And when I love thee not

There are many instances when I am grateful to be reading the Folger editions of Shakespeare's plays, such as when I have no idea what a word or phrase means, and the side notes kindly help me understand what in the world I just read. I am particularly grateful for these side notes when they help me understand a beautiful phrase which I wouldn't have appreciated otherwise. When I came across Othello's declaration (speaking of Desdemona) that, "And when I love thee not, chaos is come again," (3.3.101-02) I somewhat understood it the first time. I understood this to mean that Othello's life would be chaotic and wrong if Desdemona was not in it. However, reading the side note was what made me truly fall in love with this phrase. The side note explains that "in classical mythology, only love prevents the universe from falling back into primordial chaos." With this new understanding, I realized the depth of what Othello is saying here; his expression of love for Desdemona is literally saying that without her, his world would fall apart, that it is only their love that keeps his world spinning. Of course my heart's immediate reaction was, "awww" and it was only later that I realized how this phrase foreshadows what happens in the future. After killing Desdemona, Othello's world becomes literal chaos, and he sees no other solution other than to kill himself, because he feels that he no longer has anything to live for. But truly, I prefer to ignore the gloomy ending and just focus on the adorable expression of love :)

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