Act 4, Scene 3 Flashcards
Summary of this scene
Othello dismisses des.
Des and Emilia talk.
Des forbordes her death.
Emilia is more realistic, less subservient. She says if men can have affairs so can women
Des foreground her death
“If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me”
Dramatic irony
“She had a song of ‘willow’ …and she died singing it. That song tonight will not go from my mind”
Des says she will pay for her sons if she cuckholded othello
“I should venture purgatory for’t”
Emilia blames men if their wives cheat / fall
“I do think it is their husbands faults if wives do fall”
Emilia says wives can ask like husbands
“Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know their wives have sense like them”
How are make relationships different to females?
Males all about hierarchy which is emphasised by important of military ranks.
Although Emilia is desdemonas lady in waiting they talk openly about men and relationships like they’re equal
How is desdemona different to Emilia
Desdemona is passive/ innocent and can’t believe that there is “any such women” who would be unfaithful
Emilia is more realistic and says that wives can also do what husbands do.
How does desdemona foreshadow her death ?
She asks Emilia to “shroud” her in her wedding sheets. Elizabethan times wives were sometimes buried in wedding sheets.
“Willow song”
How is the willow song significant?
Parallels between desdemona and her mother’s maid who said willow song.
Barbary was “in love” but her lover “proved mad” and “did forsake her”.
Desdemona loves othello but he has been driven into madness by jealousy.
Barbary died singing the song and des says “it will not go from my mind”
Death is on her mind.
What are willow trees symbolic of ?
Lost of love.
Hinting that desdemona has metaphorically ‘lost’ othello
Des refuses to blame othello because she loves him
“My love doth so approve him / that even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns … have grace and favour”
How does Emilia promote equality?
She defends her gender and says women “have sense like them: they see and smell”
She blames husbands “if wives do fall” and argues that wives can take “revenge” if their husbands cheat or “strike” them
Women people not objects
Emilia draws attention to double standards
Men have affairs for “sport” and commit adultery but expect wives to remain chaste.
You can’t condemn women for same crime.
If women “fall” “it is their husbands fault”
How is the ending Tragic for both women ?
Although they try to challenge traditional patriarch they have been killed and silenced by their husbands
