How does Emilia's character relate to the "loyalty vs. betrayal" theme in Othello?

To add to the previous editor's comments, Emilia's loyalties shift from her husband Iago to her mistress Desdemona.

We see Emilia stealing the handkerchief for Iago in Act 3.  It's an harmless act, she thinks, and she has no idea what her husband intends to do with it.  She also has no idea that her husband is a villain.  She is too quick to think his failings are the general failings of all men, not just her husband:  "Methinks it is the husband's fault if wives do fall,"  she tells Desdemona.  So, when Desdemona frantically searches for her handkerchief, Emilia stands by silently.

However in Act 5, when Emilia discovers her dying mistress, she threatens to expose her murderer to the world.  "I care not for thy sword," she tells Othello who has threatened her when she is about to make his act public. This is a powerful act of courage.  She defies Othello--her superior, a man, an armed man.   When Iago tells Emilia to be quiet, Emilia tells those around that "Tis proper I obey him, but not now."  She tells the truth about the handkerchief and says to Iago, "Perchance I'll never go home again."

The one person Iago misjudged was his wife.  He assumed that she would be his loyal, faithful, and submissive wife.  In the end, Emilia valued her friendship with Desdemona and the truth more than her vows to her husband.

" . .. speaking as I think, I die, I die," Emilia's last words are to placed by her mistress's side.  She has given her life to exonerate Desdemona.

Explain the theme of "loyalty and betrayal" in the play Othello.

The play opens with Iago's speech regarding what he feels is Othello's disloyalty to him in promoting Cassio. This initial act of betrayal of friendship occurs outside of the play, but it initiates a series of actions that highlight the theme of "loyalty and betrayal."

What does Othello owe Iago, who has served him faithfully in wars past? What does Iago owe Othello now that he has been pushed aside in his promotion? What does Othello owe the Venetian state in promoting him? In what way is his romance of Desdemona an act of betrayal itself, since she is clearly the consummate insider and he the consummate outsider, seemingly encouraging her to betray her father? These questions circulate in the first busy scenes of the play without time for anyone to address them properly, as the Turks threaten the state and necessitate Othello's and Desdemona's move to Cyprus.

On Cyprus, the themes of betrayal and loyalty intensify as attention turns to Iago's betrayal of Othello, casting suspicion on the marriage Iago knows is faithful. Cassio's betrayal of his code of honor in getting drunk and brawling leads to further complications that Othello misreads as infidelity with Desdemona, who was seemingly being courteous and faithful to laws of friendship in seeking his reinstatement. In the middle of the play, Othello's own absolute confidence in his marriage ("And when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again" {3.3.101-2}) turns just 300 lines later to contempt and disgust:

By the world,
I think my wife be honest and think she is not.
I think that thou art just and think thou art not.
I’ll have some proof! Her name, that was as fresh

As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black
As mine own face. If there be cords, or knives,
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams,
I’ll not endure it. Would I were satisfied!

The theme is most poignantly addressed in the scene between Emilia and Desdemona as they discuss whether there are some women who would betray their husbands. While innocent herself, it seems, Emilia argues that marital infidelity is er so rare nor so inconceivable as Desdemona thinks:

But I do think it is their husbands' faults
If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. 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. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth: is't frailty that thus errs?
It is so too: and have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so. (4.3)

This may be a momentary interlude between the two women of little driving import, yet it speaks volumes on the theme of "betrayal and loyalty." According to Emilia, the trust or faith a person has in another is a fragile thing, and once abused, it breeds acts of revenge. Each small act of betrayal among people who depended on loyalty produces emotional pain and retaliation. Because faith in another's loyalty and love is nearly impossible to prove (as Brabantio suggests in the first act), once in doubt, a person may never regain his or her confidence in the beloved's faithfulness.

Explain the theme of "loyalty and betrayal" in the play Othello.

In Othello, the major symbols that represent the dualities of loyalty and betrayal are the rank of Lieutenant, the handkerchief, and, quite simply, words.

• Rank of Lieutenant:

Iago is insanely jealous that he was passed over for this rank.  How could Othello give the rank to a younger, less experienced bureaucrat like Cassio?  As a result, Iago hates the Moor and vows revenge.  In his plan, Iago gets Cassio drunk and into a fight so that Othello strips Cassio of the rank, leaving it an open position for Iago to fill.  So, by the end, the disloyal Iago aligns himself with Othello, and they plot to murder both the loyal Desdemona and loyal Cassio.  Dramatic irony at its finest.

• The Handkerchief:

"There's magic in the web of it."  The handkerchief is a symbol of morbid love and jealousy to Othello.  Whoever is in possession of it is also in possession of Othello's extreme emotions.  It is a magical kind of puppet-master that controls loyalty and betrayal throughout the play.  Everyone has his hands on it: Othello, then Desdemona, Emilia, Iago, Cassio, and Bianca.  It goes from a loyal lady to a prostitute, and when Othello sees it in possession of a woman other than Desdemona, he vows to kill his wife for infidelity.

