Christien Ayers

Mr. Scanlan

ACP L202

15 April 2019

Afraid of Loss

In Jeffrie G. Murphy’s essay, entitled “Jealousy, Shame, and the Rival”, he argues

Othello was jealous not because he was afraid of losing Desdemona, but he was afraid of the

shame that would result from losing her. However, Othello’s monologue and dialogues coupled

with logical inference-making suggests Murphy is incorrect in his assertion – Othello was

jealous simply because he was afraid of losing Desdemona.

In Act Three of ​Othello​, the wicked Iago begins to suggest to Othello that his Desdemona

is having an affair with Lieutenant Cassio. As soon as Iago starts to imply that Othello should be

suspicious, Othello says, “Why, why is this? / Think’st thou I’d make a life of jealousy, / To

follow still the changes of the moon / With fresh suspicions? No! . . . Iago, / I’ll see before I

doubt, when I doubt, prove, / And on the proof there is no more but this: / Away at once with

love or jealousy!” (Shakespeare 180-197). Here, Othello strongly states that he is currently not

suspicious of any sort of affair, highlighting how confident he is in his resolve to forego

investigating his wife’s affairs. But shortly thereafter, Iago reminds Othello that she lied to her

father about her marriage, causing Othello to begin to doubt what he once knew to be true. In

Murphy’s essay, he makes an argument that “[b]eing a victim of infidelity is . . . shameful and

embarrassing . . . the rage that is often found in those who have been jilted . . . may provoke . . .

retribution and sometimes even murder. Why do people do these things? These acts will not get
the love back, but they may go a long way – at least in the eyes of the perpetrator – towards

saving face . . . thus overcoming the shame of it all” (788). However, Murphy’s analysis that

Othello killed Desdemona in order to avoid being shamed is quite flawed. First, it is apparent

that because of Othello’s prior confidence in the security of his marriage, he is jealous and

retributive because he is angry that the love that he thought was real was not, and he does not

want to lose that reality. He even readily admits he was trying too hard to hold on to her love:

“​Speak of me as I am . . . one that loved not wisely, but too well” (Shakespeare 357-360).

Second, he would not have murdered her if he was afraid of embarrassment; murdering your

devoted wife because you were tricked into believing that she was sleeping with your right-hand

man is a surefire way attract ridicule.