes. New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1970.Ferguson, Francis. “Two worldviews echo each other.” Readings on tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprinted from Shakespeare: The Pattern in His Carpet. Np: np, 1970.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.Jorgensen, Paul A. William Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985.Shakespeare, William. Othello. In Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No lines n..