Othello contemplates both his motives and his possible consequences of murdering Desdemona as he enters their bedroom where she is asleep. He creates a parallel between "Put[ting] out the light" that guides him through the dark room and "put[ting] out the light" that is Desdemona's living spirit (7). As he notes later, the important distinction between these two lights is that Othello could easily find another torch to light the way, but he could never find another love like Desdemona to figuratively brighten his life as she has. Othello makes other connections between fire and life, such as when he connects the two Greek myths of Prometheus: one in which Prometheus creates mankind, and the other when Prometheus shows mankind fire. By comparing life to a flame about to go out, Othello gives the impression that he is under a lot of pressure and that his time as well as Desdemona's is running short before he must make the important decision whether or not to end her life.
Othello concludes his soliloquy with a chain of paradoxes such as "So sweet was ne'er so fatal" (22). The contradictory nature of the last several phrases of his speech reflect Othello's conflicted emotions as he contemplates murdering the love of his life on rather inconclusive evidence of her infidelity.
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