Othello is much more than a story of love, jealousy, and revenge. The play is a rich study of contrasts between intangible qualities and mortal characters. Evil is plotted in the dark, Desdemona is constantly seen as light, and order is always tending towards disorder. The contrasting themes of order with disorder and light with darkness are important to the play and should be carefully noted when read in Othello. As is usual with Shakespeare, the plot is borrowed from an existing source. In this case, the plot of Othello comes from the Hecatomnithi written by Giraldi Cinthio, published in Venice, Italy, in 1565. However, Shakespeare does offer many innovations to Cinthio's work. While Cinthio's version stresses the unwise choice of Desdemona for marrying a Moor who was different in race and religion, Shakespeare gives his Moor a name, a noble character, and a deep soul-like love for his wife. The ending of Othello is completely Shakespeare's genius.

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