Alexandra KimAP English IV

EmiliaMethods of Characterization Sympathy of the Reader

What Character Says: “I will be hanged if some eternal villain, some busy and insinuating rogue, some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, have not devised this slander.” (4.2.153-156)

“Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak. ‘Tis proper I obey him, but not now, Perchance, Iago, I will ne’er go home.” (5.2.232-234)

“Let husbands know their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, and have their palates both for sweet and sour as husbands have.” (4.3.104-108)

Looking back at Emilia had to say, she seems to be a very honorable women. A woman that stands up for her beliefs and is passionate against injustice. She is admired by the reader, and although a minor character, she seems to be of the utmost upright character. She is a strong female character that is willing to defy her husband to stand up for what is right, the reader can’t help liking her.

Actions:

“I’ll have the work ta’en out and give ‘t Iago. What he will do with it Heaven knows, not I. I nothing but to please his fantasy.” (3.3. 340-343)

“If he [Iago] say so, may his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day! He lies to th’ heart! She was too fond of her most filthy bargain!” (5.2.188-189)

These two actions differ completely. In the first Emilia shows a blind act of faith towards her husband doing a harmlessly bad thing and giving her husband Desdemona’s handkerchief. This action shows ignorance on Emilia’s part and although she may be a good woman, the reader sees her as ignorant.

In her second action, exposing her husband, she changes from blind devotion to turning her back on her husband. The reader automatically weighs more respect on Emilia and her role turns out to be much more important than previously anticipated.

Inner Thoughts and Feelings:

“Let husbands know their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, and have their palates both for sweet and sour as husbands have.” (4.3.104-108)

In the examples Emilia lists of husbands doing injustice to their wives it is obvious that she had faced them herself from Iago. The reader has sympathy on Emilia knowing the villainy that Iago embodies; being his wife must be terrible. She places herself in an underdog position, fighting for the rights of wives through her little rant. Her character is likeable, honest and strongheaded though ignorant in some ways, she cannot be blamed for any of the wrong that takes place. She definitely did not deserve her ending fate. Meeting her first act of open defiance to her husband with death by her husband.

Stock and Static Characters: Emilia, Cassio, Bianca, Desdemona

Although Othello and his transformation from noble to angry and jealous is the main focus for the play there is an underlying theme presented in the women. There are only three women characters in the play, Emilia, Bianca and Desdemona. Emilia is older than Desdemona and cynical about marriage itself, this opinion deriving from the fact that her marriage with Iago is not satisfactory. Emilia though honest and righteous admits to the fact that a woman cheating on her husband is justified if the husband does her wrong. This belief allows her to turn against her husband when she finds that he has done wrong. Bianca is a courtesan, a “whore”, in love with Cassio, she is innocent in her love though disrespected by characters in the play such as Cassio and Emilia. By making one of the three women a whore, Shakespeare shows that Othello sees no difference between Desdemona and an actual whore after he suspects her of infidelity. The last of the three women, Desdemona, is the most pure and innocent, as she sees cheating on her husband unfathomable and obeys and respects her husband. Despite this, she is the one charged as a whore and verbally and physically abused by her husband, although she may be the best “wife” out of the three. Shakespeare uses this set up of different woman characters to emphasize the point that Othello’s jealousy and rage was so blind that he accused Desdemona the most innocent character of a most vile crime.

Cassio is a foil to Iago, who is genuinely honorable and loyal as Iago seems to be on the outside. Shakespeare also uses Cassio to continue the theme of men disregarding or respecting women. Cassio mocks and disrespects Bianca although he knows she is hopelessly in love with him, he carries on a male chauvinistic view of women, admiring them for their beauty but not respecting them for their persons. Othello looks down on his wife disregarding her pleas of innocence and not bothering to ask her for her side of the story, thinking her inferior and automatically dishonest. Iago disrespects his wife as well; ungrateful for her gift of Desdemona’s handkerchief, Shakespeare uses this theme of disrespecting women to show in the end a woman, Emilia, plays the pivotal role of exposing the truth.