When I have pluck’d the rose,
I cannot give it vital growth again.
It must needs wither: I’ll smell it on the tree.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 5, Scene 2. In the soliloquy he delivers before murdering his wife, Othello compares Desdemona in a simple but fitting metaphor to a rose. Once plucked the rose – a symbol of love and beauty – cannot be brought back to life but will wither away, he realizes. This suggests that Othello doesn’t want to kill Desdemona, but feels that he must. So while she lives and before he ends her life, he will take in her essence one last time – "smell it on the tree." In this passage Othello is mourning the death of love.