Othello

with his barbaric innocence and regal magnificence of soul, must cease to live the moment he ceases to retain faith in the purity and goodness which were to him the highest and most real things upon earth. Or if he live, life must become to him a cruel agony. Shakespeare compels us to acknowledge that self-slaughter is a rapturous energy--that such prolonged agony is joy in comparison with the earthy life-in-death of such a soul as that of Iago. . . . To die as Othello dies is indeed grievous. But to live as Iago lives, devouring the dust and stinging--this is more appalling. . . . Othello dies "upon a kiss." He perceives his own calamitous error, and he recognizes Desdemona pure and loyal as she was. Goodness is justified of her child. It is evil which suffers defeat. It is Iago whose whole existence has been most blind, purposeless and miserable--a struggle against the virtuous powers of the world, by which at last he stands convicted and condemned.--Dowden.