ABSTRACT
Theme is ideational raw material, open to all playwrights or to one playwright repeatedly; thematic form results from the molding of the raw material that takes place in a single compositional experience; it is a unique shaping of the action as this is seen in terms of the ideational substance. "Love" appears in diverse dramatic structures in Romeo, Antony, and Othello. The business here is to see how it is "structured" in Othello. Wit and witchcraft: in this antithesis is the symbolic structure, or the thematic form, of Othello. By witchcraft, of course, Iago means conjuring and spells to induce desired actions and states of being. But as a whole the play dramatically develops another meaning of witchcraft and forces upon us an awareness of that meaning: witchcraft is a metaphor for love. The "magic in the web" of the handkerchief, as Othello calls it, extends into the fiber of the whole drama.
