What is the significance of Desdemona’s singing in Othello?
In act 4 scene 3 line 43 of Othello, Desdemona sings a song (the one about the willow.) What is the significance of her singing?
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That song (which Desdemona admittedly cannot get out of her mind and so sings) tells of a woman, “I,” who “sat [sighing] by a sycamore tree” (IV.iii.40), mourning a lover, and declaring: “‘Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve'” (IV.iii.52). Her approval, however, seems more strategic than sincere. When Desdemona reaches this final line, she notices that “that’s not next” (IV.iii.53) and inserts what should have preceded, what explains the speaker’s acquiescence – the possibility that she herself will be slandered:
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