'Information technology is the cause, it is the crusade, my soul': so begins Act 5 Scene two of Shakespeare's Othello, with Othello'southward spoken communication leading upwards to his killing of Desdemona. This is the final scene of the play; by the cease of information technology, Othello and Desdemona will both be dead, the tragedy brought to its grisly conclusion.

Permit'southward take a closer look at the language of Othello's speech hither by going through information technology, line past line, offer a summary and analysis of its meaning.

Information technology is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,—
Permit me not name it to you, you chaste stars!—

'It is the cause': in other words, this (the killing of Desdemona) is the cause to which he at present devotes himself, the class he must accept. Othello is raising himself to almost biblical heights past addressing his soul: something that figures in the Bible often exercise, merely rare amidst Shakespeare'south other heroes.

Othello refuses to state explicitly what his purpose is, now addressing the stars (and, through doing then, setting the scene as night-time). The word 'chaste' is designed to contrast with Desdemona's (perceived) unchastity, or unfaithfulness to Othello.

It is the cause. Nonetheless I'll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smoothen as monumental alabaster.

'It is the cause': this is the third fourth dimension Othello has uttered this phrase in as many lines. Is he possessed past righteous fervour for his 'cause', or is he trying to summon the conviction to carry out his heinous act? Desdemona is, later all, innocent, but fifty-fifty if she weren't, it is not Othello's place to take her life.

Othello vows not to shed any of Desdemona'south blood or scar her skin – prefiguring the strangling of her with his blank easily, which won't exit a scar or draw any claret. The reference to Desdemona's skin as being 'whiter … than snowfall' summons the erstwhile maxim about existence 'pure every bit the driven snow', which is ironic in calorie-free of Othello's belief in his wife's lack of purity or chastity.

But there is obviously besides a contrast between Desdemona's snow-white skin – shine and white every bit the alabaster or marble from which monuments are made – and Othello's dark skin. And Iago has weaponised the race-difference between Othello and Desdemona in guild to plow Othello confronting his wife.

Yet she must dice, else she'll betray more than men.
Put out the light, and so put out the light:

Othello tries to rationalise his act as more than than the insanely jealous behaviour of a 'wronged' or cuckolded husband: he is trying to save other men from Desdemona's supposed infidelity. So we get some other famous line: 'Put out the low-cal, and then put out the low-cal'. Othello plans to put the candle out so he and Desdemona are in darkness, and then put out her light, the light of life within her, by killing her.

Every bit a side-note, find the importance of repetition in Othello's speech: 'It is the cause, it is the cause'; 'Put out the light, and then put out the light'. In a few lines' time, he will do this once again: '1 more, one more.' It's near similar a grotesque parody of a lullaby, every bit if he is soothing his soul before he commits his colossal act of murder.

If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I tin can again thy sometime light restore,
Should I apologize me: but once put out thy low-cal,
Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That tin thy light relume. When I have pluck'd the rose,
I cannot give information technology vital growth once more.
It must needs wither: I'll smell it on the tree.
[Kissing her]

Now, Othello goes from addressing his soul and the chaste stars to addressing the candle ('thou flaming minister'). The deviation betwixt the candle and Desdemona's 'light' is that, if he regrets putting it out, he tin can light it over again; but (turning to accost Desdemona now) if he kills Desdemona, he knows of no burn down or rut potent plenty to restore her 'light'. It's like plucking a rose: in one case plucked, it will never grow again.

The reference to Prometheus recalls the story (which we have discussed here) of the Titan from Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.

Ah balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to interruption her sword! One more, i more.
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will impale thee,
And love thee after. One more, and this the last:

When Othello kisses Desdemona, he nearly resolves to spare her: how tin he kill someone whose breath smells so sweet, like balm from a tree? He allows himself one more kiss ('One more, one more'), and so another ('One more, and this the final'). There'due south a sinister connotation to the thought of killing Desdemona and swearing, if she looks this good as a corpse, that he will 'love' her afterwards he's killed her.

So sweet was ne'er and so fatal. I must cry,
Merely they are cruel tears: this sorrow's heavenly;
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

Such a sweet kiss was never so subversive and fateful before. Although Othello wants to weep considering he's putting to death such a sweet and cute woman, he knows they are also cruel tears, considering he volition non swerve from the task alee of him: killing Desdemona. For 'this sorrow'south heavenly', E. A. J. Honigmann, in his notes to the Arden edition of the play, Othello: Revised Edition (The Arden Shakespeare 3rd Serial), directs united states to the Bible, and to Hebrews 12:six: 'For whom the Lord loveth, him he chasteneth'. Othello is dressing up his deed as an human action of dearest, which may seem hard to have. But in one sense, it is: he truly believes his wife has been unfaithful to him, so his dear for her has turned to anger because she has (he thinks) made a mockery of his devotion to her.

Merely notation, of course, how Othello once again adopts biblical language here. At this point, Desdemona wakes upwardly, and the deadly final conversation takes identify between them.