A passage in Othello that caught my eye was in the beginning when Brabantio finds out from Roderigo about Desdemona and Othello’s secret romance. There is a lot of interesting quotes to take from his conversation with Roderigo and they tell us a lot about the play. Brabantio says, “It is too true an evil: gone she is; And what’s to come of my despised time Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo, Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl! With the Moor, say’st thou? Who would be a father! How didst thou know ’twas she? O she deceives me Past thought!” (Act 1. Scene 1. Lines 160-166). The first thing to take note of is his opening words. Upon hearing this news, Brabantio associates her loving Othello as “too true an evil”. He makes it seem like she committed a forbidden act. He then says “gone she is.” I find this interesting because it seems like Brabantio feels like his daughter is now a lost cause; he has given up all hope for her. He then goes on to ask a series of unanswered questions to Roderigo. When reading this I get the feeling that he is in a panic, frantic with worry about the circumstances of this news. In this very moment, his mind is in a million places. We then see where all of this worry could be stemming from when he refers to Othello as “the Moor”. This is interesting because we see the issue of race as a reoccurring theme in Othello. We’ve seen it from Iago, we see it now from Brabantio, and we see it being used by other characters as the play goes on. This make me think that Brabantio is sickened by this news not because he doesn’t like Othello, but because he views Othello as a lesser being and wouldn’t expect his daughter to “downgrade” to such an individual. He then says, “O treason of the blood!” (Act 1. Scene 1. Line 169). This statement shows how severe this issue is to him and once again, we see this concept of loyalty showing up. He feels as if his daughter has betrayed him upon committing such an act, and it hurts him even more because this is an issue within his family.