Othello-Emilia's Role

Emilia plays an important role in the play. At the beginning, the audience sees her as a wife who is not treated with the least bit of respect by her husband. However, Emilia is faithful to Iago and does as he wishes. She steals the handkerchief from Desdemona in order to facilitate her husband's evil scheme. Emilia can be seen as innocent because she is unaware of the implications of her actions. She is a friend to Desdemona and gives her comfort when its needed. She represents the ideas and beliefs of many of the other characters. She is trusting in the fact that she believes what other people will tell her or in other cases just doesn't care enough to know what her actions are causing. Emilia is a mediator between Iago and Desdemona and indirectly to Othello.