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.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 5, Scene 2. When Iago’s treachery is exposed, Othello looks at the body of his wife on the bed and makes this speech. He uses a simile to describe Desdemona as white as her nightgown. Realizing his terrible error, he says that when they meet on Judgment Day her look will hurl his soul out of heaven and into hell. When he speaks about her body being cold, like her chastity, he is not referring to his wife being frigid or some kind of ice maiden. But rather Othello is saying that Desdemona died pure and chaste, she stayed true to him and was never unfaithful. Cold means dead here, it also signifies Desdemona’s purity, being the opposite of hot and lustful. It has been argued by some that Desdemona actually died a virgin and Othello never consummated his marriage to her.