Describe_How_Shakespeare_Presents_Othello_in_the_Play

In act 4 and 5, despite his misery, it is difficult for the audience to sympathies with Othello, or see him as a tragic hero. How far do you agree with this view on how Shakespeare presents Othello in the play' Ruby Pinder Othello is a play of tragedy and although audiences may not see him as tragic hero, I believe that they are condemned to feel some sympathy towards him at the end of the play. He is presented as a man with strong morals, a cool head and natural authority, to a man who loses all control of himself and power over others through twisted words of manipulation. A tragic hero is a person who is initially respected by the other characters in the play, as well as the audience and holds a high social status within the plays society. They are also appear to have natural high morals and become highly ambitious once they have a set goal. However a single flaw or mistake of their own can bring this all to ruin, with a loss of everything they have, which is what makes them tragic and over all the play a tragedy and we as the audience would naturally feel some sympathy for them. The character Othello is one to be challenged whether he is a tragic hero or just a main character in the play and what happens in the play makes it an over all tragedy. In the argument of whether Othello is actually a tragic hero, the following must be taking into consideration; firstly whether Othello fits with the mould of the classic “tragic hero”. Aristotle said there are four key elements when defining a tragic hero, one; the hero is of a noble birth, two; the characters on tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall (Hamartia), three; there is a reversal of fortune from the hero’s flaw, four; his actions lead to an increase of awareness in his flaw and finally; the audience must feel pity and fear for the character towards the end of the play. We must first look at the characters position at the start of the play, the way he was viewed by not only other characters in the play, but also Elizabethan audiences as well as modern audiences. Othello at the start of the play contradicts first impression made by Iago that his a animalistic man, engulfed in sexual desires, he appears to hold an important role in society and has admiration and respect from most of the characters. One critic (Thorell Porter Tsomondo -“Stage Managing ‘Otherness’: The Function of Narrative in Othello”) said “Elizabethan audience would not have been willing to grant Othello the unlimited admiration he receives from Cassio, Desdemona, the Duke and he senate at the beginning of the play” suggesting that although in the play Othello has this overall admiration from other characters, for instance the Duke calls him “Valiant Othello“, we can also see that the men under his control hold him in high esteem, Cassio referrs to him as “Our Great Captain“, the audience in which this was first performed to, were not as willing to give Othello this admiration, this could therefore lead to the lack of sympathy that the character may have received at the end of the play. Some may argue that this could be due to the contextual view of black people at the time, as African servants where thriving in Britain and had just been introduced to America, therefore at the time little sympathy was given to black people. In modern audiences this view has some what diminished, Britain is largely multi-cultural now and although still fighting against racial prejudice, the society has become equal, unlike the Elizabethan audiences, the fact the character Othello is black does not lead to the lack of admiration nor the lack of sympathy at the end of the play. Modern audience may now focus just of the characters flaw and the work of external forces around him, which are Iago. Secondly we must look at the characters flaw and the external forces working against him, which leads him to suffer from a dramatic course of losing authority and a fall from grace. By the end of the play he has lost all he held close to him, his wife, his status in society, his military position and the respect of other characters around him. The sympathy that is condemned from the audience to Othello’s character is not to the fact he is a man fallen from a position of authority, but largely due to his lack of awareness of the unforeseen evils in the world around him. In the play we know little of Othello’s background, but what the audience is told, is that as a child Othello was kidnapped and since has grown up in the military, he has no skills outside this role. Iago personifies the evils of the world onto Othello, through the use of the characters Desdemona and Cassio. A critic said “Othello is not quite at ease in any society/../ his uneasiness is expressed, now and again, in a baroque and unnecessarily contorted syntax and dictation”. Othello’s pride, morals and values all play a large part in a unravelling of his personality towards the end of the play, Iago is just the character who notices Othello’s vulnerability to the world outside the military and toys with it until it becomes fatal. Othello’s vulnerability in essence is his own flaw, although he is a man of power in the military, in the play it is seemed that he latches onto other characters who have a greater understanding of the world outside the military and he thrives to grow as a character and an authority figure. Iago’s characters ambiguous, evil manipulation of Othello’s emotions, presents the audience with a determined, but venerable character. Othello to be unaware of understanding of such characters as Iago and therefore gains the audience sympathy, as they watch Othello’s character be manipulated by Iago from Act 3, whilst Othello remains oblivious to the fact Iago is the external factors and remains to call him “honest Iago”, even characters around Othello were presented to see Iago‘s lies, including his wife, once she states the lies, Iago‘s plans begin to unravel “You told a lie, an odious damned lie upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie. She false with Cassio'” (Act 5-Scene 2-Line 186). As she states the lie from an outsiders view of the main plot, Othello realises his flaw and overall what he has done. Aristotle said “A man cannot become a hero, until he can see the root of his own downfall”, once the character Emilia reveals Iago’s plot in Act 5, Othello comes to realise the root of his downfall lies within his own fault of vulnerability and jealously, as well as Iago’s manipulation. . As the audience we must accept that a tragic hero, holds an image of pride and honour, but once their weakness is flaunted, they cannot contain the manipulation of those mannerisms, even if they turn fatal. The fact that Othello’s characters weakness is he is unaware of the world, means that when his mannerisms are being flaunted him may result back to human nature, that when his pride is in deputy and his “mate” is with another male, the natural instinct is to kill the other male and/or whatever his jeopardising his pride, which in the play is Desdemona and Cassio. He therefore removes his own position through his own flaw of reverting back to human nature. Othello took the love that he had for his wife Desdemona in the play for granted and became more trusting in the character Iago, than he does for his own wife, “She’s a like a liar gone to burning hell, t’was I that kill’d her” (Act 5- Scene 2- Line 133). By killing the character Desdemona, his character loses sympathy of the audience and may find it difficult to see, the murder of his own wife as heroic. To be a tragic hero, the character must be considered worthy of the title hero and hold a position of respect and authority to not only the other characters in the play, but the audience in which the play is performed too. The tragedy part in the title tragic hero, is when the character falls from that position of authority and respect. Throughout the play, Shakespeare presents Othello clearly as a character who is seen to be a worthy soldier and respected by those around him. One of the senators at the start of the play refers to him as the “brave moor”. At the end of the play the view of Othello is different, compared to the one at the start, due to his tragic flaw of jealousy and pride, the characters around Othello referred to him as a viper and cowardly, “Oh then Othello, that weren’t once so good, and fallen in the practice of a damn slave”. The way he was first described before him killing Desdemona and then after, shows that he was once noble at birth, but fell. His unfortunate fall meant that Othello lost himself his high position and respect from the characters under his control, as well as the authority characters above him. Othello’s character by the end of the play had fallen so low that a character he was once in control of took his position in authority. Othello’s loss of respect by other characters can be seen by the character Desdemona in scene 4, whilst pleading him as she lay on the bed, whilst Othello prepares to kill her, she says “And yet I fear you, for you are fatal then”, this quote shows she has lost all the respect that she once had for his character, she no longer trusts him but now fears him. This fear fulfils the final part of the Aristotle classic tragic hero. The personal flaws of Othello’s character overwhelmed him at the end and no longer needed Iago’s manipulation and so became on of the causes of his blindness towards the reality of the play. Othello in the end is oblivious to the fact the character Iago is taking advantage of his fatal flaw of vulnerability and jealousy, “Oh beware jealousy: it is the green-eyed which doth mock that which meet it feed on”, Shakespeare uses this quote from Iago, to show that Iago knows Othello better than himself, and so, takes advantage of his own personal flaw, using it to his own fatal advantage.