Othello

 Desdemona and Emilia obtain different views towards marriage, men fidelity and desire due to distinct levels of awareness,  social status, and living environment. Firstly, self-awareness differentiate Desdemona and Emilia’s view of marriage. On the one hand, Desdemona is naive teenage girl since she comes from a well-protected upper-class family. Her parents establish a model for happy marriage where a wife should only respect and obey her husband. Desdemona has not learned - nor feel the need -  to understand her husband’s feelings, which leads to her lack of self-consciousness towards the emotions of Othello. For example, when Desdemona pushes Othello to meet Cassio, Othello already expressed an unwillingness by replying “No, not tonight.” Still, Desdemona continues asking “Tomorrow dinner then?”. This quote demonstrates that Desdemona is unable to realise the unfavourable mood of her husband. On the other hand, Emilia is aware of the fact that there is no respect nor love in her marriage. She knows that she is not being considered as a real wife. She believes that she is the “food” while her husband is “stomach. Her husband “eat her hungerly, and when he is full, he belches her”.  Secondly, due to the different classes that they are born into, Desdemona thinks that men are loyal to their wife; while Emilia is clear about her reality that Iago might be unfaithful. For Desdemona, her higher social status makes her blindly think that men should be loyal to their wife. Since her father is faithful to her mother and she receives education which teaches her that husband and wife should be loyal to each other, she then has romantic allusions about men fidelity. For Emilia, being a women from middle class, she knows the true world around her where men are not loyal all the time. She is familiar with the situation happened in middle class such as Cassio’s affair with Bianca. As a result, instead of romantic allusions, she is being more realistic. Thirdly, Desdemona has both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated desires; whereas Emilia’s is truly intrinsic. Growing up in a happy family, Desdemona’s intrinsic desire is always to be a good wife. However, Desdemona’s another desire to speak up for Cassio is extrinsic since she has been indirectly manipulated by Iago. Cassio has been pushed by Iago to ask for Desdemona’s aid. She is so innocent and pure that Iago easily manipulated her. By contrast, Emilia’s desire to please Iago has always been intrinsic. She explains: “ I nothing but to please his fantasy (3.3 line 297).” This quote demonstrates her goal is just to satisfy the needs of Iago. As a woman and a wife, Desdemona and Emilia are very different regarding their views of marriage, men fidelity and desire.

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