Why are Desdemona and Emelia so important to our understanding of the themes in Othello?
but to play the role of a good obeying wife and keep what she knows to herself. She knows that she has that obligation to her husband, but she fights with herself because she seems to have a different obligation to her mistress. She has no choice but to go on living her everyday life, even after knowing what Iago was planning. She would not think of questioning him, because she would know the consequences. Towards the end of the play Emilia becomes so angry with Iago, after all he had just caused Othello to kill his wife and her mistress, for no reason, that the last thing going through her mind was honoring her husband. She had built up so much anger inside with Iago, and with herself for not saying anything sooner, that she had to come out with the truth. She knew if she went against her husband, in order to bring him down, she was practically buying her death certificate. Emilia shows us that the traditional role of women must sometimes be ignored in order for a woman to make her be
