A Shakespearean tragedy is one that encompasses many different elements. Shakespeare presents all of these elements spectacularly in Othello. For a tragedy to occur there are five conditions. The protagonist, Othello in this case, must experience a death or a total loss of ranking in society. The audience must also be captured by the actors and feel some sort of connection to them. This is known as catharsis. In Shakespearean tragedies the protagonist always has a character defect or a tragic flaw. This tragic flaw along with pride will cause the protagonist to make an error in judgement leading him to his downfall and eventual death. These two elements are called hubris and
hamartia. The unities of time, space, and action must also be followed. This means that the play must take place in a very short period of time, occur in one general area, and follow one main character throughout the play. Shakespeare orates for us a tragic occurrence in the life of a man who once had it all, throws it all away in a fit of jealous rage .
	The downfall of the central character is the main concept of the tragedy. Without the main character’s downfall there is no reason for the reader to feel pity, therefore, no tragedy. The downfall of the protagonist in Shakespearean tragedies always originates from their tragic flaw. Othello’s tragic flaw is his jealousy, which Iago constantly reminds him about. This is first brought about in act III, scene 3 when Iago asks Othello if he has "Seen a handkerchief spotted with strawberries… did I today see Cassio wipe his beard with" (III, 3, 431-432/435-436). At this point Othello is jealous at Cassio for having won the heart of Desdemona and earned the handkerchief. Upon hearing this Othello flies into a mad fit by saying "O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!" (III, 3, 439). By his jealousy Othello makes himself very prone to many attacks on him by Iago.
	Catharsis is the part of the play that moves the audience and attempts to put them in the actor’s shoes. Shakespeare does this by attacking the issue of love. It is a very touchy and emotional subject. Anyone who has ever fallen in love can relate to Othello and Desdemona. They are viewed as the perfect newly-weds who have each other as compliments. Desdemona shows us this by protesting to the Duke and her father that she &...
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... many readers would believe the title could be Iago and not Othello. Although Iago is not the "good guy" he is in the play just as much or even more than Othello. At the beginning of the play Iago is present and Othello is absent. This is how it is many scenes are in the play. Although Othello is regarded as one of Shakespeare’s best tragedies, there is still contradicting evidence against this.
Many scholars acclaim Othello as Shakespeare’s most perfect tragedy because it encompasses all of the elements of a tragedy so wonderfully. The love shared between Othello and Desdemona at the beginning of the play is so much more spectacular than that of Claudius and Gertrude in Hamlet or Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. The guilt and wrong felt by Othello after he realizes his errors in judgement is uncomparable to the drama in Shakespeare’s other tragedies. Any audience viewing Othello for the first time would be captured by the characters because of their relation to the audience. Any experienced Shakespeare reader would have no problem giving Othello the title of most perfect tragedy because it covers all of the elements of a tragedy so wonderfully.
	
The Tragedy of Othello by William Shakespeare is a great work by a great author. Shakespeare was correct in titling it The Tragedy of Othello because Othello lost so much. In the literary sense, a tragedy is the downfall of a character through that character's own flaws. The way most people see a tragedy is a story where there is much suffering and loss, and a not so happy ending. No matter way one looks at it, literary or public sense, this was a correct title. The main character, Othello, brought his own downfall upon him through his flaws, caused the suffering of many people, and he himself loss very much. All of these factors pile up to equal a big tragedy.
...e. The play Othello focuses on the tragedy of the main character Othello to point out flaws in a generally good character; it teaches the readers valuable lessons to becomes better human beings by not making the same mistakes as Othello does in the play.
In the Shakespear’s play “Othello” it is clear to see that the relationship between him and Desdemona is a complicated one wrought with passion and confusion which leads to emotional trauma and physical abuse. At point and times in the story of “Othello” love was transmuted different. Othello was not as gentle and kind as Desdemona when it came to his lover he a times exhibited symptoms of insanity. He also at times exhibited lack of confidence that is found in the perceived unity of marriage. This was apparent that the two lover on loves battlefield were on two opposing sides, Desdemona was honest and faithful to Othello until their tragic end.
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.
Othello has been described as one of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays because the play focuses on its themes of good and evil, military, politics, love and marriage, religion, racial prejudice, gender conflict, and sexuality; but the controversy and debate surrounding Othello is “Why is Othello a qualification for a tragedy?”
Othello committing the dreadful dead and explained to him about the handkerchief causing only the villain Iago to be killed. Bad fortune is present because Othello was to determined to kill Desdemona and not allow her to give her side of the story and prove her innocence. Further bad fortune is present as the Turks ship is sunk in the storm and consequently Othello is present when he wouldn't have otherwise been and so can be tricked by Iago. These factors along with the element of chance that occurs when Othello is hiding in the cell and misinterprets a conversation causing him to believe strongly in Desdemona's affair then only to be assured of this when he sees Desdemona giving Cassio the same handkerchief he had previously given to her make this a great tragedy.
