ABSTRACT
William Shakespeare’s Othello is probably the greatest literary work on the subject of jealousy. Shakespeare transformed the relatively simple story into the tale of the capacity of one man, Iago, to transform the sexually non-consummated love relationship between the Moor, Othello, and the young white woman, Desdemona, into her murder by Othello in a fit of jealousy. Othello assures Iago that he is immune “To such exsufflicate and blown surmises” and thereby becomes more susceptible to Iago’s ensnarement. Othello and Desdemona have retired to consummate their marriage. In 1932, in the paper “Jealousy as a mechanism of defense”, Joan Riviere offered a psychoanalytic interpretation of Othello. In Venice as well as in Cyprus Iago creates disturbances wherever Othello and Desdemona have retired to have sexual intercourse; he cannot tolerate the idea that the two have sexual relations. Othello and Desdemona, in spite of all the limitations of their relationship, both love and respect each other.
