Desdemona - Monologue

"I do perceive here a divided duty:
To you I am bound for life and education;
My life and education both do learn me
How to respect you. You are lord of all my duty;
I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband;
And so much duty as my mother showed
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord."

"Do not doubt that. Before Emilia here,
I give thee warrant of thy place. Assure thee
If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it
To the last article. My lord shall never rest,
I’ll watch him tame and talk him out of patience;
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;
I’ll intermingle everything he does
With Cassio’s suit. Therefore be merry, Cassio;
Thy solicitor shall rather die
Than give thy cause away."

Othello asks, "Think on thy sins,"
Desdemona replies, "They are loves I bear to you"

These three small excerpts from the text define Desdemona as utterly in love with and devoted to Othello. She stands up to her father and tells him he no longer has her loyalty showing that she is fairly strong willed. The second passage also helps to reinforce the idea that Desdemona is a loyal woman, to her lover and her close friends. At the very end of her part in the play, amongst Othello’s jealousy and confusion, Desdemona confesses that the only sin she is guilty of is the strong love she had and maintained for Othello throughout the play.