Othello, 3.4.53-55

Othello: That’s a fault. That handkerchief /Did an Egyptian to my mother give/She was a charmer and could almost read/The thoughts of people. She told her, while she kept it/ ‘Twould make her amiable and subdue my father/Entirely to her love.

By scene 4 in Act 3, the characters in Othello have almost entirely succumbed to the chaos and darkness inherent in the morally-luminal Cyprus locale. Iago’s manipulations sank into the psyches of Cassio, Desdemona, and Othello respectively, causing everyone to question motivations, honesty, and reputation. The question of the origin of Othello’s handkerchief is important, as it addresses anxieties concerning “the other” and magical qualities. From the beginning of the play, Othello’s contemporaries describe him as a magician, a pirate/thief, capable of “tricking” Desdemona into loving him. In this passage, Shakespeare’s audience receives their first validation that perhaps Othello actually is (or was) involved in “old-world” trickery or magic. The catch here, however, lies in the fact that the handkerchief secures a man’s love for a woman. Othello as a play discusses the inability to reign in female sexuality – this motif is not validated by attempts by a female to control male sexuality. Othello gives Desdemona the handkerchief with the hope of controlling her, despite her honest and virginal disposition, and ironically ends up distrusting her faithfulness based on external male homosocial pressures. The handkerchief simply does not yield its intended purpose when Othello uses it – reiterating Shakespeare’s recurring discussion of women’s inherent unfaithfulness.

- Erin Pushkin
Waldo, Section 1D