I found this wonderful short clip from Dr. James Allen Jones, a Shakespearean scholar and actor who draws parallels between the miracle of Hanukkah and this passage from Othello:
Duke of Venice: Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence,
Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers
Into your favour.
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.
Othello, Act I, Scene iii, lines 547-558
The Context
Desdemona has married Othello, but her father Brabantio cannot comprehend why a woman like her would disobey him, much less marry a black man. He is actually convinced that Othello must have used drugs or witchcraft to seduce Desdemona, and calls both of them to court before the Duke. The Duke hears the argument patiently and concludes that Desdemona’s love for Othello is genuine. In the lines above he speaks to Brabantio giving him friendly advice as if he were Brabantio’s conscience, (or the sense of judgment that he so clearly lacks). The Duke urges this father to let go of his “grief” over losing his daughter because it will only invite further suffering.
Sadly Brabantio doesn’t take this advice at all, and ‘warns’ Othello that she could just as easily betray him as she betrayed her father. Arguably, this plants the first seeds of doubt and jealousy in Othello’s mind, the seeds with Iago so carefully cultivates.
The miracle of Hanukkah is that the Israelites were able to see clearly who they were and preserve their culture in the face of annihilation. Sadly, the characters in Othello are all blinded- blinded by racism (Brabantio, Iago), lust, (Rodrigo), love (Desdemona), and jealousy (Othello). I thought Dr. Jones drew some very interesting parallels between Shakespeare and Hanukkah, and I’m happy to share them with you:
The Shakespearean Student 