What Stays Behind Afterwards

           appear in the middle of an infinite timeline.
We live our childhood, the time when we sniff
every rose, because every one is new, and
we are far from death, with nothing to fear.
Then we grow up, and have lives to manage, where
every detail is important, because this is our opportunity
to make something of ourselves. We have to make
our mark, and eventually, we will be old, and then
we will be fast-approaching the ends of our lives,
and by that point it will be too late, because,
suddenly, even though time will continue on
without us, suddenly, we

Othello VII: Act 5 Scene 2

Despite Iago's best efforts, Othello is still visibly conflicted after killing Desdemona. This is visible with Othello's almost schizophrenic speech, in which he rapidly switches back and forth between discussing Emilia and Desdemona. This is visible in his many short sentences, none of which other than the last is longer than a line. In particular, he uses "she" three times in lines 18-20, but switches from referring to Emilia to Desdemona and back to Emilia again without clarifying. When this play is performed, the best way to have this make sense to the audience would be to have Othello rapidly shifting his vision between the door behind which lies Emilia and Desdemona's body, which - given his abbreviated speech pattern - would result in a rapid switching of subject matter between the two. In particular, when he says "My wife, my wife! What wife? I have no wife," he switches his mind quickly as if arguing with himself, illustrating how this speech pattern results from his internal conflict about killing Desdemona. That this comes from Othello, who earlier spoke so elegantly before the Venetian Senate, serves to even more strongly illustrate his insanity now. Thus, Othello has been nearly driven to insanity by his deeds; unlike Iago's soliloquies, this speech is not directed at the audience - instead, Othello is visibly speaking to himself, showing the insanity to which Iago's persecution of himself and of Desdemona has driven him.

Othello VI: Act 5 Scene 2 Lines 1-24

Othello attempts to make his reasoning for killing Desdemona consistent with his earlier statement that, if she wanted another man, he would let her go. He does so by considering, despite the techniques that Iago used to convince him, Desdemona not as disloyal purely to him, but as a disloyal whore in general. As such, he says that "she must die, else she'll betray more men" (V.ii.6). Iago told him that it was natural for Desdemona to seek a white man in preference to Othello, and Othello accepted that reasoning as a portion of why Desdemona was unfaithful. With little other reasoning behind why Desdemona was unfaithful, this limited information would imply that Desdemona merely preferred Cassio to Othello. Yet, Othello's anger is so great that it overwhelms this logical conclusion, and he believes that Desdemona, despite her purity of appearance, is an unfaithful person, and must therefore be killed such that she will be unfaithful to no other man.

Othello V: Act 4 Scene 1

Iago frequently refers to himself as a villain; however, he uses very different connotations when he is speaking to the audience and when he is speaking to others of the play. Nevertheless, the frequency with which he refers to himself as evil can only lead to the conclusion that he is aware of the villainy of his own actions. Aside from the times when he speaks to the audience and calls his own plans hell-spawned, he frequently makes mild oaths that, if he is lying, he should be evil. For instance, when talking to Cassio, Iago states that there are rumors that Cassio will marry Bianca; when Cassio chuckles at the possibility, Iago replies, "I am a very villain else" (I.iv.144). While in context of the discussion, this is an innocent proclamation of Iago's verity, for an audience who is aware of the dramatic irony in context, this is, if taken literally, Iago stating that he is a villain (or, at least, given that he likely came up with this rumor in the moment rather than having actually heard such a rumor before hand, most likely stating that he is such), and thus, albeit mildly, acknowledging his own villainy. Thus, even in mild interactions, Shakespeare has Iago actively state his own evil - in the conversation, in jest, but placed in greater context, in truth.

Othello IV: Act 3 Scenes 3-4

Shakespeare is atypical as an author because, despite the quality of his writing, he occasionally came across a phrase that he wanted to express, but couldn't, or couldn't and maintain his rhythm. In such instances, he would invent his own word, and thus today we have words such as "eyeball" that Shakespeare invented purely for the sake of his own plays. Not all of his invented words "took," however, and Othello shows one such word - "exsufflicate" (III.iii.213). He took a Latin word and turned it into an English word (as would have been typical to invent a word, and as most educated people would have understood it due to their knowledge of Latin). The word combines the prefix "ex," meaning "out," with a "fl" sound that is present in words such as "flicker" (which likely has a similar root of "sufflicare"), "fly" and "flow," among other sound, to create a word that effectively communicates its meaning even to one who has no idea what the word means due to inherent phonetic associations. In this way, Shakespeare transcends the typical author, because Shakespeare doesn't even need to use actual English words to convey his meaning - sounds and subsections of words are sufficient.