Othello: his themesIn the Shakespearean tragedy Othello, how many themes are there? And which ones prevail. This article attempts to enlighten the reader on this topic. In his book, Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack comments on the apparent predominance of the theme of loss in the play: In any case, what comes to us most forcefully from the Othello scene is not the mystery but the agony of loss, a loss that is all the more tragic, in some cases, because it is not inevitable. Brabantio loses (in every sense) his beloved only son and ultimately dies of grief. Cassio in a moment of drunkenness loses his soldier's discipline, then his lieutenant and his cherished camaraderie with Othello. Othello, in turn, losing under Iago's guidance the ability to distinguish the single woman he married from the standard cynical stereotype, abandons with all the pride in his profession along with the self-control that made him the man he was . And Desdemona, without any fault, loses the magic handkerchief. (131)The theme of loss, however, is not the theme with which the work opens. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes indicates that hatred is the theme on which this play opens: 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... middle of the paper... 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.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..