Light and Darkness in Othello

The theme of light and darkness or sight and blindness has a large role in the play Othello.  The most obvious example is Othello’s physical difference from everyone else.  He is the only one who is black, while every other character in the play is white.  Desdemona looks beyond this racial difference and can see more than just Othello’s color, even though Othello cannot. This is something that he doubts by the end of the play.  Desdemona mentions multiple times about different types of sight.  One thing she says is, “Saw Othello’s visage in his mind, and to his honors and his valiant parts, did I my soul and fortunes consecrate” (1.iii.250-252).  Desdemona loves things about Othello and believes things about Othello that she cannot see.  Othello acts as though he needs more proof of things and needs to see what is happening in order to believe it.  However, throughout the play, Othello is convinced by Iago of things that he cannot see.  The most tragic example is when Othello accuses Desdemona of having an affair with Cassio, even though he never actually sees her infidelity.  He does not believe her when she tells him that it’s not true because he doubts that she ever actually loved him.  This comes from his insecurity about being dark.  Because Othello places such a great significance on light versus dark, he ends up murdering his wife and committing suicide at the end of the play.  After Othello kills himself, Lodovico says, “Look on the tragic loading of this bed.  This is thy work.  The object poisons sight.  Let it be hid” (5.ii.373-375).  There are so many things that can distort our sight and make us believe something that we did not actually see.  Othello’s color distorted his sight of Desdemona.  It made him believe rumors that were not true.  Iago took advantage of all of this and caused the tragedy in the play.