Love is featured and its nature is exploited in Othello, Paradise Lost, and Oroonoko. How is love represented in these texts? What do they say...

In all three of these stories, love could be said to be at the heart of the tragic events of each story. More particularly, the idea of love (defined in these stories as heterosexual love culminating in marriage between a man and a woman) is associated with possession and control. It is Oroonoko's love for Imoinda that compels him to do whatever he can to rescue her and prevent her from marrying his grandfather the king. The two go through many trials and end up together, but while in captivity Oroonoko fears that Imoinda will be raped and die as a shamed woman. He decides he should kill her to prevent this fate, and she thanks him for his consideration! This is an extreme example of how love is tied to a sense of possession or ownership, and how women can be as complicit in this mindset as the men who wield the control. The nature of love is seen here as all-consuming, and subject to the social order. Its effects are shown to be literally connected to life and death.

In Othello, Othello is very possessive of his wife Desdemona. When his servant Iago decides to manipulate him, he convinces Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful. Othello confronts her with this information, and she denies it, and he flies into a jealous rage and strangles her. The nature of love is portrayed in an extreme way. The notion that "love is blind" can be applied to both Othello and Desdemona. Desdemona fell in love with Othello after hearing his stories of bravery and suffering; she sees only what she perceives as positive aspects of his character, and not his potential for rage or violence. Othello's "blindness" is caused by his obsessive jealousy. In this play, love is portrayed as obsessive and consuming. Love's effects can cause obsessive, single-minded behavior focused on one perspective and an unwillingness to accept any other possibility.

In Paradise Lost, the love between Adam and Eve indirectly causes them to disobey God and fall from Paradise. Adam's intelligence and restraint are affected by his deep love for Eve, and he allows himself to be swayed by her and eat the apple she has already tasted. Shortly thereafter they discover the joy of physical love, but feel shame afterwards. Their love is associated with sin, but the story implies that it is not their decision to eat the apple to gain knowledge that is the main problem, but their disobedience to God. The idea that the physical expression of love is tied to free will and choice is a powerful theme in Milton's version of this Biblical narrative. But the idea of knowledge contained in the apple, the symbol of temptation, is also a powerful theme. The suggestion is that knowledge and love are tied together, and the true expression of romantic love (through sex) is a way for humans to become enlightened. The dilemma of Adam and Eve is therefore one of love versus innocence; enlightenment versus obedience. The nature of love is here portrayed as a powerful force linked to free will and freedom of choice.