Act 5

• Summary


  ● RoderigoattacksCassio, who stabs Roderigo in return. Othello overhears and thinks that Iago has killed Cassio, as they agreed. Iago pretends to be enraged at Roderigo’s actions andkills him.● Othello enters thebedchamberwhere Desdemona is sleeping. He urges her toconfessandsuffocatesher when she will not admit her guilt.● Emilia enters and tells Othello that Iago was lying and that she took Desdemona’s handkerchief and gave it to her husband. Iagostabsher, and Othellorealiseshe has been tricked.● Iago isarrested, and Othellostabs himselfin grief.
• Key Quotes & Analysis

  Act V Scene II:“Yet I’ll not shed her blood; / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow [...] / Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.”Othello cannot bring himself tomarDesdemona’sbeauty. He will not shed her blood, and we can draw a parallel here to hervirginal purity. A woman bleeding on her wedding night was thought to be proof that she was a virgin, so Othello refusing to shed Desdemona’s blood when he kills her allows her to remain in a state ofpremarital innocence. This is how Othello wishes to remember her, before she seemingly cheated on him.The use of themodal verb- she“must” die - demonstrates thestrengthof Othello’s conviction here, and how he feels almostduty-boundto kill her. He insists on his own honour right through to his death, and begs people to believe that“nought I did in hate, but all in honour”.
• Key Quotes & Analysis

  Act V Scene II:“When I have pluck'd thy rose, / I cannot give it vital growth again. / It must needs wither”The way Othello refers to Desdemona before killing her references hervirginity. This quote implies that her beauty has“wither[ed]” after she has lost her virginity. This is what Othello truly regrets because he believes hercorruptionto be from sleeping around with other men. In Othello’s mind, if Desdemona was still innocent and virginal, he would not have to kill her. For him, his wife’slack of innocenceis the truetragedy.
• Key Quotes & Analysis

  Act V Scene II:“Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, / Nor set down aught inmalice: 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”Shortey before Othello kills himself, he fixates on how he will be remembered. At the very close of the play, Shakespeare returns again to the idea ofreputation: rather than worrying about his actions, Othello is more worried about how he will be remembered and talked about after death. Hisanxietyis with hislegacy, and in his final speech he attempts toexert controlover how he will be remembered, as one wholovedtoo much.