"A halter pardon him and hell gnaw his bones! / Why should he call her 'whore'? Who keeps her company? / What place? What time? What form? What likelihood? / The Moor’s abused by some most villainous knave, / Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow. / O heaven, that such companions thou’dst unfold, / And put in every honest hand a whip / To lash the rascals naked through the world / Even from the east to th' west!" (4.2. 159-169).
Emilia has begun to realize that Othello's abrupt change in behavior is being caused by someone on the outside pulling the strings. She wishes that man to be hanged and to burn and hell. She also calls him a a knave, or a deceitful person. However, Emilia does not know that this man pulling the strings is actually Iago. This is a great example of dramatic irony. Emilia has no clue that her husband is the knave that she speaks of. The reader might begin to wonder what Emilia would do if she were to discover this awful truth. Emilia also brings logic to the argument: she asks how Desdemona could find time or a place to sleep with anyone and that these accusations are simply illogical. Emilia knows Othello to be a smart and headstrong man. This leads her to believe that it is impossible that Othello could have come up with this theory on his own and that some "knave" must be behind it.
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