Othello Tragic Hero Essay

William Shakespeare’s Othello, is considered one of Shakespeare’s most tragic plays. The audience is shown the protagonist, Othello, as a tragic hero. Othello is displayed as a nobleman in Venice. He marries Desdemona without acceptance from her father. Othello takes pride in the love of his new wife. As the play progresses, Iago, the villain, manipulates Othello’s emotions into jealousy through Othello’s pride and internalized racism. The fatal flaw of Othello’s jealousy and lack of self-confidence leads to the death of three other characters. The villain, well he gets tortured. Shakespeare’s protagonist, Othello, whose tragic flaw is jealousy, fulfills the prerequisites of the Shakespearean tragic hero. To make a Shakespearean tragic hero, “he must be a person of some stature or high position” (Aristotle). Othello is a man of brilliant stature and high position in Venice. He …show more content…
Aristotle addresses that “he suffers both outwardly (isolation, alienation, attacks) and inwardly (tortured conscience)” (Aristotle). As mentioned previously, Othello suffers externally from his past life. Othello mentions in his defense to the Duke, “And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace,” (I.iii.85). Othello has had very little peace in his life. His life is filled with war and racism. At the beginning, Othello is not first introduced by his first name. Rather, Othello is only presented as a Moor (African or Muslim decent). Continuously through the play, Othello is described by more degrading racial terms. Iago references Othello once as “an old black ram” (I.i.91) and many times a “Moor” (I.i.59). Othello is a cultural outsider. More so, the only man of color in the play. With all the pride from the accomplishments that made Othello where he stands in the social order, it is still not enough to mask over his external suffering from the racism he endures. But as Othello suffers on the outside, he also suffers

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