Essay on Othello

The definition of a tragic hero is that an individual who has a mixture of admirable qualities and a tragic flaw which proves fatal. This suggests Othello is a tragic hero, though qualities such as nobility in thoughts or actions do not consistently portray Othello throughout the play. Despite his brave reputation as a soldier and characteristics of trusting and caring initially with Desdemona, his weaknesses in both his own character and his vulnerability to Iago¡¦ s lies, and the decision of killing Desdemona at last do not make Othello sufficiently noble in thought or action to attain the status of a tragic hero.

Desdemona and Othello’s relationship is (at least initially) everything that ought to be desired in a marriage: mutual respect, passion, empathy and loyalty. However, while sentiments of love and compassion circulate within the happy couple’s luxurious home, their surrounding neighborhood is filled with vitriol and paranoia: “Who is this animal that has bewitched sweet Desdemona?” they ask. The differences that separate Othello and Desdemona do not perturb them, but are starkly obvious and unnerving to the judgmental citizens of Venice. While it was certainly rare in the 16th century for couples to have such disparities in age, social position and race, none of these differences diminished how Othello and Desdemona felt for each other, yet each spurred external obstacles that threatened their relationship.

There is a lot to say about “fate.” If my father had not walked into the bar that my mother was bartending at in downtown New Orleans on April 24, 1996, then I in fact would not be here today. If Shakespeare had not written “Othello” then I would not be writing this essay. As T.S Stribling says, “It surely is a strange thing how incidents, trifles in themselves, penetrate one’s life and grow and grow and change its whole pattern, while other matters of apparent great import fade into nothing.” Now, let us rewind to September 15, 2001. My mother had just gone into labor with my soon to be third sibling, and twelve hours later my baby sister Kaylie had finally arrive, but something was not right. The doctors told us Kaylie’s heart was under developed and she needed surgery. After about five months

Most people that are filled with pride never consider themselves to be truly prideful until they come to face the consequences of that fatal flaw. A fatal flaw prominently consists in someone known as a tragic hero: a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her downfall. There are many qualities that make a tragic hero and in the play Othello by William Shakespeare, the premise of a tragic hero is carried throughout the main character, Othello, who is internally committed to his own hubris: pride and in time is revealed to be the tragic hero of the play. Othello’s hubris is the main contributor in proving him to be a believable tragic hero.

    Othello’s speech to Brabantio and the Duke in Act 1, Scene 3 is of major importance in describing Othello’s personality. This long speech, found in lines 149 to 196, shows Othello for the first time as a person with depth and less as a soldier. This speech is important to the book as a whole because it is a testimony to the strength of the love between Othello and Desdemona, which will later play a major role in the plot. It is also one of the first times that we see Othello trying to influence his audience with his words. The speech given by Othello is intended to convince Brabantio that Desdemona is with him willfully, and not by “spells and medicines bought of montebanks” (line 74).

A lot of characters we covered over the year easily fit the category of a villain, victim, or venerable, but what if there was one character that stood out to many, that fits all three categories. Although othello’s heart was in the right place, all of his actions and motives displayed to me as a villain, victim, and a tragic venerable. Othello is a book filled with lies and deceit, which would make any great man stumble at some point in their life. Through his noble character, low self esteem, and eventual lack of trust and jealousy, Othello does in fact become the venerable, victim, and villain all without knowing it.

"The Tragedy of Othello Written by William Shakespeare" highlights a variety of ways in which males and females reacted to intense situations." The emotions of the characters changed from the start of Act 1, the end of Act 1, and continued as the story of Othello progressed. In Act 1, the main protagonist named Othello started off conveying the emotion of happiness because he and his wife Desdemona were newlyweds. Othello was the general of the army of Venice. Iago, who was a soldier desired the rank of lieutenant, but Othello skipped over him and chose Cassio as the lieutenant even though Cassio had no experience in war but was exceptionally knowledgeable. Iago feels envious towards Cassio gaining the rank he wanted, Iago decided to work with Roderigo, a man who loves Desdemona, to pressure Brabantio, Desdemonas’ father, into thinking Othello used a “magic charm” to build up Desdemonas’ love for him. ("The Tragedy of Othello Written by Shakespeare” Book) In addition to Iago’s actions, Brabantio conveying anger approached Othello by accusing him instead of talking to him calmly. Brabantio told Desdemona of the rumor and asked: “who do you choose?” Meaning, she had to pick either her husband or her father. Desdemona projecting love towards her husband chose Othello. In conclusion to Desdemona's actions, it appeals to the reader that the female character represents

