hat mocks and feeds on its meat, the meat referring to a man’s heart. The monster eats at the heart resulting in mental breakdown, and mocks the heart resulting in paranoia. Upon hearing this remark, Othello struggles to deny his jealousy by reassuring himself that Desdemona cannot be unfaithful simply due to the fact she is fair and by remembering of how Desdemona professed her love for him in public. However, upon looking deeper into the situation, one must realize that it would not be necessary for Othello to convince himself if he had no insecurity. The reverse psychology of this metaphor causes Othello to deny his jealousy, thus, resulting in the persistence of his blind rage. The mental torture plaguing Othello is in direct correlation to his mental breakdown. Iago’s deceitful words transform Othello’s rational behavior into one of chaos. Othello tries to maintain reason against jealousy, but he cannot escape the assertions his own tormented mind creates, “Lie with her! Lie on her! … Lie with her! … Noses, ears, and lips. Is’t possible?” (IV.i.43-52). Othello’s self torment in this exclamation causes him to fall into a deep trance. This passage injects pure jealousy into the veins of the Moor through parallelism and imagery. The parallel sentence openings of “lie” perpetuate Othello into insanity envisioning Desdemona in bed with another man. The parallelism of “noses, ears, and lips” further contaminates Othello with scandalous images of Desdemona’s beauty, which a second man may be enjoying. As Othello continues down the path of blind passion his emotions drift towards death. Othello’s mind becomes full with the genius of evil. With the plot to murder Desdemona at mind, Othello reveals his final thoughts at her bedside,“It is the cause. It is the cause … It is the cause … [I’ll not] scar that whiter skin ...
