When Othello begins to be tainted by Iago, his speech style falters, especially in Act 4 / Scene 1 before he falls to the ground in an epileptic fit ;
"Lie with her, lie on her? We say lie on her,
when they belie her! Lie with her, zounds!, that’s
fulsome! – Handkerchief! confessions! handkerchief!
– To confess, and be hanged for his labour! First, to be
hanged, and then to confess: I tremble at it. Nature
would not invest herself in such shadowing passion
without some instruction. It is not words that shakes
me thus. Pish! Noses, ears and lips. Is’t possible?
Confess? handkerchief! O devil!"
Right at the end of this speech we struggle to make any sense of Othello’s words ("Pish! Noses, ears and lips. Is’t possible? / Confess? handkerchief? O devil!). These lines suggest the hero’s degradation and degeneration.