The first rule that is met in Shakespeare’s play is that Othello is considered tragic hero, which every tragedy must contain. According to Aristotle, the tragic hero must be a man in a position of power who is a good person and makes a mistake during the timeline of the play due to a tragic flaw. Othello’s major flaw can be seen as jealousy: “Othello has often been described as a tragedy of character, as the play’s protagonist swiftly descends into a rage of jealousy
Nick Potter states: “Othello is a tragedy of incomprehension, not at the level of intrigue but at the deepest level of human dealings. No one in Othello comes to understand himself or anyone else.” Within Shakespeare’s Othello, no character fully understands themselves of one another. This is especially true in human dealings, where the intentions of characters and how others interpret them are often misaligned. Conflict, and eventually, tragedy arises in Othello due to the incomprehension between characters, as well as within the characters themselves. From the reader’s perspective, it is tragic to understand the reality behind all the incomprehension, since the characters are oblivious to what the readers are aware of.
The question is how sympathetic is Othello to the reader? Othello feels betrayed by the snare. But Othello loses his look of a gullible, good guy when he decides he wants Cassio and Desdemona dead. The rage of his jealousy turns the character of Othello, the readers know, on its head and creates a different look. Only during and after the death of Desdemona can the reader see the good that was once in him.
The Tragedy of Othello William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, from the sixteenth century is an excellent example of Renaissance humanism. “A poet of unparalleled genius, Shakespeare emerged during the golden age of England under the rule of Elizabeth I.”(Fiero 3:98) He produced comedies, tragedies, romances and histories. According to Webster’s pocket dictionary, a tragedy is defined as a form of drama in which the protagonist comes to a disaster, as through a flaw in character, and in which the ending is usually marked by pity or sorrow. I would like to concentrate on the character Iago and the theme of deceit.
Othello’s true flaw is not vile, destructive jealousy, but rather pure and prevailing love. He has a very strong character of virtue and nobility that is intact up to the horrid end. Iago’s deceit and trickery are more the cause of Othello’s tragic fall than any fault of Othello himself. This innocence and greatness of the tragic hero unequaled in any other Shakespearean tragedy is what gives the play its terrible irony and passion. Othello plays on the most powerful of all human emotions: faith and love, both embodied to the fullest in the great and honest Othello.
Mrs. Cornwall ENG3U1 October 14 2015 A Tragic Hero’s’ Path Towards His Downfall In society there are always people who are easily manipulated and possess poor judgment. This leads them to make wrong decisions and negatively affect their lives and the lives of the people around them. The reason for Othello’s tragic downfall was because of his poor judgement, his easily manipulated conscience and his jealousy and obsession with the world. These traits displayed why Othello was responsible for the play’s tragic outcome. The first trait that led to Othello’s downfall was his easily manipulated conscience.
The role of jealousy, love and betrayal play a major role in The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The entire play is based on the human interactions of the characters as related to Othello and Desdemona. The characters’ personalities, their social status, and their relationships to each other control the story line and their fate in the play. Othello is portrayed early in the play as an outsider with animalistic characteristics by Iago and Roderigo because of jealousy. “Your heart is burst; and have lost half of your soul/Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe”.(531) Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, accuses Othello of using witch craft on his daughter. “If she in chains of magic were not bound/ Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy/ So opposite to marriage that she shunned…” (535) This point is important because Othello must defend himself not only to Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, but to the entire Venetian Senate. “And till she come, as truly as to heaven,/ I do confess the vices of my blood./ So justly to your grave ears I’ll present/ How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love, / And she in mine.” (539) Othello proves himself to be an intellectual hero early in the play. He has worked hard to gain respectability and power, but because he has a different background, is from another country, is dark-skinned and is older than Desdemona, he becomes jealous very quickly of Cassio. Cassio is from the same social class, is compatible with Desdemona and is a young handsome man. Iago has also convinced Cassio to seek favor with Desdemo...
Of the 38 plays Shakespeare has produced over his lifetime, his tragedies are the most heart-wrenching, horrifying productions the theater has ever seen. In these tragedies, there are gruesome ideas such as lethal love, megalomania, and the absolute corruption of heroes that were originally considered to be wholesome. The latter theme can especially be seen in the play Othello. In this tragedy, there is an ongoing theme of corruption in a considerable amount of characters in the play, the most significant change being in Othello. Othello undergoes a shocking transformation, as he starts off as the storybook hero, a reputable soldier who illustrates great passion towards his wife, but transforms to become a twisted
In 350 B.C.E., a great philosopher wrote out what he thought was the definition of a tragedy. As translated by S.H. Butcher, Aristotle wrote; “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Thought, Diction, Spectacle, Melody. (http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html)” Later in history, William Shakespeare wrote tragedies that epitomized Aristotle’s outline of a tragedy. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one such tragedy.