Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul
What you would ask me that I should deny,
Or stand so mammering on. What! Michael Cassio,
That came a-wooing with you, and so many a time,
When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,
Hath ta’en your part.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. When Othello won’t commit to having Cassio over to dinner, Desdemona persists and uses her marital status and gender to persuade him. She says that she could not imagine her denying something he asked for. This is a good example of Desdemona engaging in emotional manipulation of her husband.