The Catastrophe

• Othello's "cause" (5.2.1)
• "This sorrow's heavenly; / It strikes where it doth love" (21-22)
• Does Desdemona ever understand what went wrong?
  • Is she like Cordelia, innocent in her death?
• Othello understands that he is wrong: does he ever understand why?
• "Cold, cold, my girl? / Even like thy chastity" (275-76)
• Is he right to blame his end largely on Iago (301-2)?
• His final speech
  • He realizes that he has thrown "a pearl away / Richer than all his tribe" (5.2.346-7)
  • But Desdemona as pearl is still "alabaster," cold and virginal
  • Is he likening himself to a "base Indian" (Quarto) or "base Judean" (Folio)?
  • As he destroys the "Turk" within himself is he a warrior or a lover?
• Iago's final silence: why?