Oral Presentation

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Welcome back to your favourite talk show, The Critic and the Corpse — where in Shakespeare, everyone dies, but not everyone shuts up. Each week, we bring famous literary characters back to life for a live interview with a specialist critic. I’m a feminist literature PhD holder, and joining me is Emilia from Othello. Now, without further Ado — and hopefully more substance than Nothing — let’s begin.

So, Emilia - you were married to Iago, who is perhaps the most infamous character in Othello - besides Othello himself. What was your marriage to Iago like?

I nothing but to please his fantasy” I said in Act 3. As, without him, I was bound for the streets, high-stepping to feed myself. 

When you are comforting Desdemona after she was abused by Othello in Act 4 you say, “Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, Have not devised this slander.” in reference to the unknown person spreading lies about Desdemona - later revealed to be your husband. Prior to your murder, did you ever suspect Iago’s true intentions?

As a woman in the 1500s, to speak out against my husband would be a death sentence if not to me, then to my reputation.

If you didn’t trust him, then why did you give him Desdemona’s favourite handkerchief when he asked you to, especially when he wouldn’t answer your question, “What will you do with ’t, that you have been so earnest To have me filch it?”

If I could be in his good graces, perhaps our home life would be more palatable, perhaps his sharp tongue would cease to strike me.

So we’ve established that married life for you was not easy to endure, and Iago was a cunning and cruel husband - often dismissive, harsh, and dominating. This was common in your time?

but for a woman to do so, would mean public shaming, abandonment, or death.

So, clearly there were double standards in relation to love and marriage in Venetian society. Do you believe women have the same rights and feelings as men, and therefore gender differences are misogynistic?

“"Let husbands know / Their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, / And have their palates both for sweet and sour, / As husbands have."

Back to the handkerchief - Some literary critics have theorised that you giving Iago the handkerchief led to Desdemona’s death, if you knew then what you know now, would you still have done it?

If I knew harm would come to her because of my actions, I never would have done anything to endanger her.

So was it Desdemona’s death at the end of the play that pushed you to speak out and defend yourself against Othello’s cruel accusations?

If a woman as good and pure as Desdemona could be destroyed by a man, then what was the point of my obedience?

Thank you Emilia for your insight into life as a Venetian woman in the 1500’s. Enjoy the afterlife!

We now have Iago here with us, and I’m Aeva who also holds a pHD in feminist literature.

Hmm - an awful lot of women here today too.

Yes - you may be surprised but we educate our women in this society.

Useless.

We recently interviewed her, and now want to hear your side of the story.

You interviewed her? That wench! I bet you couldn’t get her to shut it. I said it in Cyprus and I’ll say it again: would you give so much of her lips as of her tongue she oft bestows on me, you’ll have enough.

So, would you say Emilia was a good wife?

 Ha! Not that old thing! She rises to play and goes to bed to work - and she wasn’t good at either, if you get what I mean…

 look at mrs hewett - intense side eye

I wouldn’t have picked to marry her - but our fathers insisted. Like I said when we first arrived in Cyprus, in Act 1: If I could pick a wife, she would be fair, and foolish, obedient - beautiful, but not vain, eloquent but not overspoken, of childbearing stock - mind you, only with sons - forgiving and wise, loving but not flirtatious -

Do you believe your plans would have succeeded without manipulating the women around you?

Women are so easily manipulated - why would I not take advantage of that? They live only to please and obey - it’s their natural duty! Everybody clearly knows God himself ordained this - the Great Chain of Being. They taught it in Church, so it must be true. The natural hierarchy of our human life - with God in power, followed by angels, noblemen, men, women and children, and animals.

So would you say this sexist attitude regarding power balances and dynamics between genders was a dominant belief during Venetian England?

For sure. Hey, I’m not the villain here: everybody around me shared these beliefs - it’s just basic nature that men are more powerful than women! I mean - Eve was created from Adam himself, and then went and betrayed him - everybody knows that men are just naturally superior, and always have been. 

So as a feminist critic, I’ve been analysing your actions from a feminist perspective.

How foul.

Can you expand on some common beliefs in your time, and how you manipulated them to your advantage?

Well - My goal while in Cyprus was to get revenge on Othello, for promoting Cassio above me, and also to get back at my wife - it’s a rumour she slept with the Moor. Like I said in Act 1: And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets. He’s done my office. I know not if it be true.” So I cleverly took advantage of the common belief that women are naturally deceitful little devils, and kept planting seeds of doubt into Othello before he eventually trusted my word over that of his own wife.

So do you have any regrets about brutally murdering your own wife, and that your actions clearly  lead to the death of an innocent woman - Desdemona? 

Ha! God no. They served their purpose - they had no use to me any more.