...Othello - An Aristotelian Tragedy When distinguishing the characteristics of an Aristotelian tragedy, Aristotle writes that there are certain qualities that define Othello as a tragic hero. These qualities include; 1. Must come from nobility, the protagonist must fall from power and from happiness. 2. Hamartia which is the tragic hero is fallible, and his downfall is the result. Whatever the characters' fatal weakness is that brings him to a bad end. 3.Peropeteia which is a reversal of fortune, or a sudden change of circumstances that affect the protagonist. 4. Anagnorisis which is the point in the plot which the protagonist recognizes his or some others characters true identity or discovers the true nature of his own situation. 5. Catharsis which in literature means something different. Drama can evoke powerful emotions and people who watch it and are moved leave the theater clean and refreshed and refreshed in the emotional experience. (Kennedy, p 707-08) William Shakespeare's Othello meet all five of Aristotle's criteria for being a tragic hero. Nobility can be defined as having "nobleness of mind, character, or spirit exalted moral excellence." (dictionary.com) Othello demonstrates his nobility in a number of different ways. For one when the swords are drawn, Othello tells both sides "Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them. Good signior, you shall command with years than with your weapons." (Othello Act 1 Scene 2 pg 4) Here Othello is avoiding any potential...
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...Othello as a Tragic Hero William Shakespeare's famous tragedy Othello, the Moor of is arguably one of the finest, if not the finest, tragedies in the literary history of Western civilization. This paper discusses Othello as a tragic hero and compares him to Aristotle's concept of what a tragic hero actually is. First, we need to understand the characteristics of a so-called tragic hero as defined by the Greek critic, Aristotle. He indicates that a tragic hero must have these characteristics: (1) Be a nobleman, prince, or person of high estate; (2) Have a tragic flaw, and a weakness in judgment; and (3) Fall from high to low estate. Using Aristotle’s criteria, we can easily classify Othello, the Moor, as a tragic hero. At the time, it was common practice for the Italian city-states to have a foreigner, with proven military capabilities, serving as the head of their Army. Othello, an African Moor of noble birth, is just such a character and held the highest ranking military position as Governor-General of Cyprus. The city of Cyprus was a city-state in the great state of Venice. His title alone, Governor-General, exudes an air of nobility, confidence, and strength. It defines someone who is held in tremendously high esteem by the people of Venice. During Act 1, Scene 3, the Duke and a few Senators are discussing issues around a table when Othello enters the room. It's clear that Othello is held in high esteem when, as he enters, one of the senators states “Here comes Barbantio...
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...Final Paper The Tragic Hero Othello “Othello” is one of the four Shakespeare’s famous tragedies. It is also the name of the leading character. Shakespeare makes this character vivid through depicting what he says and does, and impresses audiences with his extremely tragic ending. There is no doubt that Othello is a tragic hero. At the beginning of the play, he was a brilliant military commander who beat a large number of enemies. He even married Desdemona, a beautiful white woman. He was a respected war hero and a loving husband. He was so successful. However, at the end of the play, due to his tragic flaws, he became an irrational murderer full of jealousy and killed his wife and himself. In the paper, I mainly analyze how Othello became a tragic hero thanks to his internal imperfections and how he conformed to Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. According to Aristotle’s definition, a tragic hero must occupy a high position and a noble stature. Othello met this part well. At the beginning of the play, Othello was a military general, a high status in the Venetian society. What’s more, many details of the play indicate that Othello was respected by most characters. For example, the Duke of Venice referred Othello as “Valiant Othello”. Montano called Othello as “brave Othello”. Even a herald praiseed Othello and said “our noble and valiant general”. Venetians relied on Othello because of his excellent military capabilities. In Act I, Scene 3, Duke of Venice said...
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...11/02/2015 Research Paper Othello Othello is a famous tragedy written by William Shakespeare as a Tragic Hero. The Moor is arguably one of the finest, if not the finest, tragedies in the literary history of the Western Civilization. In this paper I will discuss Othello as a tragic hero and compare his to Aristotle’s concept of what a tragic hero is actually is. The characteristic of a tragic hero is defined by the Greek critic, is determined by three characteristics. According to Aristotle a tragic hero must be 1) Be a nobleman, prince, or person of high estate; 2) Have a tragic flaw, and a weakness of in judgment; and 3) Fall from high to low estate Using the criteria’s above which was established by Aristotle, we can effortlessly classify Othello, the Moor, as a tragic hero. At the time, it was common for the practice for the Italian city-sates that have a foreigner, with proven military capabilities, serving as the head of their army. Othello, an African Moor of noble birth, is just such a character and held the highest-ranking position in the military as a Governor –General of Cyprus. The city of Cyprus was a city-state in the Venice. Othello’s title alone, Governor-General, emanates an air of nobility, confidence, and strength. It defines someone who is held in remarkably high esteem by the people of Venice. During Act 1, Scene 3, the Duke and a few Senators are discussing issues around a table when Othello enters the room. It is clear that Othello is held in high esteem...
