Personal Flaw In Othello

Othello’s personal flaw being his lack of judgement and capability to be manipulated, shows an example of how his flaw led to a tragedy. In “Poetics”, Aristotle argues that “every tragedy must have six parts to determine its quality; plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song” (Aristotle 196). William Shakespeare’s Othello is an example of this concept on the grounds that it follows several parts of defining a tragedy; specifically plot, character, and spectacle. The plot of Othello describes how this play is a tragedy. Othello is manipulated to think that Desdemona is cheating on him but in reality, she has always been loyal. According to Aristotle, “Plots are either simple or complex for the actions in real life, of which the

This is seen when the Moor realizes that he committed a horrible crime by killing his innocent wife. After understanding that Iago betrayed his trust, Othello wants to take his own life but before he does this, he tells everyone around him a final few words. He states, “ You must speak/ of one that loved not wisely, but not too well;/ of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,/ perplexed in the extreme;” (Shakespeare, V, ii, 403-406). By saying this, he is arguing that if someone talks about him that he was a man who loved too much but was not wise about it, that he was not a jealous man but he was tricked and manipulated which made him do the things he would have never done before. Othello finally recognized the situation he was in and his personal flaw caused the event leading to a

With his tragic flaws of; lack of judgement and capability to be manipulated, people everywhere can relate to how he must be feeling and how to react to the situation. Aristotle argues that the third thing to be aimed in respect to “character must be true to life” (Aristotle 201). Othello relates to this aspects of character is because he is loyal and truly loves Desdemona; throughout the entire play you see that Othello remains dedicated to his wife, even when he believes she is cheating. Here is an example of when the Moor exclaims his love for his wife “A fine/ woman, a fair woman, a sweet woman! ... And then/ of so gentle a condition! / I’ll not/ expostulate with her lest her body and beauty.” (Shakespeare, IV, I, 197-224) This shows that Othello is a true to life because he demonstrates real struggles and issues that could occur in someone’s life and how are willing to stick by someone’s side even when times are