How Is Othello A Tragic Hero

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William Shakespeare’s famous play, “Othello, the Moor of Venice” is arguably one of the best literary tragedies of Western civilization. The play is a tragic account of Othello, a military man who climbs societal ranks through his marriage to Desdemona. This paper considers elements that qualify Othello as a tragic hero, and the entire play as an Aristotelian tragedy. To accomplish this, this paper will first consider the features of Aristotelian tragedy. Aristotle considers a tragic hero as one who: firstly, is a person of high ranking, secondly, has a major tragic flaw, particularly a weakness in judgment, and lastly, endures punishment that supersedes the crime (Kelly, 2005). Othello meets each of these features as his marriage to Desdemona …show more content…

At the core of his defense mechanisms is the desire to diminish his innate feelings of anxiety. Specifically, Othello engages his reality distortion capacities to contend with Desdemona’s betrayal, and handle Iago’s manipulation. In essence, whenever a threatening event occurs, Othello inadvertently applies it to other situations in his life, making everything else in his life appear unbearable (Altman, 2010). For instance, after learning that his wicked actions stemmed from Iago’s manipulation and treachery, Othello immediately goes on to consider his entire existence as a disaster, prompting him to take his own life (Shakespeare, 2010). Essentially, Othello’s fundamental thinking errors are some of his principal flaws. These flaws also double up Othello’s tragic flaws. Throughout the play, rather than utilizing critical thinking to discern situations and enable him to recognize and appraise every situation he experiences before acting, Othello is quick to jump into conclusions and react (Pechter, 2001). Ultimately, when presented with one side of the story concerning his wife’s betrayal, Othello’s irrational thinking kicks in, disallowing him from investigating the other side of the story to determine the truth and determine the appropriate action to take (Asquith,

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