Othello

In all the characters of Shakespeare's Othello, one sees one thing in common; love. The irony about love in this particular play is that love is the cause for the tragedy. With Othello, his passionate love for Desdemona blinded him from seeing Iago's lies. "'Then must you speak/Of one that loved not wisely but too well;/Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought/Perplex'd in the extreme.'" Because of Othello's obsessive love for Desdemona, he was an easy target to Iago. By "'pour[ing] pestilence into his ear'" Iago is able to convince Othello Desdemona is sleeping with Cassio. Iago then becomes the catalyst of Othello's fate.
Othello's jealousy drives him to a state of illness and epilepsy. "'My lord has fall'n into an epilepsy. This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.'" He starts to mistreat Desdemona, and eventually kill her. Why this scene so tragic is because Desdemona loves her husband and has always been loyal to him. But her love is the cause of her death. "'They are loves I bear to you.' 'Ay, and for that thou di'st.'" If she did not love Othello and he did not love her, both would not have died. Same with Emilia. If she did not love Iago, she would have lived as well. But because she was loyal to him, she died.
The handkerchief in the play represents loyalty. Othello gave the handkerchief to Desdemona as a token of his love. If she kept the handkerchief, she was loyal to him, but if she gave it away, she was not. Emilia finds the handkerchief and gives it to Iago because she loves him and only lives to please her husband. The action of her giving the handkerchief to him is a metaphor for her showing how loyal she was.
If love was not present in this play, there would be no tragedy.