Othello enters the play as an extremely successful general in the Venetian army. He has many campaigns under his belt, and has done great services for the government. More than his success in his campaigns is the attitude he displays throughout it all. He is level headed and does not let emotions get the best of him. He is known for keeping his cool under intense circumstances. However, this all changes with the implanting of Iago's seed of jealousy. Othello suddenly loses his temper frequently, and is consistently agitated and irritable. His troubled love life interferes with his commitment to duty and he can no longer focus on the task of running Cyprus successfully. Othello becomes consumed with the concept of Desdemona cheating on him and struggles to maintain his role as leader and diplomat. In fact, he fails miserably in his attempt. When Lodovico brings news from Venice to Othello, he witnesses Othello striking Desdemona after she says that she cares about Cassio. Othello fails in his role as diplomat and lets his emotions get the best of him, to the point that Lodovico questions who he is: " Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature Whom passion could not shake? Whose solid virtue The shot of accident nor dart of chance Could neither graze nor pierce?".
Othello is not alone in his struggle to balance personal matters with his duty. In the movie Jarhead, Marine sniper Anthony Swafford also has difficulty remaining devoted to his mission as a soldier while he worries about his girlfriend back home. Many of his fellow soldiers, all of whom were stationed in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, receive letters from their sweethearts back home telling them they no longer want a relationship. Swafford becomes anxious as he awaits for his own "Dear John" letter. He oftentimes has nightmares about his girlfriend, particularly after seeing a comrade discover that his marriage was over. Swafford eventually gets the letter he was dreading, and the effects it has on his morale are devastating. Swafford lets this pressure get the best of him, and threatens to shoot one of the men in his unit for no reason. He then turns the gun on himself and tells the man to shoot him. The events going on back home took such an emotional toll on Swafford that, like Othello, although he tried to remain calm and focused on the mission, he could not function properly as a soldier.
After he and his girlfriend discovered that they were pregnant with their first child, Hernandez was exuberant. However, he was deployed to Fort Bliss, a training base in El Paso, weeks before his girlfriend's induced labor. Despite requesting a few days of emergency leave, Hernandez was told by his Sergeant that he would not be able to witness the birth of his daughter. "“Not being able to be here for my daughter is tough on me. It's going to be hard trying to be over there and focused on my job without even having a chance to meet my daughter first”. Hernandez had to sit through seven hours on the plane, unable to think about anything but the safety of his girlfriend and unborn child. Although he ended up being granted three days of leave and saw the birth of his daughter, Hernandez was torn for between his duty to his country and family. Much like Othello, his aching heart was a major distraction from his duties at hand.
Othello, Anthony Swafford, and Antonio Hernandez all dealt with their internal disparity in their own ways, right or wrong. Yet these men, despite their stories being hundreds of years apart, all shared the same common, timeless difficulty of juggling duty and personal matters. This struggle between personal life and responsibility will go on forever, as long as men have work to be done and love in their hearts.
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