Key Events

• The ‘Willow’ Scene

  This scene is sometimes labelled the ‘Willow’ scene. It is a scene of high tension and pathos. The two wives are forced into a bond of ignorance and passivity, as a contrasting parallel to that between their husbands.
• Death song

  • It is night and Othello orders Desdemona to go to bed.
  • She is told to dismiss Emilia and wait for him.
  • As she is being prepared for bed, Desdemona sings a death song.
  • Emilia disagrees with Desdemona that adultery could never be justified, but blames men for women’s faults.
• Desdemona and Emilia

  • There is a flow of warmth and tenderness between Desdemona and Emilia, which is ironic in many different ways.
  • Emilia has taken on the dominant role of mother figure (as Iago has ‘father’d’ Othello), soothing, counselling and undressing, while Desdemona, in her white nightdress, is the pious and vulnerable child at bedtime, as well as the virgin sacrifice being prepared.
• Gothic atmosphere

  • Desdemona thinks she is preparing for love, but is in fact preparing for her death, which is emphasised by the Gothic atmosphere—complete with superstition, a wind and a phantom—knocking on the door.
• The tragic song

  • The tragic Willow song of her mother’s maid, which has prophetic references to the death of a woman caused by the betrayal of a lover, is Desdemona’s swan song.