Othello, the Moor of Venice , tells a story of a man named Othello, he is a Moorish General in the military but is disparaged for his race, but he is well respected because of his rank in the military. He marries Desdemona the daughter of Brabantio a Venetian Senator, they’re in an interracial marriage that offends Brabantio because Othello is a moor, whom are viewed as beast-like villains. Jealous of Othello’s high rank and honor and has a feeling that his commander has slept with his wife, Othello’s lieutenant and close friend Iago plans to sabotage Othello’s marriage and career. He tells Othello that his wife Desdemona is unfaithful and he gives him false evidence of that infidelity she has towards him. Othello is known to be trusted and noble, but everything Iago tells him leads him into a jealous rage that starts tragedy. The play is set in Venice, a place that values their military

Can love--or what we imagine to be love-- sometimes inspire the most terrible of crimes?  Human emotion is often messy and often without defining lines. Can instinct alone impair our reason, or can a third deadly emotion mar all? In “Othello”, Shakespeare bids us look at some ugly facets of the human psyche and how what is beautiful and good can be twisted and destroyed in the name of self-interest and damning pride.

“Reputation, Reputation, Reputation” is a quotation from act two, scene three, of Shakespeare 's Othello (Arp, 2012, p. 1312). Reputation has always been a key aspect of human nature. People recognize trends in others, and will act accordingly, based on the situation. Reputation is gained through habitually exerting a virtue, or lack there of, and can be used to do many things, some good and some bad. The play Othello shows how hard it is to gain a reputation, how it can be used, and how easily it can be lost, all in one Shakespearean shell. Reputation is a main theme in the play Othello, and it shows, mainly, in the three characters Othello, Cassio, and Iago.

Throughout Othello, the character Iago was very jealous, deceiving and a manipulative man. He uses different individuals love and passions to please his own satisfactions and needs. Since Iago was known for being honest no one even noticed his manipulative ways. Sadly to say Iago knows that Othello will listen to him because he is his right hand man. So with ease, Iago gives Othello hints that he thinks Desdemona which is Othello wife and Cassio are more than just so called friends.

Has someone ever offended you? Or maybe you felt like they were lying or hiding something from you? If this person is manipulative, cruel, or too faced towards you, they could be a villain. Although villains have poor qualities, they are very important to have in stories and movies. In most stories, if there isn’t a villain, the plot wouldn’t have meaning. In Othello by William Shakespeare, Iago is the villian present in the drama. He manipulates people into thinking things that aren 't true. The way the author lets the reader know the plan behind Iago’s actions, but not the other characters, the irony that 's present in the words he uses to describe Iago, and the symbolism he uses to cause betrayal for other characters, helps one to realize that Iago is the villain. One can see the villainry that 's present in Iago 's character when he releases his cruel and heartless personality to other characters throughout the Drama.

Othello, in the simplest of terms, can be reduced to a play of jealously. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, when scholars focused on Shakespeare’s tale of the Moor, they centered all of their thoughts on the characters controlled by their own jealousy (James). In modern day, we’ve come to a time of civil rights where seeing the insane racism in this play is inevitable. To not see, this is an act of ignorance. Audiences during Shakespeare’s time would have been privy to this aspect as well, though they would not have been horrified as we are today. They would notice the subject of race in the play, but it was something they were used to. As a foreigner in Venice, Othello already has an uphill battle to climb to claim the role of the protagonist. For the majority of the time, an audience wants to see their own lives portrayed, or at the very least, they want to see something they can resonate with.

Tragedy in the modern impression of the word is categorized as an event causing great suffering or distress, it can come in many forms and effect people in different ways, but what constitutes a play as falling under the genre of tragedy? In the Shakespearean sense of the word, most tragic plays follow the pattern of having a hero whose fatal flaw causes his inevitable downfall ending in an untimely moment of clarity with a moral take-away. However, death is always the outcome in addition to the redemption. In the case of the play, Othello, those same factors hold true but the edition of a particularly sinister character, the observation of an unjust death, the first induction of a minority main character and a moral take-away that is less than conventional lead to the realization that this play is not your ordinary tragedy.

From the play, Othello, by William Shakespeare I had concluded that, due to Iago’s evil nature, he had set-up the fate of Othello and Desdemona and this is because he wanted revenge on Othello. Surprisingly I have found that some critics disagree with this or they contradict it with different explanations as to why they think otherwise. As Othello is such a complex play, there can be many interpretations and arguments between critics creating a cause for multiple meanings. The critics that I will be discussing about will be William Marginn (1987), Bell, Millicent (1997) and Fred West (1978) which all are at different time periods. The critics tend to have interesting observations on Iago’s motives, acknowledging insight of his character and provide a reason to explain about his actions, which had affected both Desdemona and Othello later on tragically. All of these critics had very independent views on the nature of Iago, which had broadened possibilities and ideas for my understanding towards his motives, and on why he was so against Othello.