The picture illustrates Othello, Act III, Scene 3. Othello's jealousy has been fatally aroused by Iago, and when he meets his wife Desdemona, he complains of a headache. She offers to bind his forehead with her handkerchief, one 'spotted with strawberries' which had been his first gift to her, but he refuses it as too small and she drops it in confusion as they leave. It is picked up by her attendant Emilia, Iago's wife, and given to her husband, who has often urged her to steal it. Iago subsequently tells Othello that he has seen it in the possession of Michael Cassio, thus apparently offering proof of Desdemona's infidelity.

The picture anticipates the treatment of this theme that Maclise was to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1867 (no.123), now in the Art Gallery at Johannesburg (photograph in Witt Library). The later picture is larger (50 x 34 in.) and shows the figures full-length and differently disposed; but the architectural background is similar.