The play "Othello the Moor of Venice," is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies. That being so, for every tragedy, there is the tragic hero- a man that is, at bottom, truly honorable and good, but plagued by a flaw that causes his fateful undoing. The question then arises whether there is sufficient evidence to all-together condemn Othello as a malevolent and innately evil man, or such evidence that he was simply deceived by Iago's treachery and should be excused for his actions. Yet, as the play unfolds, it is clear that no such solid line can be drawn. That is, we are given evidence that rather suggests that Othello's dynamic role as the tragic hero manipulates the very virtue of his greatness to his demise. It is Othello's passion, the same one that makes him a great general and noble husband, that sparks his jealousy and leads to his fall and that of those around him.
The image first given of Othello and those throughout much of the play provide abundant evidence of Othello's virtue. A passionate and dedicated man, Othello exceeds in all that he does. He is not only a warrior and the general in the army, but a man respected by his contemporaries. The senator endears him as "the valiant Moor" (I.III.47-48) and by the governor, "gentle signior" (I.III.50). We see that Othello has nothing to hide, no guilt to shoulder. When advised that he should flee from Brabantio's wrath, Othello answers saying: "I fetch my life and being from noble siege (I.II.21-22)...I must be found. My parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly (I.II.30-32). When faced with false charges of drugging and abducting Desdemona, he handles matters with forthrightness and nobility. To Brabantio and the members of the senate, Othello eloque...
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...mes to all who are present's attention that Othello had been deceived and Iago was the villain behind these happenings. Realizing his great wrongdoing, Othello laments: "O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me, ye devils, from the possession of this heavenly sight! Blow me about in winds! Roast me in sulfur!" (V.II.278-280) and having reached rock bottom, he takes his own life.
Othello's madness is a direct result of Iago's manipulation. However, ultimately it is in his own hands that Othello's fate rests. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, though deceived by the serpent, they chose their own course of action and had to pay the consequences as a result. Othello falls prey to his jealousy and rage, and as a victim of his own passion, is made the tragic hero. Though not an evil person, but innately a good and noble man, Othello falls in the same passion that he rose.
“I am not what I am,” proclaims one of Shakespeare’s darkest and most enigmatic villains, Iago, in the tragedy Othello. Iago’s journey for revenge enables him to become capable of immoral acts, and whilst his malevolence excites us, we are no more intrigued by his attributes than we are of the play’s tragic hero, Othellos’. Rather, both characters’ confrontation with jealousy and their subsequent moral demise as a result of failing to control such an emotion provides the true excitement for audiences. Iago’s spiteful manipulation of Othello makes him a multifaceted character — whose corrupt attributes make the audience examine their own morality. However, the same can be said of Othello; his failure to withstand Iago’s ‘pouring of pestilence’
Northrop Frye once said, “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” Othello is the pillar of tragic heros, first playing the part of a loving husband with a beautiful wife, then being manipulated into believing his wife was cheating on him and killing her. Throughout the play, he played the part of the protagonist, everyone hoping he would figure out Iago was lying to him. Othello being the protagonist made the fact he was also a villain bittersweet. His apparent love for his wife Desdemona, his ‘just’ reasoning for killing her, and Iago’s deserving end all contribute to the tragic work as a whole.
Othello began as one of the most well-liked and well-respected generals in Venice, so much so that the Duke of Cyprus requested Othello to be in charge of the battle against the Turks, “Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you against the general enemy Ottoman” (Othello 762). Along with being a respected general, Othello was also known to be very calm under pressure; he didn’t hide from Barbantio and was very calm in defending himself when Barbantio accused him of drugging his daughter or using magic to make her fall in love with him. Another quality Othello possessed was that he was a very loving husband to Desdemona. He treated her as an equal, even though women were usually treated as though they were inferior to men. Othello also let Desdemona voice her opinions and was always trying to put her needs in front of his
Othello is a good man but took the wrong path. He is well known in Venice even though he is a moor because of his irreplaceable honour. He is kind hearted towards most of the people he encounters because he believes in friendship.. This lead him to meet Desdemona and end up marrying her whom he showed passionate interest towards. Othello put his trust in people easily which shows that he is a very friendly character but he gave it to the wrong person, whom is Iago. He put his trust in Iago even though Iago’s intentions were purely to get him killed or arrested. Othello had honour and took account for all his foolish mistakes in which only some loyal soldiers may abide to. In the story he have shown these characteristics by killing himself after realizing the deathful mistakes he's done.
In the story of Othello we see how the actions of one man go on to ruin the lives of multiple people. The villain Iago single-handedly creates the tragedy of Othello through his puppeteer like control of the other characters in the play. Iago captivates the audience as his plan progresses. Readers are anxious to know what will happen next in the play. What makes Iago so fascinating is his mysteriousness as a character, his fully devious ways, and how magnificently clever he is in organizing the demise of Othello.
