How does Shakespeare make Othello a tragic character?

Prabhjit Takher 10RH

English coursework

Miss Burdon

How does Shakespeare make Othello a tragic character?

The play Othello by William Shakespeare is about passion, treachery and revenge. Othello is a black, well-respected army general in Italy. He falls in love with the white daughter of Brabantio, a senator of Italy, called Desdemona and gets married to her without Brabantio’s consent. Iago and Cassio are Othello’s best friends, Iago turns out to be two-faced and evil towards Othello because he gave the job of lieutenant to Cassio when Iago thinks it should have been his. Othello is summoned to Cyprus to fight the Turkish army and takes Desdemona with him. There, Iago makes Othello believe that his wife is having an affair with Cassio and renders him into a state of depression. Othello goes mad with anger and ends up murdering Desdemona in bed. When he finds out Iago was lying he falls into a state of despair and stabs himself.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle studied tragedies and identified a list of arguments that a classical tragedy had in it. Aristotle argued that classical tragedies have a protagonist, who is usually a man, who is rich and powerful and is respected in society. The protagonist makes a mistake or error of judgement, which makes him fall from power and loose his identity. Aristotle said that the ending might be sad but does not necessarily have to be negative, as there is always hope. We are going to see if Shakespeare has managed to portray Othello as a tragic character by using these arguments.

In Aristotle’s theory of tragedy there must be a protagonist or a main character. Shakespeare has put a protagonist in the play, Othello, as he as named the play after him. Shakespeare often named his plays after the main character as we can see in some of his plays, such as Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Henry v or King John. By naming the play Othello the audience can see straight away that Othello is an important person in the play.

Aristotle also argued that the protagonist in the play is a noble character, who is rich, powerful, strong, admired and moral. In Act two Scene three of the play, Montano, a respected ex-governor of Cyprus, refers to the Protagonist, as “Worthy Othello.” From this the audience can see a well-respected man calling Othello “worthy”. This makes the audience feel that Othello is noble and admired. In Act one Scene two Brabantio attacks Othello for getting married to Desdemona, but when Cassio and Iago draw their swords against Brabantio, Othello tells them to put them away or the “dew will rust them.” Shakespeare intended to make the audience feel that Othello is moral, as he does not want his friends to attack the senator and his attendants for him because he feels it is wrong and the audience can see this. The audience also sees that Othello is calm even in a crisis as he makes a joke, whilst telling his Iago and Cassio to put their swords away. From this the audience reveres Othello as they can see that he is very strong-minded.

The audience can see in the play that Othello is powerful and strong as in Act one Scene three Othello talks about Desdemona falling in love with him “for the dangers” that he had passed. By dangers Othello means being sold into harsh slavery and crossing idle deserts, rough quarries, rocks and hills of which the “heads touch heaven.” This makes the audience feel sorry for Othello and makes them think he is brave and powerful for overcoming these problems. The audience also admires Othello as we can see how much he loves Desdemona as he talks about why ...

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The audience can see in the play that Othello is powerful and strong as in Act one Scene three Othello talks about Desdemona falling in love with him “for the dangers” that he had passed. By dangers Othello means being sold into harsh slavery and crossing idle deserts, rough quarries, rocks and hills of which the “heads touch heaven.” This makes the audience feel sorry for Othello and makes them think he is brave and powerful for overcoming these problems. The audience also admires Othello as we can see how much he loves Desdemona as he talks about why he loves her and why she loves him. The audience also sees Othello’s love for Desdemona in act one scene three when Othello is still trying to prove that he did not use black magic or drugs on Desdemona. He says that if Desdemona says she does not love him then let the sentence not only take away his office and the trust they have of him but he says let it “Even fall upon my life.” From this the audience can see that Othello is moral and admiring, as he loves Desdemona so much to put his live upon it. Shakespeare intended to make Othello look moral so that the audience liked his character. Shakespeare wanted this so that the play would be more tragic as Othello’s life is torn apart and when he dies.

Also in Aristotle’s theory of tragedy the protagonist has a respected or powerful position in society. This is true in the text, as Shakespeare has portrayed Othello as a well-respected army general. The audience can see he is respected as in Act one Scene three, the duke calls upon him to defend Cyprus from the Turks. The duke says to Othello that he has such things “else than quality and respect” for him. The audience can see from this that Othello is respected and powerful because if the duke, a man of high authority in Italy, calls upon him and respects him then he must be respected by many. Shakespeare has done this so that Othello has more of a distance to fall when he eventually does in this tragedy.

The next point that Aristotle argued is that the protagonist falls from power and feels outside society. Shakespeare showed this in Act four Scene one, by making Othello strike Desdemona in front of Lodovico, a messenger and kinsman to Brabantio. When he sees Othello do this he claims that he is sorry that he is “deceived in him” meaning he didn’t think that Othello could hit a woman let alone his wife. This makes the audience feel aggravation and irritation towards Iago as this is happening because of him. Shakespeare makes the audience irritated by showing Iago to be malevolent. He does this so that the audiences hate Iago more and feel sorry for Othello as he is innocent but is falling into the trap made by Iago. The audience also feels sorry for Cassio, as he is the innocent person in the twisted web of lies of Iago. The audience’s view of Othello is changed, as we don’t see him as the calm, strong minded, compassionate character that we saw at the beginning of the play. Now that Iago has convinced him his wife is unfaithful he is beating her. Shakespeare has done this to provoke the idea of Othello being a tragic character as we see the first step of him falling and we can see that what was a tremendously happy character’s life is being torn apart. The audience also feels remorseful for Desdemona as a man twice the size of her strikes her. We also feel sorry for her as she is loosing her husband without even knowing about it. Shakespeare creates this feeling as he makes Desdemona look innocent and just. By doing this he creates tension and regret as the audience can see her life falling apart but she can’t. He does this to influence the idea of a tragedy as the innocent characters are being tortured.

