Othello by William Shakespeare
Until now, Iago, Othello, and Othello's rage have all foreshadowed a falling out between Othello and Desdemona. Eventually, the two lovers will part ways and be lovers no more. However, at the end of Act IV, Desdemona portends a much more tragic end for the couple: she foreshadows her own death. Speaking with Emilia, Desdemona recalls her mother's maid Barbary and how "she was in love, and he she loved proved mad and did forsake her," (Shakespeare 1443). Barbary felt so distraught at her lover's betrayal that she sang "a song of 'willow'", even to her death, which expressed her misfortune as a forlorn lover (Shakespeare 1443). Having explained the significance of the song, Desdemona breaks out into its opening verses, distraught, as Barbary, over being forsaken by her lover. Towards the end of the song, Desdemona sings, "Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve . . . " implying that she will not seek to rectify Othello's opinion of her, but accept it as his own (Shakespeare 1443). Desdemona becomes Barbary. As such, Barbary's fate foreshadows what lay ahead for Desdemona. At the close, Othello and Desdemona will not merely part ways, but rather part realms. Desdemona shall die and enter the afterlife, singing the song of a forlorn lover, while Othello, ignorant of his misdeeds, shall remain in the earthly domain.
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