Emilia and Desdemona

Desdemona and Emilia are fast friends throughout the entirety of the play, despite the many divides that come between them due to Iago’s constant meddling.  However, these two women, although the best of friends, are quite different in nature.  Desdemona, the ever loving and loyal wife of Othello, hangs on his every word, and tries as hard as she can never to disappoint him.  Emilia, on the other hand, trusts her husband Iago to a degree, but she certainly is not out to lovingly serve him like her friend.  It is this difference between how they treat their husbands that really differentiates these two friends from each other.

From the very first moment we are introduced to Desdemona she is betraying her father, a rather odd action in the time period, for the sake of her love for Othello.  She states her love for Othello is absolutely unconditional, and she spends all her time around him, tending to him when he feels ill, consoling him when he feels sad about having to fire Cassio, and generally just seeks to make him feel as best as he can.  When they leave Venice for Cyprus she is torn apart from Othello as he goes to war, and when she reaches Cyprus before him she is increasingly worried by his state.  Emilia, on the other hand, cares more that her friend is sad than about Iago, who mocks the two women through his rather humorous songs.  We are never really presented with a scene in which Emilia seems to love Iago at all, she never explicitly says so, and she certainly doesn’t treat him well, though he doesn’t treat her well as well.  When she finds the handkerchief for him and he takes it, she tells him to give it back if he plans to do badly towards Desdemona with it, because clearly she cares much more about her wellbeing than his.  All-in-all, these two women create quite the friendship, and it reveals much about their relationship through their quite opposite personalities.