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...Frank Kelly Ms. Corley ENG3U - 1 9 March 2016 End Goal of Writing Othello When studying Othello, no analyst or reader can deny that the masterpiece written by Shakespeare is truly remarkable. However, there is debate as to whether the play was written to tell a story about a war hero who ascends to the peak of Italian military ranks and fell off due to his insecurities, or for Shakespeare to present an allegory narrating the chaos in seventeenth century England. The assertion made declaring Othello to be an allegory is very compelling. Just like an artist chooses every stroke of their painting, in Othello, Shakespeare’s words are all determined very conscientiously. This could potentially mean he was crafting a perfect narration to provoke the leaders of his time about the imperfections of the society they live in. The underlying themes throughout the book are extremely plausible claims in order to draw a parallel to an allegory. The most profound theme in Othello is how love can present shameful aspects and hereby, make someone act irrationally. Reputation is a compelling reason for why Othello acts aberrantly. He is proud of the reputation and power he had works so diligently for, therefore, he was not going to let it crumble. Lastly, Othello was an African leader in the Italian military, which was particularly irregular in that era. This feeds into his profound insecurities because he is looked at as an outlier. Clearly, Shakespeare was using this to show how racism...
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...May 2013 Othello Humans are tend to behave a certain way, some people are more peaceful than others, everyone is different in a way, but there are times when human behavior can be change drastically from good to bad, when someone is influenced by another person, they tend to change the way they see or think about certain things, and as a result people change their personalities and behaviors. In Othello we can clearly see a change in personality and behavior from the main character who is Othello. He was transformed from a peaceful and well-spoken person, to a savage who end up killing his wife. In the play of Othello is easy to identify that “jealousy” is the main theme. Othello who is a general from the Venetian state is one of the most respected and well-spoken person in the play, In the first acts we can see that Othello is a faithful and powerful general who is married with Desdemona, she is the daughter of Brabantio, Brabantio is against the marriage of her daughter and Othello because of his skin color. Iago is the villain in the play who hates Othello because he was not promoted, and instead Othello decided to promote a young and inexperienced men named Cassio. Iago decide to seek revenge by manipulating everyone in the play. Iago devise a plan that will cause a tremendous amount of chaos. His plan is to lead Othello to believe that his wife, Desdemona has been cheating on him with another man. In Act Three we can see the drastic change of Othello personality...
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...follows the same basic story line with a fatal tendency, and Othello is no exception. Shakespeare stories are often about one hero, and the story builds up to the eventual death of this character. The hero often starts the story with happiness and no obvious problems, and as the story develops the character’s life begins to crumble and eventually leads to their death after everything has been lost. Othello is a prime example of this Shakespearian story line, where we see everything Othello has at the start of the story fall to pieces and end in tragedy with the character’s suicide. Jealousy and deception are central themes in many of Shakespeare’s plays, and are often what leads to the hero’s downfall. There are a number of key scenes in Othello that represent these themes of jealousy, deception and tragedy throughout the play. In Act 2 Scene 3 Iago uses different techniques in order to deceive Othello and change his opinions of Cassio. Iago says: ‘I would rather have this tongue cut from my mouth, then it should do offense to Michael Cassio.’ Iago is setting up his later deception, as he is tricking Othello into thinking that he likes Cassio and would never speak ill of him, which enables him to seem more believable when he later deceives Othello about Desdemona’s affair. This deception is confirmed when Othello says ‘I know Iago, thy honesty, and love doth mince this matter, making it light to Cassio.’ Othello is suggesting that Iago may not tell the whole truth as he wants...
