In William Shakespeare’s plays, women often inhabit roles not considered to be of the Renaissance societal norm. According to Shakespeare’s society built upon Renaissance beliefs, women were meant only to marry. As their single occupation, marriage held massive responsibilities of house management and child rearing. Additionally, women were expected to be silent, chaste, and obedient to their husbands, fathers, brothers, and all men in general. Patriarchal rule justified women’s subordination as the natural order because women were thought to be physiologically and psychologically inferior to men. Indeed, “looseness of tongue came to symbolize looseness of body and spirit”(Bedford 258). However, there were some exceptions to the rule. For instance, in Shakespeare’s Othello, his most progressive female character is Emilia who develops to defy Renaissance feminine ideals. Writing during a period of rigid Renaissance rules, Shakespeare incorporates his own beliefs about women’s roles into his work. From beginning to end, Emilia progresses from a more quiet, obedient wife to an outspoken strong-willed woman just as women were beginning to develop their adjusted roles in society.
With Emilia’s introduction as Iago’s wife, she appears to contradict all that Iago claims to know about women in a calm and quiet demeanor. Iago exclaims to Othello after he greets Emilia, that if she would “give you so much of her lips/As of her tongue she oft bestows on me,/ You would have enough”(2:1, 100-102), meaning that she is a harping wife who does not know her place as a silent woman. Iago also attempts to frame Emilia as a duplicitous woman, indeed all women, as one who would “rise to play and go to bed to work”(113). However, Emilia will not allow her husband to discredit her for he “shall not write [her] praise”(114). With her composed and graceful statement in the face of her husband’s blundering, Emilia shows she is not a part of Iago’s misconception about women and maintains her charming aura of feminity. Besides one more line during the scene, Emilia remains silent and thus, appears to contradict Iago’s false claim that she continuously nags him, even in sleep. Therefore, Emilia becomes an agent through which Iago’s words are shown to be fraudulent and maintains a grace in the face of denying his description of her role.
In Act III Scene iii, Emilia begins to break out of her mold a little more. After Desdemona has dropped her fatal handkerchief, Emilia comments that it is the one which her “wayward husband hath a hundred times/Wooed [her] to steal it”(291-292). By using the word “wooed,” Shakespeare indicates that Iago has also used his mastery of language to dupe Emilia in order to control her. Although the word “wayward” implies that she is aware of her husband’s more questionable character, Emilia is blinded by his words and actions as her husband, whom she has agreed to cherish and obey above all others. However, Emilia steps back and bends the box of womanly restraint controlling her when she decides to “have the work ta’en out”(295) of the handkerchief. By having the fabric copied and giving a mockup of the handkerchief to Iago, Emilia feels that she will be true to her mistress and her husband without compromising either one. Unfortunately, Iago walks in and reminds Emilia of her place as an empty headed female when he tells her it is none of her business what he intends to do with the handkerchief. Yet for one brief moment, Emilia was not a quiet, obedient female such as the Renaissance men would have wanted. Instead she used her own ingenuity in an attempt to challenge the situation she was forced into, even though she was ultimately hindered by her husband.
As the play progresses, so does Emilia’s outspoken, rebellious nature. Although Emilia has not yet spoken out in front of men, she has no qualms about speaking her mind to Desdemona, a woman companion. In Act III Scene iv, Emilia speaks of men:
“They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us”(104-106).
Emilia’s words sound much more cynical and harsh than before. By referring to men as existing only in the state of a “stomach,” Emilia reinforces the idea that men have only one objective of self-service and exist without any concern for more delicate matters. Men use women without realizing that without their “food” they would no longer be able to survive. In her words, Emilia’s tone is one of anger and, ironically, a meaning of acceptance. By using the metaphor, Emilia shows that the natural state of the bodily function of the stomach is to devour and absorb food, just as food is meant to be devoured. Therefore, how can one fight the natural order of things? Yet, in Emilia’s voice is a sound of frustrated impotence at her inability to fight the system into which she has so harshly been born.
