The Villains of Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet

Shakespeare draws an amazing psychological portrait of a man who became a villain by means of ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil. “Macbeth” is a play composed of the disintegration of a noble man’s world. The play begins by offering the audience Macbeth, a war hero, with a high regard from Duncan, the king of Scotland. By the end of the play Macbeth transforms into a universally despised man without a place in the social community. Shakespeare draws an amazing face of a man made to be a villain by ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil.

Of all of Shakespeare villains and heroes none compare to that of the play Othello, with all the mistrust and false identities that each character presents. In the play Othello we are introduced to a myriad of characters that are all unique in their own way. Of all the characters we see in the play the reader is only introduced to a handful of character’s whose motivation become clear. While Iago’s actions are motivated from revenge, the actions themselves can be forgiven as he acts in what he believes is correct, while Othello and Desdemona who are motivated by justice and forgiveness act only on emotion regardless if they feel it to be correct.

Amidst the global warming crisis in the Arctic and subsequent lack of food, there have been reports of polar bears eating their own children due to the lack of food. While gruesome, being threatened causes one to take drastic actions to protect oneself. If bears can lose their most maternal instincts for self-protection, how easy is betrayal among friendships? As seen in William Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago’s deliberate and carefully thought out betrayal demonstrates the theme that one often loses sight of humanity in a quest for revenge.

William Shakespeare masterfully crafted Othello, the Moor of Venice as an Aristotelian tragedy play. The main protagonist of the play, Othello, is the perfect example of a tragic hero. Shakespeare was influenced by Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero and used Aristotle’s principles to create Othello. William Shakespeare attempted to create an Aristotelian tragedy play with a tragic hero and succeeded in Othello, the Moor of Venice by weaving in pity and fear into each line and action. The power of pity and fear creates the upmost tragic situation and follows in accordance of Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. Othello makes the ultimate act as a tragic hero by killing himself at the end of the play. “Othello, more than any play in the canon, has a fascinating and contentious performance and reception history,”

William Shakespeare's Othello is a remarkable tale of trust, deceitfulness, lust and the most destructive of human emotions: vengeance and hatred. Iago better known as Othello's antagonist embodies vengeance and hatred to move an agenda to squash all who oppose Iago's plans. As defined by Merrium-Webster the definition of a protagonist is a principal character in a literary work or a leading actor, character, or participant in a literary work. Othello by Shakespeare is a play about Othello an example of a tragic hero with all figures centered around Othello as the protagonist yet, Othello has two main leading characters. Iago and Othello have stark contrasts as leading roles and different themes represented through the actions, words, and moral compass of both characters. As Othello plays out the audience finds that Iago is the driving force behind Othello and the cause for all chaos. Iago's thirst for vengeance due to feeling dissatisfied and passed over potential lieutenant position pushes Iago to ruin the lives of all associated with Othello. The thirst for vengeance drives Iago as Iago drives the plot achieving all goals and because of this Iago is the true protagonist of Othello.

In both Hamlet and King Lear, a plethora of characters could be considered villains, yet the interpretation and argument for a villain in Hamlet is more ambiguous. Given that most of Shakespeare’s plays are tragedies, villains naturally play a paramount role in successfully ending the depressing plots. This is showcased no better than by Claudius from Hamlet and Edmund from King Lear, both of whom are instrumental in contributing to the meanings and endings of their respective plays. Claudius and Edmund are two villains with different stories but similar motives who assist in developing a well-rounded piece of literature.

Whether you hate your King, your Christian rival or a neighboring foe, if you're in a Shakespeare play then you will be punished.  In the first act of each play Shakespeare shows a conflict between two groups of people, one is vengeful the other virtuous.  After the conflict is introduced, the malignant characters have important parts of their lives taken away and in the end the ultimate penalties of each are inflicted.  All of the antagonists are left desolate in the end of the plays by either lost fortunes or their lives.  Shakespeare takes good care to give the protagonists of the plays much reward for being on the right side of the spectrum.  As the characters hate increases throughout the play they begin to loose what is precious to them, first in small amounts, but in the end, they are stripped of all they love and value.

Shakespeare’s plays, among other classic works of literature, tend to be forged with the tension of human emotion. The archetypical parallel of love and hatred polarizes characters and emphasizes the stark details of the plot. More specifically, the compelling force of revenge is behind most of the motives of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. The play opens with the return of Hamlet’s father, a surprising encounter, which ended in his son learning that his father’s death was the result of foul play. By emphasizing this scene as the beginning of the story to be told, Shakespeare clearly implies that the plot itself will be based around the theme of revenge. Through three different instances of behavior fueled entirely by vengeance, Shakespeare creates an image in the reader’s mind, which foreshadows the future of the story and provides insight into the plot line. Even so, despite the theme of revenge being the overarching concern of the plot, the parallels drawn between characters truly strengthen the thematic depth of the piece overall, making the play easily one of Shakespeare’s most infamous and historically valuable works.

The classic antagonist in every story seeks to see the fruition of their devious plan, and would most likely be successful without the direct opposition of the protagonist. However, in Othello, rather than working against Othello, Iago gives an illusion of working with him in order to gain an advantage in the construction of his plot. Acting as a playwright within the play, Iago pushes and prods characters into the position that is most favorable to his final plan, which ultimately is to bring down Othello. In Iago, Shakespeare presents a villain who is not only able to construct elaborate schemes, but one who is also clever enough to disguise them with a façade that allows him to manipulate others.

There are many characters that Shakespeare has portrayed to the audience as being responsible for the tragedy.