Theme Of Emilia In Othello

One of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Othello, lends itself to the tragic telling of Desdemona’s death by her beloved husband. Othello requires certain seemingly inconspicuous characters, such as Emilia, to carry the weight of the play forward. Emilia holds the role of Iago’s wife and notably Desdemona’s maid. She is a woman of practical intelligence in her roles Shakespeare cast her. The time of casting has a level of requirement from a woman in terms of her duty to her husband. Emilia fulfills her wifely duties to her husband, Iago, at a high degree and develops a loyalty to her mistress Desdemona. The two women counterbalance one another as Emilia speaks despairingly of men, but will support her husband as needed, while Desdemona temporarily pronounces her idealistic marriage to Othello.

The single dishonest act Emilia performs towards Desdemona is stealing her handkerchief, which unbeknownst to her turns out to have devastating consequences. Desdemona’s loss of her handkerchief is in part a major convincing for Othello that Desdemona is guilty of infidelity. While Emilia presents her husband, Iago, with the handkerchief as he had obsessively been seeking, she was unknowingly going to play a key role in Desdemona’s death by doing so.

Emilia is the one who discovers the truth of Iago’s plotting against Desdemona and Othello and brings light onto his acts of deception. Although Desdemona is not capable of resurrecting her from her untimely death she is capable of unraveling all of Iago’s wrongdoings to clear Desdemona’s name and the accusation of her being false. Emilia speaking out about the scheming of Iago directly disobeys his demanding of her to silence her tongue, as she is not to go against her husband. Rather than st...

... middle of paper ...

... Emilia’s breaking point of outcry in which she is no longer capable of seeking her husband’s affection after consistently being thrown aside when she is aware of what he has caused. Had he given her his affection as she so desperately longed for there is a realm of possibility that Emilia may not have spoken out against her husband, Iago.

Iago has a keen sense of what any given person is capable of and most notably how he may outwit them. The only character that Iago underestimates is his wife, Emilia. Ironically, Emilia is the only one capable of bringing down Iago as he had outwitted all others, but the one he believed was bound to obedience, his wife. For a man who was so well versed at manipulating the behavior of others failed to understand but one person, Emilia. She was the one person, which he should have known far better than any other, but knew far less.