Othello
5.2.397-406
Soft you; a word or two before you go. I have done the state some service, and they know’t.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak,
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
Perplexed in the extreme.
Paraphrasing:
Wait a minute before you leave.
I would like to give my last words.
No more nonsense. I ask you when you look back at this event
when you think of this,
tell it as is truthfully is, don’t lie.
speak of me as
someone who loved and made mistakes
someone who is not easily jealous
but was manipulated.
Right after Desdemona and Emilia die on the bed, Othello asks the group to let him give his last words. He’d rather die than be arrested for a crime that he fell into as a trap in the first place; in other words, he claims he was set up. He states that he wants to be remembered as a man who loved and had good intentions but got easily manipulated.
Desdemona
4.2.175-186
O good Iago,
What shall I do to win my lord again?
Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of heaven,
I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:
If e’er my will did trespass ‘against his love,
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed,
Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense,
Delighted them in any other form;
Or that I do not yet, and ever did.
And ever will–though he do shake me off
To beggarly divorcement–love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me!
Paraphrasing:
Iago,
How can I get Othello back on my side?
You should talk to him,
I don’t even know how I lost him. I ask for forgiveness:
If I did make a mistake and wrong him,
Either in thought or physically wronging him,
And because I haven’t been able to see, hear, or make any sense of this,
In any form whatsoever, I still and will always – even though he is ignoring my pleas
And making me bitterly unhappy – love him dearly,
Please help my situation!
Desdemona is asking Iago to help her in this situation. She is dumbfounded and has no idea what she did to make Othello mad at her. She says that she is sorry if she did anything but she honestly doesn’t know the supposed mistake. Iago listens and ironically comforts her because he was the one who set the whole situation up.
