OTHELLO: She’s, like a liar, gone to burning hell:
‘Twas I that kill’d her.
EMILIA: O, the more angel she,
And you the blacker devil!
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 5, Scene 2. Othello tries to justify his murder of Desdemona. His blindness causes him to see her as a cheat and liar now burning in hell for her sin, when she is the very opposite. Emilia the loyal handmaid of Desdemona is horrified. She immediately springs to the defense of her innocent mistress and bravely challenges Othello. Using contrasting metaphors, she compares Desdemona to an angel and brands Othello a black devil. She believes that Othello’s sense of right and wrong is reversed, seeing black and evil as good, and white and goodness as bad.