Love Drives the Greatest Evil: Humanistic Analysis of Shakespeare’s Othello,The Moore of Venice

Abstract

This study examined the human attributes, reflections of life, and emotional responses portrayed in William Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice. It was anchored in Humanism and M. H. Abrams’ Mimetic and Affective theories of literary criticism, with Reader-Response theory supporting the analysis of readers’ emotional engagement. A qualitative-descriptive literary research design was employed using structured textual analysis, repeated close reading, and purposive selection of relevant passages, character portrayals, conflicts, themes, and significant events. The play and its major characters served as the primary subject and units of analysis. The findings revealed that Othello embodies courage, determination, leadership, love, and commitment but becomes vulnerable to insecurity, jealousy, deception, and flawed judgment. Desdemona represents love, loyalty, patience, compassion, and endurance, while Iago demonstrates intelligence and strategic ability directed toward manipulation and destruction. The analysis showed that virtues and weaknesses coexist within human nature and that uncontrolled emotions, misplaced trust, prejudice, and deception may transform genuine love into violence and tragedy. The play also evokes sympathy, pity, fear, sadness, grief, and compassion, encouraging reflection on moral responsibility, emotional control, and the consequences of human choices. The study concludes that Othello remains a meaningful representation of human complexity and recommends further multi-critical, expressive, thematic, and comparative literary studies. The research supports Sustainable Development Goal 4 by strengthening critical reading, literary interpretation, emotional literacy, and ethical reasoning, and indirectly relates to Sustainable Development Goal 16 through its treatment of injustice, violence, accountability, and responsible decision-making. Its sustainability impact lies in promoting educational, cultural, social, and ethical sustainability through the continued teaching and interpretation of classical literature.