Love and violence are on two sides on the same line, but what if the line turns out to be a circle? What happens when the two extremes meet? In Othello by Shakespeare, Othello falls head over heels with Desdemona, a very beautiful and desirable woman. When Iago, Othello’s right hand man, starts rumors about Desdemona cheating, Othello becomes jealous, crazy, and violent. Even though Othello is grateful for Desdemona choosing him after seeing all of her other prospects, he is quick to believe Iago because of Iago’s so-far good and honest reputation. Othello is not a stupid man; he is a general and a very skilled one. However, because he has never experienced a love this strong before, he doesn’t know how to deal with information of Desdemona betraying his affection. David Dunning has said, “People fail to reach their potential as…lovers… and people simply because they are not aware of the possible.” When someone commits wrongdoing, Othello recognizes only two outcomes: killing and releasing. He could divorce Desdemona, but with Iago’s influence, he decides to kill her.

Joe Goldberg, the main character from the Netflix series “You,” does things very similar to Othello throughout the show. Joe’s desire for love leads him to kill his partners once they disappoint him in the slightest way. This is partly a problem with these men being influenced by the normalization of punishing women in an overly violent and deadly way for their misdoings and offensiveness towards society simply for being themselves or making simple mistakes, just like men do. Both Joe and Othello don’t know how else to go about their love being taken for granted, whether it’s true or not. In Joe’s case, he’d been disappointed in love many times before so he thinks the only way to move on is to kill his partners. Othello is simply so angry with Desdemona with even the possibility of her mistreating his love that he says, “Ay, let her rot, and perish and be damned tonight, for she shall not live.” Overall, the feeling and yearning for love can make people do inhumane things towards the people who do them wrong. If they are constantly looking for love and the love that happens is not the love they imagined, they are extremely hurt and do things that can get rid of their hurt, like killing people. These actions are caused by the background of extreme violence against women, the unknowing of what to do, and the influence of past experiences. If Othello and Joe Goldberg were not affected by their past knowledge and the people around them while they were vulnerable, they would turn into men in love rather than men of violence.