What are Othello's
qualities to be a tragic hero? Illustrate with references to the text.
The
tragic hero in a Shakespearean play is a person of high degree or of public
importance, a king, a prince or a great general, possessing certain very
excellent qualities. According to Bradley Shakespeare's tragic hero need not be
good though generally he is good, and therefore, at once gains our sympathy in
his error. He has so much greatness and nobility in him that in his error and
fall, we may be conscious of the possibility of human nature.
In Othello we find the tragic spectacle of a
man who, in a spirit of jealous rage, destroys what he loves best in all the
world. Such a spectacle must of necessity be painful whatever the object
destroyed
and
whoever the destroyer, but it is doubly painful and deeply tragic when we see an essentially nobleman brutally
killing his pure, faithful and loving young wife in the mistaken belief that
she is a Strumpet. We must consider the marriage of Othello and Desdemona as
real marriage of true minds. Their love is a love that transcends the physical
barriers of color, nationality and age, The conjugal happiness of this pair is
utterly ruined by the intrigues of Iago.
Othello's
tragic flaw is jealousy, a failing aroused in him by innuendo, later by supposed proof of
Desdemona's he has had no previous experience in dealing with it. He has learnt
to control his other emotions, as we see from his refusal to let lago stir him
to anger against Roderigo, and from his calm dealing with Brabantio, a little
later in the play. But against the Unaccustomed passion of jealousy he has no defense.
It robs him of reason and moves him to He kills the one he loves, only to learn
of her innocence and to realize how wrong he has been.
We
sympathize with Othello, because despite his jealousy, he worthy of admiration. Like other tragic
heroes of Shakespeare, he is a man in high place. Of royal descent, he is a
great general and, for a time, the governor of Cyprus. He is esteemed by the
Venetian Senate and is called upon for help when the state is in danger. It is
true that for a time his finer nature is degraded by his passion and that he
treats Desdemona in an outrageous manner. But when the poison of jealousy
leaves him, his true nature reasserts itself at the end of the play. He sees no
other way to atone for the death of Desdemona but to execute himself. Such a
man as this moves us to admiration and to a sense of loss, and we feel pity and
fear for the fall of such a noble man.
Shakespeare
differs from the ancient classical writers with whom the tragic hero is
destroyed by the external forces or fate, represented by some gods or some
supernatural agencies. In Shakespeare it is not fate but character who is
mainly responsible for the tragic consequence. In Othello, the hero is wholly
responsible for his tragic doom, because he fails to act prudently. He is
easily deceived by Iago, for he fails to understand the difference between the
appearance and reality of Iago.
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