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...significance of act 1 in Othello. Act 1 of ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare is of extreme importance to the development of the play and the audiences understanding of it as a whole. Othello is introduced to the audience as calm, confident and eloquent individual who has deeply in love with Desdemona even in the face of adversity in their relationship. However, as the play progresses Othello is manipulated and warped by his ensign Iago. His mind begins to fracture until he commits an atrocity so foul; he believes death is the punishment he deserves. One of the most important points portrayed in act 1 is Othello’s personality and thought process before he is manipulated by Iago in later scenes. “From men of royal siege; and my demerits…may speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune…as this that I have reached”. Othello is portrayed here as calm and rational here despite the fact that Iago is attempting to rile him by giving false information about Roderigo. Furthermore, Othello emphasises his self-confidence by stating that his past glories will speak louder than Brabantio’s gripes about his daughter’s relationship with him. Othello emphasises this point again by speaking in verse “Were it my cue to fight I should have known it without a prompter.” This emphasises his supreme confidence and rational thinking as he states that he has done nothing wrong and has no reason to feel guilty about his marriage to Desdemona. Moreover, although Brabantio orders his guard to arrest Othello, he remains...
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...significance of act 1 in Othello. Act 1 of ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare is of extreme importance to the development of the play and the audiences understanding of it as a whole. Othello is introduced to the audience as calm, confident and eloquent individual who has deeply in love with Desdemona even in the face of adversity in their relationship. However, as the play progresses Othello is manipulated and warped by his ensign Iago. His mind begins to fracture until he commits an atrocity so foul; he believes death is the punishment he deserves. One of the most important points portrayed in act 1 is Othello’s personality and thought process before he is manipulated by Iago in later scenes. “From men of royal siege; and my demerits…may speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune…as this that I have reached”. Othello is portrayed here as calm and rational here despite the fact that Iago is attempting to rile him by giving false information about Roderigo. Furthermore, Othello emphasises his self-confidence by stating that his past glories will speak louder than Brabantio’s gripes about his daughter’s relationship with him. Othello emphasises this point again by speaking in verse “Were it my cue to fight I should have known it without a prompter.” This emphasises his supreme confidence and rational thinking as he states that he has done nothing wrong and has no reason to feel guilty about his marriage to Desdemona. Moreover, although Brabantio orders his guard to arrest Othello, he remains...
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...Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights of all time. Macbeth and Othello are two of Shakespeare’s most popular dramas still to this day. Like all Shakespearean heroes, Othello and Macbeth possess a tragic flaw that eventually leads to their downfall. Othello kills out of jealousy, while Macbeth kills out of ambition. In both of these dramas, Othello and Macbeth possess human characteristics that drive them to commit evil acts. Although their tragic flaws are entirely different, they share in remorse for their actions, which allows the audience to sympathize with them. In the story of Othello, Shakespeare portrays a tale of how a man’s trust is betrayed, ultimately leading to a tragic ending. Othello, the main character, is a...
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...In the Shakespearean play Othello, the “Green – Eyed Monster”, otherwise known as jealousy, is nothing but a killer. It is a creature that drove Iago to his monstrous revenge plot. During the duration of the play, jealousy was one of the main motives Iago had as a foundation in his plot to destroy Othello. As the lowest ranking officer, Othello’s ancient, Iago wanted to be promoted to the lieutenant position. In the opening scene of Act I, Iago described his jealousy towards Michael Cassio to Roderigo. He described how Cassio had, “never set squadron in the field” and that his knowledge of battle is only known through books (I.I.23). Unlike Michael Cassio, Iago had been in the army for years and felt betrayed by none other than the General himself, Othello. Iago hated Othello, there was no question about it. When speaking to himself, or to others, Iago only called Othello “the Moor.” As said in the critical essay Othello’s Alienation, saying the racist term “the Moor”, it was Shakespeare’s way of playing into the mindsets’ of the audience; Iago and the audience had at least one thing in common, they were racist of people that were not Caucasian (Berry). According to Charles Boyce, Iago only thought Othello as a thing not a person and a “brick wall” to what he really desired, power. Othello, had so much power in the army that Iago felt he deserved after all of his years of service. Iago said that Othello had a, “free and open nature” that was to be tested by his...
