"Put Out the Light"

I had to do a final project instead of a final exam for my Shakespeare class this semester, so I decided to illustrate a scene from one of my favorite plays, "Othello." In the second scene of the final act Othello enters the bedroom where his wife lies sleeping, intent on killing her because he believes she had an affair with his lieutenant (of course it was all just a dastardly plot by Iago who believed that Othello had slept with his wife). I was haunted by a line that he says while watching Desdemona sleep. He compares her life to the candle he is holding and says, "Put out the light, and then put out the light." Not only does the candle represent how easily Desdemona's life can be snuffed out, but to me it also represents how when Othello does kill her and then finds out that he was duped and that his wife was innocent, he has destroyed the only light he had in his life. It's a heart wrenching scene if you've ever read/seen "Othello."

For my illustration, this is what I came up with.

It's not a perfect picture, but I think it turned out okay. It was done using Prismacolor colored pencils on black art paper. If you think that Othello looks a little like Peter, well, that's because I used him as my reference. Othello is a Moor and is typically portrayed as a black man, but as I was working on this picture he started looking more Arabic/Middle Eastern, so I rolled with it. Either way works.

This class was by far my favorite class this semester, if not ever. My professor was awesome, and she amplified my appreciation for Shakespeare exponentially. It's the only class I am sad is over.

By the way, I got an A in the class. :)