Othello is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for her husband Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice; but his trusted ensign, the envious Iago, conspires to devastate their lives. In its vivid rendering of the savagery lurking within civilization, Othello is arguably the most topical and accessible tragedy from Shakespeare's major phase as a dramatist. The play raises uncomfortable and pertinent questions about both racial identity and sexuality, as Othello and Desdemona's relationship becomes the voyeuristic site of Iago's attempt to destroy them.