Othello. Emilias monologue in act IV scene iii lines 82-99 articulate her views that women and men are not so different

The first 200 words of this essay...

But I do think it is their husbands' faults [82]

If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,

And pour our treasures into foreign laps,

Or else break out in peevish jealousies, [85]

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 [90]

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? [95]

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. [99]

[Emilia's monologue, Othello, Verse, act IV scene iii]

Emilia's monologue in act IV scene iii lines 82-99