In The Tragedy of Othello, William Shakespeare tells the tale of the “noble Moor” whose honor and innocence bring about his downfall. Shakespeare writes of the power of jealousy, and the art of masterful deception and trickery. The story primarily takes place in Cyprus, during a war between the people of Venice and the invading Turks. In this play Shakespeare shows the feelings of Othello’s embittered right-hand man of, Iago, who feels he is passed over for a promotion and swears his revenge. He proceeds to manipulate his friends, enemies, and family into doing his bidding without any of them ever realizing his ultimate goal. He makes Othello believe that his new wife, the innocent Desdemona, is committing adultery with his newly promoted officer Michael Cassio. After this seed of jealousy has been planted, Othello’s mind takes its course in determining the true outcome, with a little more nudging from Iago. The course of action he proceeds to follow is one that not only ends his own life, but also the life of his wife and others. In Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Othello, Othello is a man who is still truly honorable, despite the course of action he takes to resolve his perceived problem.
The play “Othello” by William Shakespeare was written in 1604 during the Elizabeth era. Othello is one of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare’s dramas. He enjoyed unheralded success in the combat zone, which gave him the reputation as one of Venice’s most competent generals. Even though he has great success in the battlefield, he has a dramatic flaw that causes a downfall in his life. The dramatic flaw that causes his downfall is jealousy. This was brought on by a simple persuasion of Iago, the evil character in the play. Even though Iago used extreme manipulation to get Othello to be jealous, Iago did not really have to try very hard to get Othello in a jealous state of mind. Othello was blinded by his jealousy which led him down a path of constant questioning of his wife and his friend Cassio. Throughout the play we see his dramatic flaw sink him deeper and deeper into a cloud of doubt which eventually leads him to kill not only his love of his life but also himself.
Like every Shakespearean tragedy there is often an untimely doom that ends the life of the "hero" or main character of the play. The main character’s doom only becomes the outcome when they are unable to better the wrongs they or others had committed. However, in this Shakespearean tragedy the person who drives the participants of this play to their doom, isn’t the main character Othello, but Iago, the motiveless character whose jealousy and rage drives him to commit crimes towards the people who believed him and considered him a trusting friend.
Tragedy is an intrinsically human concept; tragic heroes are damned by what they themselves do. Othello is not so much felled by the actions of Iago, but by a quality all people possess-- human frailty. Accordingly, Othello is not a victim of consequences, but an active participant in his downfall. He is not merely a vehicle for the machinations of Iago; he had free agency. Othello's deficiencies are: an insecure grasp of Venetian social values; lack of critical intelligence, self-knowledge, and faith in his wife; and finally, insecurity-- these are the qualities that lead to his own downfall.
Othello is a man who is respected as a General in the Army. Brabanzio even considered him a friend. Thanks to Iago planting a seed in Brabanzio ear about his daughter, Desdemona, Brabanzio accused Othello of taking his daughter away from him by means of drugs or poision. Othello has fought on the battle-field and now finds himself on a very different kind of battle-field. He finds himself in a position of being forced to defend his honor, friendship and his love. There has been accusations made against Othello, so in a room filled with signors, masters, the Duke, and Brabanzio, Othello has a strategy of battlement in his own way. He tells the Duke to send for Desdemona, “Send for the lady to the Sagittary, And let her speak of me before her father” (1.3-115-116).
Despite the negative foregrounding of Othello’s character by Iago, our first impressions of Othello in Act 1 are of a noble and well-spoken man, his nobility is conveyed through his speech ‘most potent grave and reverend signiors’(1.3.76) to his future father-in-law Brabantio of Othello’s love for his daughter Desdemona in Act 1 Scene 3. This is a very different character to what we expect from Iago’s preparation for the introduction of Othello. Where we are expecting an angry and possibly violent character, we instead are met with something completely surprising, a quiet and calm man who dismisses Roderigo’s insult and even avoids the prospect of a conflict.
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.
In the beginning of the play Othello exhibits behaviors leading one to believe that he is a patient, well spoken, and calm man, even when faced with uncomfortable and intimidating situations. In one of Othello’s first appearances he is about to be attacked and arrested for charges of witchcraft, but when armed men arrive to seize him, rather than fighting them he says “Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them” (I.ii.58). Saying this, he calms Brabanzio’s men and he agrees to have a hearing about the issue in front of the duke rather than fighting about it.
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.
In conclusion the downfall of Othello was because of his own weaknesses. His traits were the reason why Othello was responsible for the plays tragic outcome. Iago was able to control Othello like a puppet because of his easily manipulated conscience. He chose to make the poor decisions, trusting the wrong people. His mind got clouded by the obsession and jealousy of Desdemona. Othello’s own weaknesses were what led the tragic hero to his tragic