The two women are expected to obey and submit to their husbands in exchange for financial security and protection, but as Othello’s jealousy builds it falls to Emilia to educate Desdemona on the realities of married life:ĮMILIA: ‘Tis not a year or two shows us a man. As the play progresses, the bond between Desdemona and Emilia is strengthened by shared experiences of abuse and increasing fear of male violence.

Desdemona and Emilia turn to each other for companionship and comfort, and discover an equal in intelligence, virtue, loyalty, and generosity. But the qualities they share are more important than what sets them apart: both are wives and women, isolated and alone in a foreign land at war. Navigating Expectations as WivesĮmilia and Desdemona are fundamentally ‘unlike:’ maidservant and gentlewoman, older and younger, sexually experienced and naïve. Friendship offers protection, solace, and-finally-redemption as Desdemona and Emilia struggle to navigate and survive in a violent, male-dominated world. In contrast, the play’s central female friendship between Desdemona and Emilia inspires resistance and the courage to speak the truth, resulting in Iago’s exposure and Desdemona’s exoneration. Early modern discourses of friendship elevated the bond between two men above all else, but in Shakespeare’s tragedy, master manipulator Iago marshals the privilege of so-called ‘counselor’ and ‘friend’ to turn Othello against Desdemona, and to destroy them both. In Othello, male friendship is an agent of destruction. Desdemona (Janie Brookshire) and Emilia (Karen Peakes) in Othello at Folger Theatre, 2011.

Emilia othello