leg is tied to in order to keep it close to its owner during hunting. In this sense, Othello is comparing Desdemona to a wild animal pulling on the jesse, which are metaphorically his heartstrings or caring emotions. The passage then continues with, “Haply, for I am black and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have, or for I am declin’d into the vale of years, yet that’s not much.” This is a reference to all of Othello’s perceived faults. First, he is a Moor, dark in color and generally not acceptable. Second, he admits to lack the ability to speak in an educated manner as would the ‘chamberers’, or educated courtiers. Finally, the vale of years is a sorrowful reference to Othello being much older than Desdemona. In the next lines, “She’s gone. I am abus’d: and my relief must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, that we can call these delicate creatures ours, and not their appetites! I had rather be a toad and live upon the vapour of a dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for others’ uses. ”Othello feels Desdemona is lost and his only relief from his anguish is to hate her with a passion. He speaks of the ‘curse of marriage’, which is that men may call ‘these creatures’ (again, a reference to women being animals in nature) their own, but not their ‘appetite’ to have lovers outside of the marriage. He then wishes himself to be the lowest of creatures in a filthy dungeon than to have anything to do with Desdemona, who is used by other men as a strumpet. Instead of her name, he uses the pronoun ‘thing’, as if she no longer deserves to be called a human being. Continuing, he says, “Yet ‘tis the plague [of] great ones; prerogativ’d are they less than the base. ‘Tis destiny unshunnable, like death. Even then this forked plague is fated to us when we ...
