Loving Not Wisely but Too Well: Othello, Specialness, and “A Course in Miracles” [VIDEOSTR]

Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.

Shakespeare’s Othello, looked at through the lens of A Course in Miracles, offers a penetrating, if not painful insight into the nature of guilt: its origins in our special relationship with God, and its shadowy expression in our personal lives of special relationships. Othello’s choice to believe in Iago’s lies—the ego’s thought system—rather than Desdemona’s innocence—the Atonement—is discussed from the perspective of our need to destroy love, and then experience the horrible consequences of the ensuing guilt. Othello’s decision to trust his “friend” and murder his wife on grounds of infidelity is irrevocable; not so, however, our decision for the ego, which can be undone in the instant we choose to trust our true friend and practice his lessons of forgiveness. Thus does Jesus add a “sixth act” to Shakespeare’s five-act tragedy.