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Dramatic Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Female Honesty:
The constant references in the play to female dishonesty and women’s dangerous bewitching powers prove to be ironic, with it being the female characters who turn out to be the most honest. Othello and Iago’s repeated emphasis on Desdemona’s deceitful nature, for example, is steeped in irony, as she turns out to be the truest character in the play and faithful to Othello to the last.
This irony is picked out by Emilia in the final scene of the play:
Othello: She’s like a liar gone to burning hell!
’Twas I that killed herEmilia: O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!
Othello: She turned to folly, and she was a whore.
Emilia: Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil!
Othello: She was false as water.
Emilia: Thou art rash as fire to say
That she was false. O, she was heavenly true!
Here, Emilia emphasizes the irony of Othello falsely calling Desdemona a liar. Her comment “the more angel she, and you the blacker devil” emphasizes this, with Othello’s misrepresentation of Desdemona’s honesty actually making him the more dishonest. Emilia’s remark that Othello “dost belie her,” meaning to give a false impression of her, further stresses that it is Othello who is the dishonest one. Furthermore, Emilia’s linguistic mirroring of Othello in the final part of this exchange— “she was false as water,” “thou art rash as fire”—turns Othello’s rhetoric back on itself in a way that inverts its meaning and further emphasizes the irony of his insistence of Desdemona’s falsity. That the truth of what has happened is revealed by a woman, Emilia, at the end of the play further stresses the proven honesty of women, adding an extra hint of irony.
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