Desdemona: The Woman Who Loved Without Conditions

Desdemona eloped with Othello against her father's will and defended the marriage before the full Venetian senate. That takes more nerve than most of the male characters in the play display at any point. She is not naive. She knows the political and social risks of what she has done. She does it anyway.

Her loyalty to Othello persists even as he becomes increasingly irrational and violent. When he strikes her in Act 4, Scene 1 in front of Lodovico, her response is not defiance but bewilderment. She cannot imagine what she has done wrong because she has done nothing wrong. That incomprehension is heartbreaking and also maddening to watch.

Her final scene in Act 5, Scene 2 is one of the most studied in Shakespeare. She dies calling herself the cause of her own death: 'Nobody; I myself. Farewell.' Critics disagree about whether this is loyalty, shock, or a last attempt to protect Othello. The play gives you no definitive answer.