Othellos credulity borders on stupidity and this is not a quality acceptable in a tragic hero.

Iago as the right hand man and long term friend to Othello is a character that Othello relies on when making decisions and for advice. Iago knows this and uses it to his advantage because as Iago reveals he thinks that Othello’s Hamartia is that he is “too trusting” and says "Oh beware jealousy: it is the green-eyed which doth mock that which meet it, feed on.” This quote also suggests that Iago knows more about Othello than he himself does, as when plotting against Othello Iago knows his weaknesses and knows that he will be able to manipulate him because of his nature, Iago says that Othello “The Moor is of a free and open nature, that thinks men honest that seem to be so”. The form in which Othello is written is a play, unlike other plays that rely on stage directions, the play Othello is dialogue driven. This adds to the emphasis of Iago’s deceit as the audience through soliloquies; know the true character of Iago and more about the characters’ motivation and feelings whereas the characters are oblivious. So the audience is able to make confident judgements about the characters because of the form. As an independent man with a crude attitude about women, Iago is a man of pride. His jealousy of Othello and his passions (hatred, anger and revenge) fuel him towards the course of an evil master plan. Othello believes Iago’s word and trusts him even more than Desdemona, his own wife. Earlier on in the play when Iago suggests that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair Othello refuses to believe it and demands “ocular proof” but then settles for what Iago provides, a handkerchief and facial expressions. At this point in the play Othello’s honour is dropping already, a respectable leader now hiding in the bushes all through the manipulation of Iago. This could be seen as proof that his credulity borders on stupidity as he believes Iago’s made up scenarios and lies as fact. However it could also show Iago’s brilliant wittiness and the power he had on Othello as well as all the other characters in the play, including Desdemona all refer to him as “honest Iago” which shows how effective Iago is at convincing all those around him that he can be trusted when the audience knows that he cannot. The stronger argument is that Othello’ trust for Iago is stupid and naive, however Iago is a mastermind who fools everyone in the play and plays a huge factor in the downfall of Othello, so yet again we still sympathise with our tragic hero.

The simple language that Othello speaks in could be have a double meaning, from one view it could represent his purity and honesty, he spoke plainly at the beginning of the play with honour however after his downfall he stuttered and said common words like “strumpet”. This could contrast with the poetic way that Iago speaks, his speech is surfaced and underneath the words that come out of his mouth are many layers and lies. On the other hand Othello’s plain language could be Shakespeare’s way of telling us that Othello was illiterate as was expected of black people of that time.  Othello broke the boundaries by becoming such a well respected man in such racist surroundings. He was still referred to as the moor but as one of the Venetian senators said “the brave moor”. Othello exceeded boundaries that are almost impossible to break which is why at the beginning of the play the audience have an unspoken respect for him, and we sympathise with him at the end of the play because,  the downfall of this inspirational character who is the tragic hero , has affected us due to our complete knowledge of the characters. Even after his downfall and the murder of Desdemona he regains our passion at the end of the play when realising that he was wrong and killed himself because we know that Othello didn’t mean to do any of it.  

Life in the 1600’s for a black man would have been extremely hard, the amount of racism and the backward belief that blacks were primitive. Especially during this time period which consisted of wars, empire-building it was very important that the leader of the army was powerful otherwise the empire would be lost; Othello being the Venetian commander demands a huge amount of authority. Othello is aware of his success and when confronted about the potential questioning of his marriage to Desdemona he replies “My parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly”. When accused of doing voodoo (magic) which was associated with blacks during that time, Brabantio is still upset and not convinced that his daughter could be capable of marrying Othello, but it is clarified that Desdemona was “half the wooer” and accepts her marital “rights” as she is in love with Othello. The love that was shared between Desdemona and Othello at the beginning of their marriage (and play) shows a lot of trust, which is broken down gradually throughout the play, through the manipulation of Iago and the gullibility of Othello.  The only thing that Desdemona was at fault for was the fact that she talked and trusted Cassio as a noble soldier and friend of Othello’s. But the mere fact that Desdemona talked to Cassio would have been enough proof for Othello as he was already manipulated and convinced that she was being unfaithful. This suggests that Othello is not a credulous character at all, as he is incredibly naive and let himself be manipulated by Iago.

Othello’s credulity does border on stupidity however we accept his fatal flaw, which in my opinion is the depth of his gullibility because he is a tragic hero. We acknowledge that external forces influenced Othello as a character and after he kills Desdemona his realisation and action of killing himself help the audience forgive him for his deed as he realised his mistakes.