In both of these works, we have explored connections, parallels, and conflicts between love on the one hand and duty (i.e. loyal service to the nation or to the state) on the other. Othello kills Desdemona partly out of a misplaced sense of duty to Venice and loyalty to Iago. At the end of Hemingway’s novel, Frederic Henry abandons the Italian army in order to get to his beloved Catherine, thereby placing love above duty. Love sometimes leads one to forget one’s duty, and blind loyalty sometimes leads to violence and the death of loved ones. Formulate a thesis and write an essay about how love is in conflict with duty in these two works of fiction.
Here are a few questions to consider:
What does a willingness to put love above national loyalties say about one’s love? How is duty defined as something that transcends personal affection? How is true love made “real” and how is it a union of the souls that transcends all other loyalties? Why does true love so often involve breaking the rules, violating the law? How does the battlefield of love relate to war?
Your essay should have an argument and should include at least four quotes from Othello and at least four quotes from A Farewell to Arms. If possible, try to draw parallels between these two works of fiction.