"Othello" and Its Connection to Greek Tragedy

The play Othello is Shakespeare's own version of a classic Greek tragedy. A classical dramatic tragedy derives its essence from the ancient Greek plays that were often popular in Athens. These plays would typically consist of the downfall of a famous Greek character in history/legend, or the breakdown of a hero. Typically the hero is forced to struggle against overwhelming odds, and fate only that this characters downfall would be so imposing that regardless of these forces of nature and fate that destroy him, that he would rise and regain glory due to his moral victory. These tragedies would invoke terror and pity on the audience, in a sense a tragedy could be considered a form of a catharsis, literally cleansing the soul as it is performed, even though the horror typically disturbed audiences, at the same time it cleansed their soul and purified the spirit.

According to Aristotle proposal, all great tragedies share three things in common, the place, the time, and the plot. The entire tragedy would occur in one set place (like a market, or palace), the events in the play would all take place in the course of a single, day, and the play would only consist of a single story (plot). Shakespeare's tragedy is far more unhindered in that it is not closely structured around these strict regulations. Throughout the entire play of Othello (except for Act I, which is set in Venice), is placed entirely within the stronghold of Cyprus. When evaluating the time span of Othello, logically speaking occurs in the course of a couple of weeks. But, when deciphering the time of day that each major event occurs in Othello it becomes evident that it is abstractly set in the course of one day, like a classic tragedy according to Aristotle. E...

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...e must be a travesty, which is filled with tarnished emotions. Due to his own insecurities and phobia of a promiscuous wife, Othello is quick to believe in the bogus claims implied by Iago.

Othello is a classic Greek tragedy because it abides by Aristotle's definition of great tragedies, the place, time, and focus of a single plot throughout the entirety of the play. Othello is a tragic hero whose demise is brought forth by his own tragic flaw. He is susceptible to the manipulation of others do to his own insecurity with himself, and ultimately leads to his irrational murder of the only thing he treasured, Desdemona. Through manipulation and deception, Iago is able to become the puppeteer of Othello's life, controlling the course of his fate in a sense simply through the power of words. Iago proves to be a crucial factor in the destruction of Othello's world.