Emilia (Othello) nature in sharp contrast to Desdemona, who seems almost unable to believe that any woman could contemplate such an act. Throughout the play, Iago uses Emilia's close friendship with Desdemona to gain access to her and, in particular, asks her to steal Desdemona's handkerchief, which he subsequently drops in Cassio's house and later uses this as evidence to convince Othello that Cassio has been with Desdemona. Emilia does not agree to steal the handkerchief for Iago. Iago snatches it from her and all she can do is ask about what he'll do with it (III.iii.310–320). Iago is the one who
Othello error Othello error Othello error occurs when a suspicious observer discounts cues of truthfulness. Essentially the Othello error occurs, Paul Ekman states, "when the lie catcher fails to consider that a truthful person who is under stress may appear to be lying" their non-verbal signals expressing their worry at the possibility of being disbelieved. A lie-detector or polygraph may be deceived in the same way, by misinterpreting nervous signals from a truthful person. The error is named after William Shakespeare's tragic play "Othello"; the dynamics between the two main characters, Othello and Desdemona, are a particularly well-known example of the error