How Othello Follows the Rules of Tragedy

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How Othello Follows the Rules of Tragedy

Tragedy is not just simply one sad event, in ancient Greek plays and

in Shakespeare's tragedies it usually follows a number of common

ingredients or rules. Firstly it involves a conspicuous or exceptional

personality. For example in the occurrence of Princess Diana's death

she was the exceptional character. She was a woman who had done an

astonishing amount of work for charities and a Princess.

The second rule of tragedy is that it must be unexpected and

constructed with previous happiness or glory. This also relate

strongly to Diana's death. As I mentioned earlier she was a Princess,

so obviously came from a privileged background. She had a

distinguished family whom she loved with all her heart, and had close

to everything she could have wanted in the world. It was also

extremely unexpected because it was such a sudden death; she did not

have a long-term disease or illness but died instantly in a car crash.

The fact that she was so young when she died contributes to making it

such a devastating event. If she had been in her seventies it wouldn't

have been such a tragedy because she would have already lead a long

and more fulfilled life.

The third rule in tragedy is that it affects a large number of people.

Clearly in the situation of Princess Diana it affected a tremendous

number of people. Not only her family and her friends but the whole

nation to whom she had become an icon..

The forth rule in tragedy is that it is partly brought about by the

victims own actions. For Diana it was the fact that she had been

taking a slight risk in asking her driver to try and escape from the

pa...

... middle of paper ...

...y come a few seconds earlier she could have prevented

Othello committing the dreadful dead and explained to him about the

handkerchief causing only the villain Iago to be killed. Bad fortune

is present because Othello was to determined to kill Desdemona and not

allow her to give her side of the story and prove her innocence.

Further bad fortune is present as the Turks ship is sunk in the storm

and consequently Othello is present when he wouldn't have otherwise

been and so can be tricked by Iago. These factors along with the

element of chance that occurs when Othello is hiding in the cell and

misinterprets a conversation causing him to believe strongly in

Desdemona's affair then only to be assured of this when he sees

Desdemona giving Cassio the same handkerchief he had previously given

to her make this a great tragedy.

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