Today’s Totally Random
Lines
Now,
how dost thou look now? O ill-starr’d
wench!
Pale
as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt,
This
look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And
fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl!
Even
like thy chastity.
Othello
Othello
Act V, Scene ii, Line 275
First off, the word compt at the end of the second line refers to reckoning, or the day of judgement. I know, it seems like an odd little word to have that meaning, but it’s what my on-line Shakespeare glossary says, and it makes sense.
So, what we have
here is Othello, alone with the dead body of Desdemona. He killed her earlier
in this scene and shortly after he did, he was brought to the realization by Iago’s
wife Emilia that Desdemona had been faithful to him. Iago then killed Emilia
and ran off. Now Othello is left alone to think about what he did.
In Today’s Lines he’s talking to the dead body of his wife. This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven, and fiends will snatch at it. That’s a great line that creates a vivid image of him falling. I can picture the fiends grabbing at him. I can’t quite decide, though, what the look on her face is that causes his fall. Is it some sort of look of contempt. No, now that I think about it, it’s probably the look of complete innocence, and the look that her dead face is now showing. Othello (or should I say Will) does not attempt to describe that look, does he? How dost thou look now? O ill-starr’d wench! Pale as thy smock! That’s all he gives us. She’s ill-starr’d and she’s pale. Ill-starr’d is just saying that she’s unlucky, but that doesn’t really give us an idea of how she dost look now. I guess it’s just the look of innocence on a dead face, but I suppose you’ll have to decide that for yourself, won’t you.
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