How does Otello kill Desdemona in the final act?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

In the final act of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Otello, Otello kills Desdemona by suffocating her in her bedchamber.1

After entering her room and waking her with a kiss, Otello accuses her of infidelity with Cassio. Despite her desperate pleas for mercy and her frantic denials of the accusation, he refuses to spare her life and proceeds to suffocate her. This method of murder was suggested earlier by Iago, who argued that it would be more fitting for Otello to strangle her in the bed she had allegedly defiled.12