Othello and the Power of Love The tragedy Othello by William Shakespeare presents various types of love, but none compares to the love we find between the protagonist and his wife. In this essay we examine “love” as found in the play. In his book Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack comments on the love that exists between the hero and heroine: Magical from my point of view, although I know how opinions differ on this point, to ask us to recognize that the love shared by these lovers before Iago's corruption sets in actually has magic in its web, contains a "work" (3.3.296) that a relationship like Cassio's and Bianca's can never match or “eliminate”, commands a power that places him as much above the commonplace as Desdemona is in the radiant generosity and innocence that makes her vulnerable, as Othello is in the “free and open nature” (1.3. 393) that makes him vulnerable, and in the courage and determination to take justice into his own hands which earned him the final praise: «Because he was big at heart» (5.2.361). (131)Similarly, Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes indicates the perfect type of love emanating from both the heroine and the general:The simple and noble love of Othello and Desdemona is known to all, but it must be noted that Desdemona, like Cordelia, rightly loves both her father and her husband. [. . .] That his love is the perfect love which philosophers found to blend the love of body and mind is evident [. . .] That Othello's love is also a noble and perfect love is evident in its simplicity: She loved me because of the dangers I had run, and I loved her because she pitied them. (155)...... half of the sheet ...... 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.Mack, Maynard. Everyone is Shakespeare: reflections especially on tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Pitt, Angela. "Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies." Readings on tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprinted from Shakespeare's Women. Np: np, 1981.Shakespeare, William. Othello. In Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No lines n..