Emilia Flashcards
Subservience
She wants to please Iago and is subservient to him, despite an abusive relationship; she is a contrast to Desdemona, the strong, self-assured and confident wife:
* II,i - Iago publicly humiliates her in front of Des/Cas/Cypriot officers - "Alas she has no speech" says Desdemona when Emilia silently takes her husband's insults that she is a scold. Language of negation. * III, iii - She allows herself to be used by her husband as a tool in his plan to destroy Othello. She betrays Desdemona to win her husband's favour - stealing handkerchief, without knowing why Iago wants it, "I nothing but to please his fantasy"; language of negation. He calls her his "foolish wife" which is ironically correct here - but not in the way he means it - she lives in an abusive relationship.
Yet she should not have taken the handkerchief as she knows her mistress “so loves the token” she will “run mad” when she finds it gone. This is a significant factor in the tragedy that then unfolds.
Swaps roles
HOWEVER, and perhaps unconvincingly she reverses roles with Desdemona in Act III, becoming astute, self-assured, as Desdemona becomes submissive and naive:
* In III, iv Men "eat us hungerly, and when they are full/they belch us out" - she sees straight through Iago, describing him even using the same sort of grotesque imagery he does. She shows insight when she declares men "are jealous for they're jealous. 'Tis a monster/ Begot on itself, born on itself" - echoes almost word for word Iago's "green eyed monster". * In IV, ii. She shows she is perceptive "The Moor's abused by some most villainous knave" (dramatic irony here, though, as she herself has been abused by a villainous knave without realising it) "a cogging cozening slave" - consonance - strong belief * In IV, iii, Emilia shows a feminist's understanding of male sexual jealousy. Desdemona can't believe wives would be unfaithful, yet Emilia tells her that "it is their husbands' faults/ If wives do fall", she understands that men's "peevish jealousies" create the infidelities they fear, "The ills we do, their ills instruct us so". Proto-feminist
Heroine
She becomes a heroine:
Standing up to Othello, in a way she has never done with her husband: “I care not for thy sword; I’ll make thee known” V,ii. incredibly brave. She seeks to reveal - Iago to conceal. “I must needs report the truth” Crucial link here to theme of appearance and reality. She is the one who sees through the deceit to reveal the truth.
In V, ii tells Montano & Gratiano of what Othello has done and how her husband put him up to it. “I am bound to speak”/ “Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak” - her last words, ironically considering how when we first met her Desdemona said “alas she has no speech” (this could be a CONCLUSION to your essay)
Intro / Conclusion
She gains her voice when it is to speak up for Desdemona. Having someone to speak up for gave her the courage to speak up for herself. They are both victims of their husbands’ twisted jealousy, and they both die for it. But Emilia dies a heroine