SOURCE: Garner, S. N. “Shakespeare's Desdemona.” Shakespeare Studies 9 (1976): 233-52.

In the following essay, Garner stresses the importance and complexity of Desdemona's role in Othello, and asserts that Shakespeare endowed her with a full range of human emotions.

I

As Desdemona prepares to go to bed with Othello in Act IV, scene iii of Shakespeare's Othello, the following conversation occurs between her and Emilia:

EMILIA.

Shall I go fetch your nightgown? 

DESDEMONA.

No, unpin me here. 

This Lodovico is a proper man. 

EMILIA.

A very handsome man. 

DESDEMONA.

He speaks well. 

EMILIA.

I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip. 

(ll. 36-42)¹

Surely this is startling dialogue coming as it does between the brothel scene and the moment when Desdemona will go to her wedding with death. An actress or director would certainly have to think a great...