| Shakespeare's Othello, in spite of its power over audiences, has not been considered as important as his other great tragedies, Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth. Until the late twentieth century, critics have regarded the subjects of sexual passion and jealousy to be insufficiently important to merit the serious consideration given to the other three tragedies. Up through the nineteenth century, critical commentary centered on the flawed character of Othello and the motivation of Iago. In the early twentieth century, A. C. Bradley cast new light on Othello's character, showing sympathy and admiration for the "noble murderer" and influencing subsequent criticism. The recent critical revolution, in which cultural materialist, gender, and racial theories dominate, has shown the play's complication, adding to our understanding and revealing Othello to have more depth than was originally thought. But commentary has continued to fall short of defining the Aristotelian action, that is, the insight or overall meaning of the play.; The drama being a "love tragedy," a reader expects dyadic interactions and oppositions. But on closer examination, one notices a subtle pattern of triadic constructs in Shakespeare's language, his character distribution, his scenes, his dialogue---in every part of Othello, patterns not occurring to the same degree in Shakespeare's other great tragedies. In Othello this triangularity may perhaps demonstrate a particular insight, one not present in the same way in Hamlet, Lear, and Macbeth. The meaning of Othello, its action, may be revealed in such a persistent pattern that governs all its elements. As artist, Shakespeare might have intuited that in every one-to-one relationship some invisible third thing participates, a conception which may be most poignantly revealed in the love relation between husband and wife. A survey of thought on triadicity in the Western tradition suggests that the elusive third thing is specifically an identifiable spirit. When this spirit is the highest expression of love, a rightly ordered relationship coheres, on which the reality of grace builds. This psychic disposition moves outward, forming the good family, citizenry, and---over the long course of history---civilization itself. |
