Evolution of Emilia

Possibly my favorite character in William Shakespeare's Othello is Emilia.  In this entry, I want to reflect on how Emilia drastically changed from the beginning of the play to the end.  At the beginning of the play, Emilia is literally Iago's doormat.  He talked openly about how stupid she was right in front of her.  Emilia started out too timid to ever stand up for herself or refute anything her husband said.  She really was never given the opportunity to have an opinion about anything.  This is why I wanted to give her a giant, metaphorical, hug in the final act of the play, because she finally stood up against her wicked husband.  She refuses to be intimidated or threatened into silence once more after she knew of Iago's hand in the murder of her Lady.  "No, i will speak as liberal as the north.  Let Heaven and men and devils, let them all, all, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak" (V. ii. 219-221).  She was going to make sure that whoever was involved in the killing of an innocent woman was made known to all, no matter the consequences of her disobedience to her husband.  Even her last words before her death showed her new-found rebellion.  "So speaking as I think, I die, I die" (V. ii. 250).  She died in the act of doing what she had never before been brave enough to do: speak her mind.