博主注解：本人读书，经常囫囵吞枣。但，莎士比亚的<<奥赛罗>>，我却读了N遍。如果不这样做，我应付不了作业。这是我修的一门课"Intro to Novel, poetry and Drama"里的一个作业。

老师作业：

Please choose one symbol in “Othello” and describe its significance to the story.

我的解答：

The handkerchief is a symbol of love between Othello and Desdemona.  This symbol is so critical that it is the major driving force for the whole play.

First, it is a treasure to Othello’s family as he stated in ACT III Scene IV(P829):” That handkerchief did an Egyptian to my mother give”. Second, this handkerchief stores a power of love as stated in the same scene ”While she kept it ‘Twould make her amiable…..if she lost it…., my father’s eye should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt after new fancies”(P829). From this point,  we could reason that losing the handkerchief by Desdemona symbolizes that she will lose her love from Othello.

Since this handkerchief is so important to Othello, it is really a big deal if Desdemona loses it. Even worse, when Othello realizes that Cassio uses this handkerchief to wipe his beard, this makes Othello very angry with Desdemona and believes that his wife indeed has an affair with Cassio.  Further, when Othello finds Branca, Cassio’s girl friend, holds this handkerchief, he totally loses his trust with Desdemona. The handkerchief is so important that Othello even asks Desdemona where it is at the last moment of the play.

At the end of the play, after Emilia, Iago’s wife, tells the true story about this lost handkerchief to Othello, Othello suddenly realizes that he was cheated by Iago and regrets killing Desdemoda.  The complex feeling in Othello’s heart due to the handkerchief story is the major reason for him to kill himself at the end.

This handkerchief is not only a symbol of love but also it has a power to turn the story to the opposite direction as plotted by Shakespeare, making it a very significant symbol throughout the play.