Tragic Deaths in Shakespeare´s Othello

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Recommended: The moral of Othello

In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, there are three tragic heroes’ deaths that were plagued by betrayal and jealously. The three major characters are killed by their own blindness of truth. The characters are killed by the ones they love and trust, the characters cannot fathom that the people they love will be the one that ends their lives.
Othello is a noble Moor and a highly respected general of the state of Venice. His successful profession brings him high status in Venice, but his foreign origins and color separate him from those with whom he lives and works. He is a military man, with a reputation for courage in battle and good judgment in military matters. Othello falls in love and marries Desdemona, a noble Venetian lady, daughter of Brabantio. While Othello is still in Venice Brabantio warns Othello "Look to her, Moor, have a quick eye to see: / She has deceived her father, [and] may do thee" (I, iii, 288-9).
While Othello is a very trustworthy character towards everybody, Iago is the complete opposite and lets everybody believes he is very trustworthy when in fact he is not. Othello’s weakness and ultimately his undoing is that he trusts and listens to the wrong people and uses the love he has for Desdemona against him. Iago uses this weakness against Othello to plot his revenge. The motivation behind Iago turning Othello against Desdemona is because Othello did not give Iago the promotion even though Iago did not deserve the promotion. Iago started plotting his revenge from the very start of the play: “After some time, to abuse Othello’s ear/ That he is too familiar with his wife” (I, iii, 386-7). Iago plans to tell Othello that Cassio has been sleeping with his wife and needs to fire and take care of both D...

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... not the right people led to him getting manipulated. This was the cause of his death. The moral of the play is to trust the right people and never get manipulated by any one, no matter your relationship is with that person or persons. People who manipulate one another have their own faults and demons to contend with, and they never are in a relationship for the right reasons.

Works Cited

Boyce, Charles. "Brabantio." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Boyce, Charles. "Emilia." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Crowther, John, ed. “No Fear Othello.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
McCulloch, Helen, and Gary Carey. CliffsNotes on Othello. 29 Apr 2014
Shakespeare, William, and Alvin B. Kernan. “The tragedy of Othello: the Moor of Venice”. 2nd rev. ed. New York: Signet Classic, 1998. Print.

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