Othello is something of a tragic hero, because at times, he seems a victim of predetermined fate

Note: An English essay I wrote on Othello being a tragic hero and how the play follows the tropes of Greek tragedy.

In terms of the tragic genre (according to Aristotle’s definition), Othello could be considered to be something of a tragic hero, as ‘Othello’ the play does follow the conventions of this genre. Firstly, Othello is the protagonist and a general of the army, respected by his fellow men and held in a high position; he is happy and in love with his new wife, Desdemona, and it seems the future is bright and rosy. However, in accordance to Aristotle’s tragic genre, that apparent happiness is not meant to be. This is not only due just to the play’s villain and malcontent, Iago’s, machinations, although they do play a significant part, but also due to Othello’s own character flaw, his hamartia, which is his blind trust in Iago and his deep-seated, passionate jealousy. And thanks to that hamartia, that previously good fortune was reversed in a show of peripeteia, another example of the tragic genre. 

As a protagonist of a play that follows the tragic and dramatic genres’ conventions, Othello can be seen as a tragic hero, as this hamartia is something that’s part and parcel of the role of the tragic hero. Therefore, Othello can be seen as a victim of predetermined fate, for as a traditional tragic hero, he is destined to possess hamartia; if it were entirely due to Iago’s manipulations, this would go against the principles of the tragic genre, as Aristotle decreed that, ‘The change to bad fortune which he undergoes isn’t due to any moral defect or flaw, but a mistake of some kind.’ An example of Othello’s hamartia is his decision, his mistake in blindly trusting Iago’s every word rather than his wife, Desdemona. 

In Act 3 Scene 2, Iago has set his plan in motion and initially, it seems his insinuations of Desdemona’s infidelity with Cassio haven’t had their desired effect, with Othello declaring, ‘No, Iago, I’ll see before I doubt,’ therefore meaning that he will not consider the implications Iago’s making against his wife without proof. However, after meeting with Desdemona, where his manner is shown to be terse and curt with her, telling her to ‘let it (his head, which he claims to be hurting) alone.’ This implies that Iago’s words did have an affect on him, the ‘pain upon his forehead’ really indicating his mental turmoil as doubts begin to accumulate and whirl about his mind. 

What’s more, when he meets with Iago afterwards once more, even without having been presented with any sign of proof of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness, as it turns out, Iago’s words have proved to have had a far more profound affect on him than he initially let on. He declares, ‘What sense had I of her stolen hours of lust?’ He has not been provided with a shred of evidence of Desdemona’s guilt, only Iago’s implications of it, and yet those little words were enough to drive Othello out of his mind within such a short amount of time that it affected his behaviour. Despite his earlier proclamations of not believing in Desdemona’s guilt until he possessed verification of her adultery, he has already been driven to make up his mind on the matter, and in his own mind, he has already declared her guilty. This is an indication of his hamartia, his character flaw of being inflamed with jealousy so easily and readily.   
 

Tragic plays are different to novels and stories, for the characters, the roles, aren’t merely characters, but dramatic constructs and devices. Their purpose is to drive the play forward, for it is their actions – not outer forces or higher powers that class the characters as victims of circumstance rather than victims of their own flaws – that create the tragedy. And as the hero of a tragic play, therefore, it is Othello’s fate to be a flawed protagonist. 

Another part of Othello’s hamartia is trusting in Iago so blindly and unquestioningly rather than his partner, Desdemona, repeatedly calling him ‘honest’, despite Iago’s character being quite to the contrary. Repeatedly, he depicts Iago as a person of ultimate integrity and trustworthiness, such as in Act 3 Scene 2, when he tells Iago, ‘I think thou dost (loves Othello). And for I know thou’rt full of love and honesty…’ Not once does he truly consider the possibility that Iago is lying or has made a mistake; Othello’s trust in him is unwavering and unshakeable, unlike with Desdemona. 

However, Othello is as much a victim of Iago as he is a victim of the rules of the Aristotelian tragic genre. For Iago is extremely clever and cunning on a Machiavellian level that Othello, with his good, but easily passionate character, could not hope to match. Throughout the entirety of the play, Iago successfully manipulates and fools nearly everyone around him into believing him to be an ‘honest’ fellow. Even with his misogynistic attitude towards his own wife, Emilia, and with Roderigo as an accomplice and pawn to help facilitate his malicious scheming, he never entirely reveals everything he is thinking or planning and still manages to manipulate them into cooperating with him, although both are aware of his less than savoury character. Iago himself asserts at one stage, ‘I am not what I am’; it is one of his most famous lines and is further suggestion of his deceptive nature and that he is not ‘honest’ or ‘good’ in the least. And it’s because that he is highly skilled at the art of deception and appearing to be something he is not that he is able to fool Iago and almost everyone else so perfectly. 

Othello’s trust in Iago until the truth is revealed at the very end of the play is absolute, partly due to his hamartia of unconditional trust in his ancient rather than his partner, as if it was Iago who was the loved one, his partner, rather than Desdemona, but it is also due to Iago’s role as the Machiavellian, villainous manipulator that Othello falls victim to. It could be argued that because of Iago’s manipulation, Othello is not so much a tragic hero of determined fate as an unfortunate victim of circumstance. However, as Iago is also a character of the play and his role is that of the villain, as well as being one of the main driving forces behind the tragedy – in Jacobean terms, he is the ‘malcontent’, a troubled individual who comments acerbically and critically on society and on the other characters, as well as the villain. And as the villain and a dramatic construct, it is his role within the tragic genre to be one of the main driving forces behind the play and its tragic aspect through his actions and decisions. And as he is also a dramatic construct, it is Othello’s fate to be completely taken in by Iago’s trickery and to be driven to the brink as he is.

The critic, Alexander W. Crawford, states that, ‘To make Iago the sole cause of the tragedy that befell Othello is to seek outside the human heart for the causes of human failure.’ Iago is not the only cause of Othello’s downfall, although he certainly plays an enormously important part in it. Othello, too, contributed to his own downfall. As a husband, he failed. As a human being, he failed. However, as a dramatic construct of the tragic genre, Othello cannot and would never be a perfect tragic hero, otherwise there would be no tragedy. Iago, however skilled or duplicitous, would never have succeeded in driving Othello into a murderous, jealous rage, and there would’ve been no tragedy. For the necessities of a tragic play, once Shakespeare began to create Othello, it was already determined that he would be the way he is and the fate that would eventually befall him in the end.