Othello says to Desdemona, "When I love thee not,chaos is come again" (lines 91-92). Discuss how we might express this setiment today. Consider how you regard such statements:are they dangerous oversimplifications, or just expressions of blind love?
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Although not heard too often in today's society, the statement "and when I love thee not, chaos is come again." is saying that their love is perfect, and when their love ceases, her universe will once again fall into chaos and despair. In today's society, we generally hear comparisons of love to other natural aspects, such as deepness of oceans/valleys, vastness of space/oceans, etc.
I don't think that comments such as these should be considered as "dangerous", instead, it should be considered as a statement of the deep love felt by Desdemona towards Othello.
"when I love thee not, Chaos is come again."
I think that Othello is trying to show the depth and amount of emotion he feels towards Desdemona. This could be a dangerous thing eventually since he shows this large ammount of attachment to Desdemona that if she were to ever stop loving him (or vice versa) there will be a big mess of emotion and probably a lot of spite.
In modern times, I'm not sure if you could change what Othello would say, its a timeless feeling with many words to express it.
This quote can be explained many different ways, but in my opinion it is stating Othello's dependence on Desdemona (rather than the depth of his love, as Adam and Jacquie previously said). Othello clearly says "when I love thee NOT, chaos is come again" and nothing about how great his love is. Like we discussed in class, I believe that he is in love with the idea of Desdemona rather than her actual personality. The ease with which Iago convinces Othello that his wife is unfaithful demonstrates that his emotions are ultimately superficial and inept.
I agree with Jacquie when she says that what Othello is describing is a timeless feeling, however I disagree when it comes to what he's actually expressing. In modern times it could be said as "without you I'm completely lost", but this is equally interpretable and dangerous. It is dangerous because his feelings are coming from his blind love, and his confidence in the relationship isn't as great as he leads it on to be. Without confidence in his marriage, Othello is inevitably going to end up hurting himself or his wife (unless their relationship deepens).
This is the equivalent of a quote said by Jack Nicholson in the movie "As Good As It Gets" when his character says: You make me want to be a better man. I think they can be expressions of love provided the person who is saying isn't prone to fits of jealousy and violent rage.
The interpretation of the quote says that when he does not love her or is with her. his world comes to destruction. With today we don't talk the way they did then, we say things with large metaphors or just straight forward affection. These types of comments aren't dangerous, they just try to say how much you love someone when "I love you" doesn't work.
When Othello's love was really deep and important for him and Desdemona was the most important person in his life, everything build up behind her.Then his words " when I love thee not, chaos is come again" can be very dangerous because Othello is in a very powerful position and when his mind is in "chaos" then his decisions will be too. And wrong decisions in his position can be fatal for all Cyprus (for example in case of another invasion).
The statement in itself is not dangerous at all. It only shows how much Othello loves Desdemona and any normal person would maybe get in some kind of small depression about it. But for an man in his position I would say even a little depression could have huge consequences for Cyprus and its people.
As a compairason to todays society and the society pressent in the older era, when love was conseaved as lost, it was compaired to chaos. Women would be prostitutes and would very rarely be caught being disloyal to their husband, so when the conflict arose, many times "chaos" would bring a man to murder or tretchary.
In todays society, saying that not loving someone will lead to chaos, it just sounds rediculous. Women and Men are disloyal everyday and situations are taken lighter in consept then others.
When Othello states "and when I love thee not, chaos is come again." I agree with "stephanie!" when it's more of him saying "without you I'm completely lost". There is the expression of affection towards how much he loves her and how he is commited in being in a relationship with her. It seems that Othello should spend more time with Desdemona because if he does claim that "without you I'm completely lost" he actually might, or is already "lost". He spends lots of time with other people, like Iago whom is a mind sucker, which is probably not too healthy for him & Desdemona's relationship. There doesn't seem to be much of a trusting bond between them two. Like "mike" said, Othello may lead to making some bad decisions because he is making more assumptions than actually knowing what is going on.
This quote shows how powerful his love is towards desdemona and that his world would go to chaos if their love were to ever deplete. To me it's not a harmful thing to say because it's just expressing how much feeling he has toward her. In today's society we wouldn't talk exactly like that but like "ihasturdle" said we do use metaphors to express what we feel or we bluntly say it.
When he says 'chaos is come again' is he referring to the fact that his life was chaotic before her? I never entirely understood that line.
But as for it being dangerous. I don't think it is. It is merely an expression of his love, and although i agree with stephanie, i dont think he ever REALLY loved her, i think he truly THOUGHT that he loved her. And that in itself makes the statement harmless.
I think Othello was more or less lusting after desdemona, if anything.
when Othello says "when i love thee now, chaos is come again" it's like he feels like nothing makes sense without Desdemona in his life. loving her is the only way he wants to live. without that, he feels like he has nothing left.
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