The Tragic Hero Of Shakespeare's Othello

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In the end of Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the Moor of Venice, Othello, the protagonist, tragically dies beside his wife, Desdemona. He tragically lost his position of being the prestigious Moor by unknowingly transforming into a murderous lunatic since he believed in falsifications concerning his own wife. His focus on the negative possibility of Desdemona being unfaithful towards him instead of earnestly focusing on the positive possibility that Desdemona is remaining faithful towards him, and the abundant hedonism in the play, such as his drastic desire for vengeance and knowledge, led to Othello’s downfall. Ergo, Othello is the tragic hero in William Shakespeare’s play. Since Othello focused on the negative possibility of Desdemona being …show more content…
Othello, in the beginning of the play, finds himself in a predicament: his father-in-law, Branbantio, is worried for his daughter, Desdemona, since he did not know where she was at, but it turns out that Othello was satisfying his passion by marrying Desdemona without the consent of her father, Branbantio. In the middle of the play, Othello also acts upon his passion for knowledge: he desires to have information regarding the possible adulterous acts of Desdemona and Cassio: “If more thou dost perceive, let me know more. Set on thy [Iago’s] wife to observe.” Succinctly, since the satisfaction of Othello’s lack of knowledge moved him, Adam Philips states, “Othello is someone who needs to know something.” In this scenario, Othello needed to specifically know if an adulterous act did happen between Cassio and Desdemona. Othello, in his last moments, desired satisfaction by fulfilling his vengeance: he murdered his wife: “She’s like a liar gone to burning hell! ‘Twas I [Othello] who killed her.” In addition, hedonism is abundant not only in the life of Othello but also with Iago. According to Paul Cefalu, “The source of Iagos discontentment is the motive for his evil. Just what is the source? Much of Iagos perturbations stem from envy… directed at Othello, Cassio, and Desdemona.” Since Iago desired to satisfy his envy by bringing calamity, he influenced to a certain extent the downfall of the tragic hero. Satisfaction alone was not the cause of the tragic downfall of Othello: partially, it was that his satisfaction supplanted his

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