Othello is seen to be “Hotly called for” by the duke leading us to believe that he is a very important person. He commands respect from noble men like Montano and the Duke, suggesting that Othello is a noble man.
Shakespeare then continues to build Othello up. We are shown how many people care for and respect the moor, for example when Othello is sailing to Cyprus Montano, Cassio and Desdemona are all concerned for his safety during the storm. When Cassio reaches the shore he begs the heavens to “Give him defence against the elements” implying his wish for Othello to arrive safely. This shows that many people look up to him and respect him.
From this we can see that Othello is an honourable and respected man. He can sort out problems quickly and efficiently and he is confident that his services to Venice “shall out-tongue his complaints.” He believes that the Duke will be on his side because of his rank, so it does not matter what Brabantio has to say.
If Othello is a tragic hero then he has to fall sometime and the first slip we see is when he takes Desdemona with him to Cyprus. In doing this he is trying to combine his political and private lives. This means that his mind is not always on the job in hand. Although he says that he will not let his “distorts corrupt and taint his business” this is clearly not the case.
By taking his wife to Cyprus with him Othello is making it easy for Iago to manipulate him as he can now set Desdemona up as he needs her. This would have been difficult to do if she was still in Venice. The lack of judgement ensures the tragedy will happen. With both innocent Desdemona and arrogant Cassio in Cyprus together Iago has everyone were he wants them in order to further manipulate Othello’s fatal flaw, jealousy.
Iago’s grasp on Othello is strong and as he feeds his imagination with obscene visions of Desdemona “ naked in bed with her friend,” Othello grows more and more crude and savage like his ‘honest’ friend Iago.
As a result of this change of character the audience grows afraid of Othello as people close to him like Desdemona are at risk of getting hurt. Othello’s savageness is shown in his treats to “tear her all to pieces” and so Iago’s clever manipulation has obviously worked.
When Iago first attempted to grasp control over Othello he failed miserably. Although he made sure Othello always questioned him further about Desdemona and Cassio by querying if Cassio is “honest, my Lord?” Othello still believes his wife is innocent and says that he’ll “see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove.” Meaning that he’ll believe it when he sees it.
However as Othello becomes weaker and Iago’s grasp on him tighter we see his character change completely. Othello finds it hard to believe that Desdemona could be unfaithful and accuses Iago of making suspicions without proof. He tells Iago that if he “dost slander her and torture me” he should “ abandon all remorse” because it would be a terrible thing to do. However Iago seems to play the role of stage manager and can control not only Othello but also everyone else on stage. In doing this he can get all the proof he needs to prove Desdemona’s supposed infidelity and so Othello immediately falls into the trap laid for him. The once calm and understanding General turns sour and anger replaces love in a now heart of stone.
By the final scene Iago’s work is done and Othello is caught up in his tissue of lies and innuendoes. Othello’s decisiveness a characteristic that served him well while he was a soldier, causes him to believe all Iago’s stories without too much consideration of the people involved, and so he kills Desdemona.
With the audience’s worst fears realised they are by now furious, and so in true tragic style Othello realises the crimes committed. In his final speech Othello reminds us of how he used to be before Iago wound all the lies into him, he asks to be remembered as “one that loved not wisely, but too well”. Then in a moment of discovery he realises all that really happened and takes his own life in an attempt to pay for killing his wife. In doing this Othello regains some honour and justice is finally seen to be done.
After following Othello through the play and studying whether or not he is a tragic hero we can see that he fills all the forms and conventions of a tragic hero. He starts high and falls quickly, he has a fatal flaw (namely jealousy), he murders someone close to him (his wife) and finally realises he got everything wrong and so commits suicide.
However, there are a couple of characteristics that make him stand out from your crowd of usual tragic hero’s, the first and probably most noticeable is that he is black. Othello was the first main character in any of Shakespeare’s plays who was black and this would have seemed extremely unusual to the Elizabethan audience at the time. Also he was only a noble man, before this tragic heroes had always been kings.
From this we can conclude that Othello is a tragic hero, but what if Shakespeare had not intended Othello to the tragic hero? We have already seen how he breaks the rules to suit his needs. Shakespeare could have intended someone else to be the hero, Desdemona for example. Daughter of a Venetian senator, leaving her father for Othello could have been what killed him and her faithful dying words to Emilia and her husband mean she dies an honourable woman. She fills just as many of the forms and conventions as Othello.
