How Is Othello A Tragic Hero

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The Shakespeare play Othello has a lot of great literary elements in it which help make it such a great play. Some of the literary elements include symbolism, Irony, Paradox, Characterization, Tragic Hero and many more. The literary element I chose to write and explain more about is the Tragic Hero aspect of the play. A tragic hero is defined as “A person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering. But the hero struggles mightily against this fate and this cosmic conflict wins our admiration.” In Othello by William Shakespeare, Othello is the tragic hero in the play. Othello plays a nobleman and is a general …show more content…
3,40) Iago has just sent Othello onto a path that he won't get off from just by convincing him that his dearest Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio his lieutenant. Iago plans to do much more to try and ruin Othello's life with Desdemona. Iago then tells Othello to “beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”(Othello,Act 3, SC. 3,195) Iago tells him this because he is becoming more and more jealous of Cassio. Iago then comes up with a plan to steal Desdemona's handkerchief and place it in Cassio's place. He then convinces Othello to ask Desdemona for the handkerchief. When he asks her for it, she doesn't have it and he gets mad and tells her that his mother gave him that handkerchief. Iago's plan was beginning to take effect and has started a conflict between Desdemona and Othello. After a while Iago eventually gets Othello to hit Desdemona and when he hits her, he called her the devil because he now believes that she is indeed sleeping with Cassio. Iago then gets Cassio and Roderigo to fight each other and Roderigo was killed. Iago and Othello talk and Othello tells him that he's going to kill Desdemona. Iago tries to stop him from doing this but Othello's heart was broken and he would not listen or reason with anyone. Othello then enters Desdemona's room and tells her that she has betrayed him and then he smothers her with a pillow. Othello then realizes what he had done.
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