Love and OthelloOthello is, in one sense of the word, by far the most romantic figure among Shakespeare's heroes; and he is so partly because of the strange life of war and adventure he has lived since childhood. He does not belong to our world and he seems to enter it from who knows where – almost as if he came from Wonderland. There is something mysterious in his descent from the men of the royal seat; in his wanderings in vast deserts and among marvelous peoples; in his tales of magic handkerchiefs and prophetic Sibyls; in the vague, sudden glimpses we have of the countless battles and sieges in which he played the role of hero and led a charmed life; even in casual references to his baptism, his sale into slavery, his stay in Aleppo. And he's not just a romantic character; his own nature is romantic. He does not, in fact, have the meditative or speculative imagination of Hamlet; but in the strictest sense of the word, he is more poetic than Hamlet. Indeed, if we remember Othello's most famous speeches - those which begin with "His father loved me", "O now forever", "Never, Iago", "Had it rained in heaven ", "This is the cause", "Here, I have a weapon", "Take it easy, a word or two before you go" -- and if we place alongside these speeches an equal number of any other hero, it will not be doubted that Othello is the greatest poet of them all. There is the same poetry in his casual phrases - such as "These nine wasted moons", "Keep your swords shining, for." the dew will rust them", "You, chaste stars", "It is a sword of Spain, the ice". "Brook's temper", "It is the very error of the moon" -- and in those brief expressions of intense feeling which since then have been considered the absolute expression, as if it were now middle of paper...... Harold "Introduction" Modern Critical Interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. . Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987. (1-6) CW Slights. “Slaves and Subjects in Othello,” Shakespeare Quarterly v48 Winter 1997: 382. Jones, Eldred. "Othello - An Interpretation" Critical essays on Shakespeare's Othello. Ed. Anthony G. Barthélemy Pub. Macmillan New York, NY 1994. (pages 39-55) Neely, Carol. "Women and Men in Othello" Critical essays on Shakespeare's Othello. Ed. Anthony G. Barthélemy Pub. Macmillan New York, NY 1994. (pages 68-90) Norman Sanders, ed. Othello. Cambridge: New York, 1995: 12. Snyder, Susan. “Beyond Comedy: Othello” Modern Critical Interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987. (pages 23-37) J. Adelman. "Iago's Alter Ego: the race as a projection in Othello", Shakespeare Quarterly v48 Summer 1997: 130.