Is Emilia the older, dutiful servant, protective and maternal of Desdemona, or a faithful wife to her husband, Iago? Does Emilia steals because her husband asks or is it fear the he will retaliate against her? In Othello, Shakespeare crafted a minor female character whose primary function is as a plot device. Emilia allows for the justification of the unbelievable and then to vent that disbelief. She has very feminist attitudes which she conveys to Desdemona. Emilia demonstrates a certain degree of strength. Yet, Emilia obeys Iago because she has to, is it so her marriage can survive, and is this not also strength? Therefore, maybe her last breath about “Desdemona was honest” is also about the tragedy of her own marriage. Emilia always in the background is quiet, discrete and reserve. When she first appears in Cyprus, after Iago’s offhanded patronizing remark about suffering her tongue, and Desdemona's response that “she has no speech”. Later in the play, the audience learns that Emilia has her own opinions about men. Iago has to admit that “she puts her tongue a little in her heart and chides with thinking” (II.i.106-107). In the scene of teasing that follows Emilia manages to utter but two words. She only finds her voice when fired by indignation as when Iago confirms that Desdemona has been called a whore, and even then much of her utterances are short phrases. Even when she really gets going, reprimanding Othello after discovering the murder, most of what she says consists of phrases that are half a line in length or less.
Emilia challenges the social norm of chastity by condoning women that deceive their husbands. Emilia does not explicitly state whether she has ever cheated, she does, however, say that she would not cheat for small, material wealth, but any woman would cheat in order to make her husband king: “Who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch?” (IV.iii.75-76). Furthermore, Emilia explains that the reason...