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The Tragic Hero Othello

In: English and Literature

Submitted By lijial
Words 1492
Pages 6
Lucia--Li Jialu
ENG 2043 W1
Professor Sharon Wang
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 “…and though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you….” Although an efficient person was sent to Cyprus, Venetians still desired Othello to go there. Venetians’ intention revealed that Othello was like a tranquilizer. People believed that where

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