Emilia (Othello) exits and reappears after the brawl which disgraces Cassio. At the end of the scene, Iago is alone and plots to have Emilia "move for Cassio to her mistress". In 3.1, Cassio asks Emilia, "Give me advantage of some brief discourse with Desdemona alone." and Emilia allows him to enter. In 3.3, Emilia is present when Desdemona and Cassio confer, and present again when Desdemona urges Othello to receive the lieutenant. In the same scene, Emilia finds Desdemona's handkerchief, but, she hands it over to Iago as he had been urging her to steal it. He takes it and forbids
Othello that opposition of Brabantio to Desdemona marrying Othello-a respected and honoured general-cannot make sense except in racial terms, citing the scene where Brabantio accuses Othello of using witchcraft to make his daughter fall in love with him, saying it is "unnatural" for Desdemona to desire Othello's "sooty bosom". Singh argued that since people with dark complexions are common in the Mediterranean area that for a Venetian senator like Brabantio to oppose Desdemona marrying Othello for merely being swarthy makes no sense, and that character of Othello was intended to be black. Michael Neill, editor of "The Oxford Shakespeare", notes that