Faber argues that Othello's strangling of Desdemona has the significance of oral retaliation against his mother, who had rejected him originally, and against Desdemona, who, he believed, had betrayed him. Faber explains Iago's suggestion for the murder method as a part of his identification with Desdemona, an expression of his passive homosexual disposition: he was excited by the fantasy of a physical attack and counseled against poisoning, a less stimulating anticipation.