Tragic Villains In Hamlet

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According to wordrefernce.com a tragic villain is defined as a character usually an antagonist that does not truly intend to be a villain. In Shakespeare’s Othello and Hamlet the villains of the play certainly meet most of the criteria. However, there are times when Claudius, and Iago waver from the traditional path. In Shakespeare’s writing as it turns out the villains are not just tragic villains, and have characteristics that differ from the classic definitions. In order to know how Iago and Claudius stray from the path, it’s important to know what the defining characteristics are for a tragic villain. The first example, is that the villain is not really trying to hurt the hero, but is doing their actions for their own motives. An example of this is Mr. Freeze from the DC comics universe. Mr. Freeze does not want to kill Batman, he wants to revive his wife, and needs to do illegal things to try to accomplish this. The second characteristic is that they have been or were manipulated in the past. A character who is an example of this is Darth Vader from the Star Wars universe. Darth Vader was manipulated to the dark side by the Emperor. Another characteristic is that the have a tragic backstory. Magneto of the X-Men franchise is an example of this, as he grew to hate normal humans after most of his family and belonging were …show more content…

What he did was unforgivable and could be called pure villainy. However, deep inside Iago does show characteristics of a tragic villain. Iago does actually gives good advice, and kind of helps Cassio with his problems. After giving advice to Cassio when Cassio got kicked out, Iago says “When this advice is free I give, and honest,/Probal to thinking, and indeed the course/To win the Moor again?” (Othello.II.iii.304-306) Iago even admits that what he is doing is actually a pretty good thing, because its the best way to win Othello back. Iago however does show characteristics of classic

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