Othello
Symbols
The handkerchief
A handkerchief embroidered with strawberries, the first gift Othello gave Desdemona. In scene 4 of Act III, Othello says that it came from an Egyptian woman who gave it to his mother with a promise: while she kept it, she would be loved, and if she lost it or...
The green-eyed monster
The image of jealousy as a monster. In scene 3 of Act III, Iago describes it as a green-eyed monster that mocks the flesh that feeds it, and the phrase has become the most quoted in the play. The same idea of monstrosity returns in other mouths and other...
The animals
The images of animals with which the play speaks of people. From the first scene, Iago describes the union of Othello and Desdemona as animal mating: an old black ram covering a white ewe, a Barbary horse mounting Brabantio's daughter, the "eight-legged...