Coleridge has made a great deal of the notion that Othello was justified in describing himself as “not easily jealous”; but poor Coleridge's perverse ingenuity never led him further astray. The exact contrary must, I think, be admitted; Othello was surely very quick to suspect Desdemona; he remembers Iago's first suspicious phrase, ponders it and asks its meaning; he is as quick as Posthumus was to believe the worst of Imogen, as quick as Richard II. to suspect his friends Bagot and Green of traitorism, and this proneness to suspicion is the soul of jealousy. And Othello is not only quick to suspect but easy to convince—impulsive at once and credulous. His quick wits jump to the conclusion that Iago, “this honest creature!” doubtless
“Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.”
On hinted imputation he is already half persuaded, and persuaded as only a sensualist would be that it is lust which has led Desdemona astray:
“O curse of marriage!
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites.”
He is, indeed, so disposed to catch the foul infection that Iago cries:
“Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.”
And well he may, for before he uses the handkerchief or any evidence, on mere suspicion Othello is already racked with doubt, distraught with jealousy, maddened with passion; “his occupation's gone”; he rages against Iago and demands proof, Iago answers:
“I do not like the office;
But, sith I am entered in this cause so far
- - - - - - - - - - - -
I will go on.”
This is the same paltry reason Richard III. and Macbeth adduced for adding to the number of their crimes, the truth being that Shakespeare could find no reason in his own nature for effective hatred.
Othello gives immediate credence to Iago's dream, thinks it “a shrewd doubt”; he is a “credulous fool,” as Iago calls him, and it is only our sense of Iago's devilish cleverness that allows us to excuse Othello's folly. The strawberry-spotted handkerchief is not needed: the magic in its web is so strong that the mere mention of it blows his love away and condemns both Cassio and Desdemona to death. If this Othello is not easily jealous then no man is prone to doubt and quick to turn from love to loathing.