Emilia (Othello) any basis in reality. After Desdemona's murder, Emilia first challenges Othello, disregarding his threats towards her, and then, after learning that her own husband instigated the murder, denounces his actions and reveals her own part in finding the handkerchief and passing it on (V.ii.230–231); for this she is stabbed by her husband and dies during the final act. In Orson Welles' troubled but critically acclaimed 1952 film "Othello", Fay Compton played Emilia opposite Micheál MacLiammóir's Iago. In a 1965 film, Joyce Redman portrayed Emilia with Laurence Olivier as Othello, Maggie Smith as Desdemona, and Frank Finlay as Iago. All four
Othello Othello suffocates Desdemona, but in Cinthio, the "Moor" commissions the "Ensign" to bludgeon his wife to death with a sand-filled stocking. Cinthio describes each gruesome blow, and, when the lady is dead, the "Ensign" and the "Moor" place her lifeless body upon her bed, smash her skull, and cause the cracked ceiling above the bed to collapse upon her, giving the impression its falling rafters caused her death. In Cinthio, the two murderers escape detection. The "Moor" then misses Desdemona greatly, and comes to loathe the sight of the "Ensign". He demotes him, and refuses to have him in his