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WRITERS HAVE OFTEN taken pathological jealousy for a theme. Boccaccio, Tolstoy, de Maupassant, and many others have known the dramatic power of the green-eyed monster. But it was Shakespeare who gave it the green eyes, and who embodied the monster's eternal victim in the character of Othello, the tormented Moor of Venice, on the stage of the Globe Theatre of London in 1604.
Shakespeare's Othello is based upon an Italian tale written by Giraldo Cinthio around 1565. The jealousy motif, and the racial contrast between husband and wife, are major components of the original work. But the moral of Cinthio's novel is finally revealed by his Desdemona who weeps, "I fear I shall prove an example to young girls not to marry against the wishes of their parents, and that Italian ladies may learn from me not to marry a man whom nature, heaven, and manner of life have separated us." 3 Obviously Shakespeare has quite a different point to make in his tragic masterpiece.
Scholars have commented on what appears to be a remarkable inconsistency in Othello's personality, especially considering the depth and subtlety of characterization of which Shakespeare was capable in the mature and powerful works of his most productive middle years. 4 The apparent flaw consists in the unlikelihood that such a strong and noble man as Othello should fall so completely a prey to jealousy that he becomes aroused to the point of madness