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Bianca is a prostitute looking for love, which she foolishly thinks that Cassio can give her. She first appears at the end of the third act, when Cassio is waiting in hopes that Desdemona might be able to bring Othello back with a decision about his job.
In Act V, Bianca’s genuine love for Cassio is seen when she discovers her lover has been stabbed: ‘Alas, he faints! O Cassio, Cassio, Cassio!’ (V.1.84). Her constancy in love links Bianca to Desdemona.
Cassio and Bianca's relationship in Othello is superficial and imbalanced. Cassio views Bianca as a casual lover and does not reciprocate her genuine affection. While Bianca harbors...
Cassio and Bianca are still together when he is wounded by Roderigo in Act 5. She defends Cassio and fights back against Emilia who calls her a ‘strumpet’.
Othello, Act 4, Scene 1. Cassio talks disrespectfully and misogynistically about Bianca to Iago. Using the insulting metaphor of "bauble," he compares her to a cheap piece of jewelry. From the way Bianca pursues Cassio everywhere – "haunts me in every place" – she appears to genuinely love him.
Bianca can be compared with both Desdemona and Emilia and shares some of their qualities. Her relationship with Cassio is less idealistic than the Othello-Desdemona match, but she is an affectionate and genuine partner. She too is accused falsely of treacherous behaviour (by Iago).
Bianca’s onstage presence with Cassio offers the audience a third visible heterosexual relationship; they form a couple that, unlike Othello and Desdemona or Iago and Emilia, is not tied by the formal bonds of matrimony, but is recognizably a couple nonetheless.