Seemingly propelled by the residual anger of her conversation with Desdemona, Emilia finally breaks her silence and defends the chaste Desdemona against Othello’s cruel accusations. Rather than remain silent as a woman should, Emilia righteously claims: “I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,/Lay down my soul at stake”(4:2, 12-13). By placing her claims of Desdemona’s virtue against her soul in a bet, Emilia shows how strongly she believes Desdemona to be honest. For to wager her soul, Emilia expresses how heartfelt her devotion is. Yet Emilia’s challenge is ruthlessly pushed aside by Othello with his harsh and condescending words:
“She says enough; yet she is a simple band
That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
A closet lock and key of villainous secrets,
And yet she’ll kneel and pray, I have seen her do ‘t”(20-23).
Whether Othello is referring to Emilia or Desdemona is not important. For what Othello says he means about all women. Regardless of Emilia’s fervent defiance of Othello’s unjust allegation, because she is a woman her words remain unimportant and false.
Yet Emilia will not let Othello, nor indeed any man, force her to remain mute any longer. Again Emilia challenges a woman’s silence when she defends Desdemona’s chastity in a much more outspoken and fiery manner:
“I will be hanged if some eternal villain,
Some busy and insinuating rogue,
Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
Have not devised this slander. I will be hanged else”(129-132).
Emilia inadvertently foreshadows her own death and seals her fate with the speech, but she also gives a glimpse of a motive for Iago’s actions; “Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office”. Additionally, Emilia continues her tirade and begins to contemptuously refer to Othello as “The Moor”(138), whereas before it was always a much more reverent “my lord”. Emilia’s change in voice represents her blistering outrage and inability to act against Othello’s charges in any way other than through her words.
Not only is Emilia fighting back against a forced silence, but she also disputes against a wife’s duty to chastity. In IV:iii, Emilia claims that she would sleep with a man in order to giver her husband “all the world”(77). Not for paltry material wealth, since it is not important. For “who/would not maker her husband a cuckold to make him/a monarch?”(77-78). Although chastity seems to be important to men as far as possession and pride goes, for a woman it is a bargaining tool. What else would she have to barter with in order to get goods.
Additionally, Emilia also stoutly claims that she thinks “it is their husbands’ faults/If wives do fall”(89-90). Because men believe women to be incomplete and unable to feel anger, pain, or revenge, then there is nothing to stop them from pouring their “treasures into foreign laps”(91) or treating their wives unjustly. Emilia argues that it is a woman’s prerogative to fight back and be jealous, since it is through men’s examples women are instructed to act. Thus, Emilia calls for a strong woman to stand up for herself rather than be a doormat for men.
Finally Emilia fights back through action rather than words. In defiance to her husband’s demands that she remain silent and return home, Emilia fearlessly withstands his threats and bravely exposes Iago’s treachery to the world. She “will not charm [her] tongue”(5:2, 181) for her honor has bound her to speak, just as her honor required her to defend Desdemona. Emilia even acknowledges that “‘Tis proper [she] obey him, but not now”(192) since he has betrayed her trust and murdered her mistress. Referring to Iago, Emilia exclaims, “What should such a fool/Do with so good a wife”(230-231)? Wisely, albeit too late, Emilia realizes that a marriage can only be as good as both of its counterparts. If one is a “fool” then it will die. Thus, Iago’s failure to be worthy kills her.
Throughout the play, Emilia remained obedient and maintained her role as a wife, yet her duty as a woman became more important when her husband deceived and destroyed innocent lives. As Emilia’s outspoken behavior and passionate voice grew stronger throughout the play, so should the women of Shakespeare’s time. During the time of Shakespeare’s tunnel-vision Renaissance England, women progressed very slowly towards a more equal position in society. Men were frightened of strong women and thus, just as Iago killed Emilia, attempted to keep them silent and in a subordinate position meant to discourage advancement. With Shakespeare as an advocate for women’s voices, Emilia is able to be looked at with pride and honor rather than ridicule and disgust.
