Othello and The Children's Hour

As I've been finishing up The Merchant of Venice, I've also started thinking about our upcoming paper. For some reason, Othello has always been a play of interest to me. I was looking over a summary, and another play came to mind.

It's a very very lesser-known play--The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman. Both plays deal with the destructive (even murderous) power of rumors. People who don't know much about The Children's Hour often label it as a "lesbian play." That misses the point completely. A quick summary. There is a girl's boarding school, taught by two female teachers. One girl is always trying to skip out on class or get out of things, and runs and cries to her grandmother a lot. She (Mary, the little girl) can only be described as evil. Once when she runs to her grandma, she begs her not to send her back, and hints at what can only be an accidental viewing of a romantic interaction between her teachers. She's a liar. Long story short--the school gets shut down. One engaged teacher starts having trouble with her man. The other teacher horrifically commits suicide. She has decided there must be some truth to the rumors.

So. Now I'm trying to narrow what I'm looking for in both texts for comparison. I think "the destructive power of rumors" may by a little too broad.