In the beginning of Act V scene II, Othello is about to
kill Desdemona. When Othello first began to question Desdemona’s loyalty, her
beauty always quenched his doubts. Now, Othello sees her and he is still
consumed by jealousy. Othello decides to smother her because he does not want to
ruin her beauty: “Yet I’ll not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of
hers than snow” (V, ii, 3-4). Othello preserves her innocence by not ruining
her fair skin with his method of killing her. He seems to not want to follow
through with his plans, but he feels that he must because his jealousy and love
for Desdemona cannot exist in the same world. Othello appears that he cannot
get enough of Desdemona and that he is not ready to say goodbye, “Justice to
break her sword! One more, one more” (V, ii, 18-19). Othello keeps giving her
kisses believing that each one is his last, until it finally is. He continues
to prolong what seems to be the inevitable; Othello murdering Desdemona. Yet,
he still does have the choice to listen to Desdemona, but he does not, he succumbs
to Iago’s plan. The blame is to be put on Othello, because he chooses to
believe Iago, instead of his own wife. Desdemona pleads with Othello not to
kill her, but he does anyways, which illustrates that the logical Othello has
completely disappeared.
No comments:
Post a Comment