Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
Should yawn at alteration.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 5, Scene 2. As soon as he smothers Desdemona, a psychologically tormented Othello expresses his overwhelming grief and loss in apocalyptic and metaphorical terms. In his flight towards insanity and delusion, he compares her loss to a great eclipse of the sun and moon, plunging the world into darkness, with earthquakes shaking the earth.