scene 2

“A closet lock and key of villainous secrets; / And yet she’ll kneel and pray. I have seen her do’t” - Iago about Emilia

• iago presents emilia as someone who knowingly maintains the epistemic gap between Desdemona and Othello through the metaphor describing her as a “closet”, invoking the semantic field of concealment

• paradoxical pairing of nouns “lock and key” presents Emilia as someone who both contains and controls access to Desdemona’s secrets

• adjective “villainous” is loaded with allusions to criminality and immorality

• conjunction “And yet” demonstrates Iago’s cynicism - he cannot reconcile the idea that Emilia’s outward projections of morality disprove his internal notions of her morality

• “I have seen her do’t” - connects to Othello’s need for ocular proof

-

-

-