According to Aristotle the protagonist then suffers a loss or change of identity. The audience can see an example of this in act three scene three as Iago renders Othello into misery and depression. He kneels in front of Iago and says his love is gone for Desdemona. He no longer considers himself to be the affectionate husband he once was. He says he wants “Black vengeance” meaning he wants vengeance from Desdemona and Cassio. From this the audience can see that Othello is changing as the strong-minded general is now sobbing on his knees. We get even more incensed by Iago for standing there and watching the virtuous Othello shrivel up with misery, when he knows it is all lies and that he is the one that created them. We feel sorry for Othello, as he is believing Iago when we know he shouldn’t and by listening to him he is destroying his own life. Shakespeare creates these feelings by making Othello kneel and cry on the floor with Iago smirking behind him. He created these emotions to build up the tragedy with tension and regret.

Aristotle said that the fall that this protagonist has suffered affects other people. We can see that this is true in the play, as the innocent Cassio is hated by Othello for something he does not even know he has done. We can see that Othello hates Cassio in Act three Scene three as he goes as far as planning his revenge and death as he says “That Cassio is not alive” meaning he wants him dead. This makes the audience resent Iago as he is planning the death of Cassio for something he hasn’t even done. The audience also feels sorry for Desdemona, as in Act four Scene one Othello calls her a “whore” meaning that she is unfaithful. She even ends up getting murdered by her husband for this. Because of Othello’s fall she is loosing her husband because of an affair she didn’t have. Shakespeare does this so that the fall of Othello becomes more tragic as it affects innocent people. Not only are Othello’s close relations and friends affected but the whole of Cyprus too, as it looses a noble and rational leader.

Aristotle then said that the protagonist’s fall is due to a mistake or error of judgement he makes himself. We can see this in our text as throughout the play, Othello trusts Iago and in calls him “Honest Iago” when the audience can see that he Iago is far from honest and is in fact two-faced and deceitful. In Act three Scene three we especially see that Othello misjudges Iago as when Othello comes near to finding out that Iago is lying he says to him “though shouldst be honest.” This makes the audience cringe, as we all know he isn’t honest but Othello doesn’t and continues to trust him. Shakespeare has done this to build suspense in the tragedy and build mixed emotions about Othello. Othello also makes a mistake in Act four Scene one as he strikes Desdemona in front of Lodovico. This is a mistake as Desdemona doesn’t deserve it but he thinks she does and calls her a “Devil”. This makes the audience sympathise with Desdemona further. This is also mistake because Lodovico is watching and he is also a respected man in Venice so people will listen to him and so the news will travel around Venice quickly making people despise Othello. But the biggest mistake that Othello makes is in Act five Scene two, when he kills Desdemona in bed. He does not know and does not think that she has not been disloyal to him but when he realises what Iago has done he calls him a “Precious villain” and attacks him, but by this time it is too late, and Desdemona is already dead. With this he kills himself as he says “To die upon a kiss.” Shakespeare has shown that Othello has made a mistake as we can still see the love he held for her and when he finds out his mistake he stabs himself. This makes the audience upset because it is a passionate line that shows the love between Othello and Desdemona and how tragically it ended. This makes the audience feel sad as they saw innocent people die because of the unjust Iago and his lies. Shakespeare does this to create anxiety at the end of the tragedy to make it more tragic as we find out that they still loved each other.

The last point Aristotle made is that the audience learns a moral lesson to do the right thing even if the ending may be sad. This is true in Othello as although Othello and Desdemona died at the end of the play, we learn not to interfere with and distort people’s lives as so many innocent people die. We also learn not to do things for selfish reasons as in the end Iago, who lied to try and get power was caught and arrested in the end.

In conclusion we can see that Shakespeare has made Othello a tragic character by following the theory of Aristotle. He has included a protagonist that is rich powerful and has a respected position in society. We can see then that Othello falls from power, as in Aristotle’s theory, and looses identity. Othello feel out of society, as he does not know what to do with himself or Desdemona anymore. Like Aristotle said, Shakespeare ends the play so that the audience learns a moral lesson in life. He does this by making Iago so twisted and evil that when the audience sees what has happened they know not to interfere each other’s life and love for it can end in tragedy. Although Aristotle’s theory of tragedy is widely used to analyse literature, in my opinion a tragedy is something that’s ends sad and depressing but not necessarily negative. Shakespeare has also accomplished this. Although we are sad that the innocent Desdemona and the virtuous Othello both died, we are happy that Iago’s deceitful plan is foiled and he is caught and arrested. This shows us that there is hope, as the villain doesn’t always escape. This also shows that good prevails over evil, as the love that Othello had for Desdemona made sure that Iago’s plan did not work and so Iago couldn’t come into power.