• Words:

He who controls language controls others.  Like the devil in the Garden of Eden, Iago uses words to tempt his subjects.  His words publicly seem to be honest, but privately we and Roderigo know they are lies.  Othello calls Iago "honest" throughout the play, a word synonymous with loyalty.  By baiting Othello toward jealousy and murder, Iago successfully takes away language from the Moor and causes him to become a mute beast.  This "Beauty and the Beast" is no fairy tale that ends happily ever after.

What are examples of treachery and loyalty in Othello?

Emilia, Desdemona's servant, is loyal to both her mistress and to her husband, Iago. She gives him Desdemona's handkerchief, unaware he will use it treacherously against Desdemona to make it appear she is having an affair with Cassio. However, when Emilia does discover what Iago has done, in Act V, scene two, she loyally reveals the whole plot, even though it is too late for Desdemona, saying of the handkerchief:

She give it Cassio? No, alas, I found it

And I did give ’t my husband.

Emilia is a figure of loyalty in the play, although, tragically and ironically, her loyalty to her evil husband leads to Desdemona's betrayal.

Iago is by far the most treacherous character in the play. While we as an audience know he loathes Othello and is plotting his downfall from Act 1, scene 1, he never lets Othello see this side. Othello trusts Iago, and Iago uses this trust to manipulate Othello through lies and suggestion to believe that Desdemona is unfaithful to him. Iago regards all humans as little more than animals and will sink to any level to undo Othello. For example, in Act III, scene 3, Iago says that Desdemona regrets marrying him, as she had other proposals from people more like her. These regrets lead her to "unnatural" (adulterous) thoughts:

As, to be bold with you,

Not to affect many proposèd matches

Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,

Whereto we see in all things nature tends—

Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank,

Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural.

One theme of the play is to be careful who you trust.

Desdemona is also a very loyal character, so loyal she can't imagine that Othello would suspect her of adultery until it is too late for her to save herself.

What are examples of treachery and loyalty in Othello?

Loyalty and treachery are important themes in Shakespeare’s Othello from the very opening words of the play.  Thus, in the very first scene, Roderigo is already accusing Iago of a mild kind of treachery (or at least disloyalty) by not informing him of Othello’s marriage to  Desdemona (1.1.1-3).  Iago immediately responds by claiming his loyalty to Roderigo (1.11.4-6). Iago feels that Othello has been treacherous to him by choosing Michal Cassio as his [Othello’s] lieutenant rather than Iago himself (1.1.8-17). Iago feels that he has been loyal to Othello (1.1.28-33) and thus feels all the more that he [Iago] has been treated treacherously.  In turn, Iago plans to deal treacherously with Othello:

O, sir, content you;

I follow him to serve my turn upon him. (1.1.41-42)

Iago plans to pretend loyalty to Othello merely to plot revenge: “In following him, I follow but myself” (1.1.58). Within a few lines, he is already proclaiming to Brabantio that the latter has been treated treacherously by Othello, who has secretly married Brabantio’s daughter, Desdemona, without her father’s consent:

I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are [now] making the beast with two backs. (1.1.115-17)

In other words, Iago claims that not only has Othello been treacherous to Brabantio but that Brabantio’s own daughter has been disloyal as well.

Later, in the streets of Venice, Brabantio himself accuses Othello of treachery:

O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?

Damn’d as thou art, thou hast enchanted her . . . . (1.2.62-63)

Later still, in the Ventian court, Brabantio once more charges Othello with treachery, claiming that Desdemona has been

abus’d, stol’n from me, and corrupted

By spells and medicines brought on by mountebanks . . . . (1.3.60-61)

When Desdemona herself appears before the court, she professes loyalty both to her father and to her new husband; she denies that she has acted treacherously but instead proclaims that now her greater loyalty must be to the man she has married rather than to the man who helped conceive her (1.3.180-89). Brabantio disdainfully accepts what has happened, but, before leaving the court, warns Othello that Desdemona may someday treat Othello as treacherously as Brabantio feels he himself has been treated:

Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see;

She has deceived her father, and may thee. (1.3.292-93)

Othello responds to this warning by replying simply, “My life upon her faith!” (1.3.294) – words that imply his own loyalty toward Desdemona as well as his trust in her loyalty toward him.  Throughout the entire first act of the play, then, loyalty and treachery are crucial themes.

Other scenes in which these themes particularly appear include the following: 2.1.213-312; 2.3.204-49; 3.3.155-278; 3.3.330-480; 4.1.1-212; 42.31-90; 5.1.35-73; 5.2.1-83; 5.2.126-67; and 5.2.283-87.  There are, in fact, few scenes in the play that fail to at least touch upon the themes of treachery and loyalty.