Compare the way in which love is presented in Shakespeare's Sonnet 23 and Othello.

Sonnet 23 depicts a love that paralyses. The lover is compared to an actor who forgot his lines due to his fear and nervousness and loses his mastery of his role, also known as his ‘part’, implying that the influence of love over the speaker is too much for him to bear. Similarly, Othello denotes passionate love as he “falls into a trance” with the growing belief that Desdemona is unfaithful. Shakespeare implies a paralyzing effect by using the word ‘trance’. A clear parallel is the passion with which the characters love. Sonnet 23 uses words such as, ‘fierce’ and ‘rage’ to demonstrate the power of the emotion. It brings out anger and frustration which can lead to cracks in the outwardly perfect appearance of a loving relationship. Likewise in Othello, Othello is blinded by rage and “scorn”. The language used by Othello is significantly more crude and aggressive “I will chop her into messes”, compared to the language used in the sonnet ‘thing replete with too much rage‘ and the imagery in Othello used highlights the change brought about in his character. In the sonnet, love is portrayed to be powerful and fearful, it plays with it’s ‘victim’ and their emotions causing them frustration or rendering them unable to speak, whereas in Othello it is portrayed to be easily manipulated thus destructive. Love causes Othello to turn into an animalistic and jealous man with no concern for his wife. It blinds him, as he is ultimately unable to see his wife’s innocence. In both texts, Shakespeare presents the role of love to be essential to the problems between the respective lovers, indicating that a powerful and passionate love is truly all consuming and often paralyzing.