¶ … Poetry of Othello Emilia is the person speaking, and she is the wife of Iago. She is speaking to Desdemona, and she is discussing the faults of men, and how they tend to blame them on women. Desdemona replies that one must not counter bad with bad, thus reiterating the meaning of the play.

Emilia.

But I / do think / it is / their hus / bands' faults

If wives / do fall. / Say that / they slack / their duties

And pour / our trea / sures in / to for / eign laps;

Or else / break out / in pee / vish jeal / ou sies,

Throwing res / traint upon / us; or / say they / strike us,

Or scant / our form / er hav / ing in de / spite

Why, we / have galls; / and though / we have / some grace,

Yet have / we some / re venge. / Let hus / bands know

Their wives / have sense / like them. They see, / and smell,

And have / their pal / ates both / for sweet / and sour,

/ What is / it that / they do
When they / change us / for oth / ers? Is / it sport?

I think / it is. / And doth / af / fec tion / breed it?

I think / it doth. / Is't frail / ty that / thus errs?

It is / so too. / And have / not we / affec tions?

De sire / for sport? / and frail / ty? As / men have?

Then let / them use / us well; / else let / them know,

The ills / we do, / their ills / in struct / us so.

IV, iii, 89-106)

The pervasive sound of this passage is strident and dissident, just as Emilia is crying out against the wrongs men perpetrate against women, and the unfairness of life where men are strong and women are supposedly weak. Shakespeare breaks up the rhythm of the speech by using consonants and vowels that break unnaturally, such as "palates," and "affection." These are difficult words to split, and the break up the evenness of the speech, adding interest and…