In “Othello”, famous tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the 17th
century, we find Desdemona murdered by Othello, her husband, which is an example
of femicide. Therefore, already in the 17th century there was the
idea of “crime of passion" which unfortunately is still relevant.
Now the question is: “Why does a man kill his lover ?”
FREUD: EROS & THANATOS
According to Sigmund Freud in the subconscious of human beings, two
basic instincts (or drives) coexist, which he calls Eros and Thanatos.
It is the life drive, the tendency of human beings to look for pleasure, either carnal pleasure or moral pleasure. Eros is represented by a true relationship, true love or true friendship, but also the happiness due to good acts. In Othello, we can find Eros in the scene of elopement of Desdemona and Othello, but also in that of the murder.
THANATOS
On the contrary, Thanatos is the
aggressive drive, the instinct of death, the instinct to destroy everything. It
represents the manifestation of anger and of frustration of a person, a blind
rage, which brings human beings to do all manner of things in order to vent
this aggression, but with the result to be deleterious at the end.
