Othello Coursework

Question 1: 'I took you for that cunning whore of Venice/ that married with Othello'. Looking again at Act 4 Scene 2 and Act 5 Scene 2 consider to what extent the presentation of Desdemona is that of a sufficiently convincing tragic heroine?

William Shakespeare's ''Othello'' is a complex tragedy, with many conflicting desires, jealousy and memorable characters. As the audience, we are able to see the changes the characters face throughout the play. These differences can turn the entire play from romantic to a disastrous ending. The main female protagonist Desdemona lives through these changes in Shakespeare's ''Othello'', we as the audience are able to acknowledge her feelings and how she goes from a confident, brave young woman who doesn't think twice on what other's think about her and has the audacity to go against her father's wishes and marries the husband of her choice, Othello, to a broken betrayed and murdered girl. Throughout the play we are able to notice that Desdemona's character slowly breaks, her confidence begins to shatter as her husband begins to lose his trust towards her and slowly the audience is able to see their relationship disintegrate. Furthermore, the confidence she had from the beginning of the play is gone and replaced by the feelings of betrayal and lose of trust. Throughout the play she has been targeted by jealousy and tragic forces. I think Desdemona in some sense is a tragic heroine, looking at Shakespeare’s and Aristotle's definition of tragedy, one can say that Desdemona is a tragic heroine to some extent.

William Shakespeare created his plays and characters from the Aristotelian concept of tragedy. Aristotle a Greek philosopher, defined tragedy consisted of the main protagonist as the tragic hero. Aristotle claimed that for a protagonist to be called a tragic hero/heroine they must have at least 3