In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, as well as, in Shakespeare’s Othello, the audience sees the tragic downfall of the protagonist, which is the question of fate or justice. If one refers to the titles of these plays; Agamemnon and Othello are the protagonists. First Agamemnon thinks more as a king than as a father, when he chooses to kill his daughter to take Troy. Then the general Othello commits suicide having assassinated his wife, whom he loved so much. Indeed, these changes from a good to a bad destiny are respectively the work of two characters: Clytaemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife and Iago, a soldier under Othello’s orders. They represent the “villains” who push “heroes” towards a fate that was not theirs at first, by setting up intelligent strategies. It is like if only imperfect protagonists could be capable of awakening pity and fear in the soul of the reader. To understand how these plots transport the reader until a dramatic end in both plays; this essay will debate around the different motivations and strategies used by Clytaemnestra and Iago to plan the tragic downfall and the misfortune of the protagonists.
First of all, to explain the notion of “hero” and “villain” it is indispensable to analyze their characters. Generally, the tragic hero is more than just a thoughtful leader; they use all their resources in order to care of their people. Unfortunately, one day their beautiful lives, values and real nature change. This description of the “typical tragic hero” clearly depicts the characterization of both Agamemnon and Othello. Agamemnon confirms to be a strong king by invading the province of Troy. At the end of the play, when he returns and speaks about war, he is proud about himself but maybe overly. Here, he reveals the bad s...
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...ey are surround by people like Iago or Clytaemnestra. One can notice how easy it is to manipulate people when they think to be in confidence. These plays were interesting to compare because even if they did not happen in the same era one can finds same topics within them like betrayal, manipulation, fate or jealousy. Indeed, to admit the guilt of protagonists does not discredit their status of tragic heroes. In the contrary, it makes them more human. It means that the “human nature” from “heroes” to “villains” does not really change, it is like if everywhere in the world such similar stories would happened but in different ways.
Works Cited
• Introduction to English Literature. Course Reader. Drama and Poetry. Ed. Patrick Vincent. NE. University of Neuchâtel
• Literature and Writing Workshop. Course Reader. NE. University of Neuchâtel
• Othello. The movie.
Source #3: Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
Jokinen, Anniina. "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. N.p., 1996. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. http://www.luminarium.org/
This paper contains 237 words of teacher’s comments. What one perceives is influenced by one’s environment. The setting and commentary surrounding events changes our perception of them. Any innocent gesture can be perceived in the wrong way with enough persuading from someone else. Even if someone has total faith in another person's innocence, they can be persuaded to doubt them through the twisting of events. Once just a small amount of doubt has been planted, it influences the way everything else is seen. This occurs throughout the play, Othello. In this play, Iago influences Othello's perception of events through speeches and lies, making him doubt Desdemona's fidelity. Iago uses his talent of manipulating events to exact his revenge on Othello. Iago's twisting of events in Othello's mind leads to the downfall of Othello as planned, but because he fails to twist Emilia's perception as well, he facilitates his own eventual downfall.
The first part of a trilogy, in Agamemnon a cyclical path of retributive justice is set in motion. * As his characters move through the play, the plot to murder Agamemnon is discussed, both as an evil and as a justified act. To Clytemnestra, her actions are decided on the day her daughter is sacrificed by her husband. “…the death he dealt/our house and the offspring of out loins,/Iphigeneia, girl of tears./Act for act, wound for wound!”Just as Agamemnon’s choice to sacrifice his daughter is forced on him by a perception of the gods’ desires, Clytemnestra feels she is driven to her actions by a “savage ancient spirit of revenge.” Her co-conspirator, Aegisthus, is claiming retribution for wrongs that were per...
...kespeare's Othello is a play of multiple themes. The human psyche itself is on display as well. The dualities of relationships is also prevalent. For example the relationships between Othello and Desdemona and between Iago and Emilia. The concept of illusion, of the difference between what is perceived in a person and what is real, is explored through the perceptions of key characters of one another in spite of overwhelmingly different realities. Finally, the theme of character reversal is also explored through the violent contrast between Othello as he was before and Othello as he is now; the complete reversal of character being summed up in Othello’s last, stirring soliloquy. In accordance with the central idea of duality and opposites inherent in the play, Shakespeare has encoded three of the play’s key themes through such contrasts of character and language.
A Greek drama is a series of actions within a literary presentation in which the chief character has a disastrous fate. Many Greek dramas fall under the theatrical category of a tragedy due to the tragic events and unhappy ending that cause the downfall of the main character. During the famous play “Antigone” the Greek author Sophocles incorporated several features of a tragedy. These features include a morally significant dilemma and the presence of a tragic hero. The grand debate over which character can hold the title of the tragic hero has been discussed in the literary world for ages.
Aristotle continued to express a tragedy arouses both pity and fear, pity for the doomed hero and fear for all humans who are subject to the same forces and weakness. It would not be difficult to discover that Othello demonstrate weakness and fear in the play, and Shak...
As in almost all tragedies, especially those of William Shakespeare, the tragic hero always runs into misfortune. The play Othello is no exception. In this play, every character acquainted with the tragic hero appears to be unfortunate. While these misfortunes are oddly related to Othello, are they his fault or did each character attract them out of their own actions? To answer this daunting question, one must consider the three most unfortunate characters: Othello, Desdamona and Roderigo and analyse their downfall which eventually lead to their deaths. It is known from reading the play that Iago is the one who manipulates all three of them. Examinations of their connection with him before their deaths are necessary to answer this question. After scrutinizing those three characters it is apparent that all of the characters who experience misfortune in Othello bring it on themselves.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Watkinson, A. "Othello: The Ironic Interdependence of Othello and Iago." Novels for Students. 5 November 2004. http://www.enotes.com/othello/743/print
Of Shakespeare’s five greatest tragedies, Othello is by far the most passionate and gripping. It is a tale of love, deception, evil, honesty, and virtue. Othello himself is set apart from other Shakespearean tragic heroes by the absolute feeling of affection the audience feels for him even unto the very end of the play. Any discerning reader painfully recognizes the virtue and goodness of Othello throughout the entire play, in contrast to the general degeneration of character so typical of a tragic hero. It is this complete pity that makes the death of Othello so tragic as the audience lends their full hopeful support until the inevitable and unavoidable fall. The evil side of Othello’s tragic flaw came from without, in the form of Iago. The internal flaw exists only in his heartrendingly unshakable goodness and honor.
Shakespeare’s Othello consists of the themes betrayal, love and dishonesty. At the centre of this play is the tragic downfall of Othello at the hands of his so called friend Iago. In this essay I will be discussing the reasons for and against Othello being responsible for his downfall through looking at critical interpretations of his character and actions.
113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.
One reason Othello is a tragic hero and also what leads him to his inevitable downfall is because of his tragic flaw which causes his downfall. Othello’s tragic flaw is his ability to be easily tricked, his jealousy, and insecurity. Viewers can understand Othello’s jealousy when Iago tricks him into thinking his wife is cheating on him when Iago says, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! /It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock/ The
A revenge play or revenge tragedy is a form of tragedy which was extremely popular in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. One of the best-known Shakespearean revenge tragedies is Othello and tragic comedy is The Tempest. And the most prominently occurring and important aspects of human nature that appear in Shakespeare’s work is the concept of revenge. The main idea of this essay is to show how Revenge leads to Destruction in Shakespearean plays – Othello and The Tempest. The crux of the thesis is ‘neither the avenger is benefited nor the victim’.