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...Othello and Desdemona * Othello is a play about opposites and opposition – many of which are embodied in the tragic, eponymous hero, Othello and his wife, Desdemona. Act 1, Scene 1 * Presented through Iago: * Iago’s language is different from the other two male characters which have been introduced – it is one of a crude and mocking nature. * She is a ‘white ewe’ while Othello is the ‘black ram’ – together they create a ‘beast with two backs’. This comparison both reinforces the idea that Desdemona has made an ‘unnatural’ choice and casts Othello in a repugnant role to the audience as a ‘lustful’ predator – even before having met him. The reduction of the Desdemona-Othello match to, through the unpleasant animal imagery, one of bestial sexuality, renders their relationship as one of alien in the eyes of audience – even before having met them. HOWEVER COULD BE ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION – The animal imagery Iago employs when speaking of Desdemona’s sexual union with Othello is keeping in with his earlier sneering reference to Cassio being ‘damned in a fair wife’. Shakespeare perhaps suggest Iago is crude and unable to understand love, or loving relationships – to him woman are a possession which ‘must be locked safe in [one’s] house’. Therefore to a contemporary audience: distrust any former view of Othello and Desdemona’s relationship which Iago has portrayed. Jacobean audience: further the ‘revolt’ of the Desdemona-Othello match. * Presented through...
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...OTHELLO CHARACTERS Othello Beginning with the opening lines of the play, Othello remains at a distance from much of the action that concerns and affects him. Roderigo and Iago refer ambiguously to a “he” or “him” for much of the first scene. When they begin to specify whom they are talking about, especially once they stand beneath Brabanzio’s window, they do so with racial epithets, not names. These include “the Moor” (I.i.57), “the thick-lips” (I.i.66), “an old black ram” (I.i.88), and “a Barbary horse” (I.i.113). Although Othello appears at the beginning of the second scene, we do not hear his name until well into Act I, scene iii (I.iii.48). Later, Othello’s will be the last of the three ships to arrive at Cyprus in Act II, scene i; Othello will stand apart while Cassio and Iago supposedly discuss Desdemona in Act IV, scene i; and Othello will assume that Cassio is dead without being present when the fight takes place in Act V, scene i. Othello’s status as an outsider may be the reason he is such easy prey for Iago. Although Othello is a cultural and racial outsider in Venice, his skill as a soldier and leader is nevertheless valuable and necessary to the state, and he is an integral part of Venetian civic society. He is in great demand by the duke and senate, as evidenced by Cassio’s comment that the senate “sent about three several quests” to look for Othello (I.ii.46). The Venetian government trusts Othello enough to put him in full martial and political...
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...Othello Notes Reputation/Honour Importance of the theme of Reputation / Honour in Othello: The significant theme of reputation and honour is portrayed frequently throughout the novel Othello. Many of the characters in the novel carefully consider the consequences of their thoughts and actions in regards to their reputation and honour, making sure that they appear noble even when their actions are irrational and selfish. Such an example is shown when Iago appears to be simply stating the obvious about Desdemona, instead of manipulating Othello to believe his own fears. Othello is dictated by his desire to live up to his reputation, achieved through years of being a general in Venice. Reputation, used in conjunction with jealousy and trust, provide the key elements which provoke Othello’s mental disintegration shown predominantly by language techniques, into a world of mistrust and assumption. It is logical to assume that Othello’s suicide was a consequence of his need to preserve any traces of reputation left from his dedicated work as a general; from the characteristics portrayed of Othello it is implied that the act of imprisonment would crush Othello – he would no longer be an honourable citizen. In a similar way to Othello’s suicide, Iago’s sudden and unpredicted vow of silence could be assumed to also be a form of self-preservation, manipulating other characters by preventing any more damage to his reputation by not accidentally admitting details of his ignobility. ...
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...the characters in the Shakespearian play, Othello. The thin piece of silk, bordered by strawberries, is especially important to Othello as well as being the turning point in the play during Act III. The handkerchief is a symbol of love, of a person, of power, and of revenge. The handkerchief plays an important role in the lives of both Othello and Desdemona. The piece of silk was Othello’s first gift to Desdemona and she treasures it dearly because it’s a symbol of Othello’s love. She is truly upset when she finds out it has gone missing and will soon find out that this will lead to the tragic event of her death in Act V. The silk handkerchief “spotted with strawberries” is meant to be seen as bloodstains left on the sheets of a bed on a virgin’s wedding night thus representing a guarantee of virginity (III. iii. 426). The small token of Othello’s love is supposed to be seen as Desdemona and Othello’s wedding bed sheets and as visual proof of their love and marriage. However to Othello it means something different. The handkerchief is extremely important to Othello because it was his mother’s and he tells Desdemona, “She, dying, gave it to me; And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, to give it her” (III. iv. 64). The handkerchief later in the play symbolizes Desdemona as a whole to him. More specifically it represents Desdemona’s chastity and faith to Othello. However, the physical reality of the handkerchief is different. Othello tells Desdemona that the handkerchief was...
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