Sunday, September 25, 2011

Emilia

In class we have been debating whether Emilia is forced to be an accomplice of Iago. I think that in Act 5 scene 2 we learn that we were not giving Emilia enough credit. She personally ruins everything Iago had created by telling Othello the truth about the handkerchief. I never would have thought that Emilia would have been the one to blow Iago's cover. Maybe Desdemona's influence played a bigger role on Emilia than we originally thought. I wonder what motivated Emilia to tell the truth?

3 comments:

  1. I guess Emilia has good intuition. Since she's always with Desdemona, she definitely developed a close relationship with her. I don't think she knows the truth the whole time because she figures it out during the last act of the play. Now I'm wondering if Emilia really loves her husband.

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  2. This is one of the most interesting points of the play, I think. Certainly she must know Iago better than others, but maybe he fooled her, too. Certainly, we she comes face to face with all he has done, she seems to have no trouble exposing him. Alina's question at the end is a good one!

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  3. I think Iago fooled her, but I believe at the same time she had her suspicions about what he was up to, but she never thought that it would lead to the death of her close friend Desdemona. Honestly, Emilia ended up being my favorite character. At first I didn't like her because she would not stand up for herself. All the little condescending comments from Iago just built up. That and her love for Desdemona really motivated her to tell the truth. When she discovered how trully cruel Iago was, she stood up for herself and exposed the liar and villian that Iago was without care for the rules of society (obeying her husband). That made me really happy.

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