A primary factor in the events that unfold in Shakespeares Othello is the protagonist's inability to consummate his marriage, a union

that both figuratively and literally represents both the starting point for the unfolding chaos as well as its conclusion. Through his union with Desdemona an erotic desire should transform all things physical into a more spiritual realm of confident, expressive love, but is instead delayed and thus, from the first moments of Shakespeare's play to the final scene, sexual union becomes anticipated, delayed, and then ultimately blasphemed into a grotesque parody of loves consummate action. The consummation of the marriage is pivotal in the actions of Othello; The anticipation of the act in relation to his articulation and his digression from his inability to express either to Desdemona fully, Providing the foothold for all Iagos deceptions and the idealization of Desdemonas virtue that furthers the distinction between reality and fable, The ultimate result in the form of a obscured fulfilment of the almost professed consummation that happens due to its own un-fulfilment. All of which place the failed union of Othello and Desdemona at the height of cause. While Othello repeatedly anticipates the erotic, reality purposely frustrates, causing Othellos digression. Principally Othello's increasing inarticulateness in the play, symbolized by his failure to consummate his marriage, informs the tragedy as it transcends reason, sexual union, and ultimately life. In Othello's several frustrating metamorphoses, from "gentle lord" to repressed sadist, sexuality directly relates to his persona and reasoning abilities: feeling and doing are one; passion and articulation remain inseparable. His summation of their courtship and love to Brabantio exquisitely reflects the lovers eloquence by means of his articulation: "She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd, / And I lov'd her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have us'd". It remains noteworthy, however, to suggest that such articulate expression appears in the absence of Desdemona; their togetherness on stage never achieves the eloquence of Othellos appraisal of their love, which is to say that even as their speech never consummates their love, so their actions fail as well, until the plays end, when the Moors intentions lean toward the only viable expression of their marriage remaining, "strumpet, I come; Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted, Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be spotted" Suggesting his inability to express his love to her both in speech and in action directly result in his regression to a lower state of being which sees her virtue taken and death as the only remaining means of consummation to correct the marriage, fittingly on the bridal sheets, and return Othello to his rightful mind. Desdemonas Virtue becomes idealized to the point where consummation becomes impossible. The initial promise of consummation teasingly appears in Iago's lewd insinuations at the beginning of the play, as he coarsely informs Desdemona's father of the pair's elopement: "an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe" The image is easily grasped in its inference but it is Iago's animalistic image, which suggests the unabashed urgency of passion, prematurely, which establishes a dichotomy between the promised and the fulfilled, furthermore the continual insinuation of Desdemonas promiscuity by Iago creates a barrier between the wedded, in the form of emasculation, wherein Othellos eyes she holds no sentimentality towards him as he does not hold her virtue thus providing doubt in his masculine prominence which in turn is responsible for his reaction to the lost handkerchief, which when combined with the legend of it if she lost it or made gift of it, my fathers eye should hold her loathd shows the clear distinction made between what reality holds in Desdemona and the idealized constructions within Othellos mind, intimidating him. Desdemona's death suggests the ironic physical fulfilment of sexual ecstasy, promised in the play for the first four acts but never truly realized, not even in the last. Far from being a violent scene, Desdemona's death horribly mimics the embraces and union of love. As she awakens and pleads for her life "Kill me to-morrow, let me live to-night...But half an

hour, but while I say one prayer!"Suggesting the immediacy of the solution to his paranoia in the form of literal sex but Othello at his most articulate in the horrible denial: "'Tis too late". Unable to give voice to his own behavior, he quickly prevents Desdemona from speaking as well. Passion finally takes physical form, underscored by Desdemona's lingering pleas that easily suggest sexual ecstasy, "O Lord, Lord, Lord!", as contrasted to the clamouring of Emilia from within: "My lord, my lord! what, ho, my lord, my lord!. Their antiphonal cries seem to juxtapose violence and eroticism, even as they both respond to Othello's murderous act, which has, of course, substituted for his consummation and union with his wife. The contrast of her attempt to correct his assumptions followed by his refusal to adhere and the melancholy themes of The Willow Song specifically the lines I calld my love false love but what said he then?... If I court more women, youll couch more men. Sung previously by Desdemona depicting the inevitability of unfaithfulness between lovers, the two intertwine to transcend the original base sexual desires and reveal the true outcome that has, due to the mixed and misrepresented discourse between characters, become about their corrupted unfaithfulness with each other and the necessity to right their broken union by any means. It is ultimately clear that within Othello, Shakespeare aimed to manipulate sexuality as one of the driving forces of humanity to create a play that revolved around the minuscule yet expected act of consummating love and the dramatic effect of such when ignored, revealing the dichotomy between the promised and the obtained, articulation and action and most importantly Othello and Desdemona.