Thesis: Based on Aristotle’s definition of not only a tragic hero but also of tragedy, Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice could rightly be described as a tragedy due to the main character’s lack of knowledge as well as due to the play’s depiction of a community and adherence to tragic guidelines.
- Othello as a Tragic Hero
- Noble and Admirable Characteristics
- Common, Human Elements
- The Issue of Race in Separating Othello from Other Characters
- Othello’s Tragic Flaw or Mistake
- Adherence to Greek Tradition
- Presence of the Masses
- Shakespeare’s Adaptation of the Chorus
- Importance of Plot
- Existence of a Complete, Orderly Plot
- Differentiation from the Epic
- Presence of Tragic Moments
- Audience Connection
- Othello as a Relatable Character
- Plausible and Possible Plot
Conclusion: Though Shakespeare adapted some of these elements to serve his own purposes, they are still present in a unique way in Othello, the Moor of Venice. As such, Othello, with its cautionary yet relatable tale about the perils of authority, ethnic variety, and romance offers a Renaissance twist on the Greek tragic formula.
Today, many playwrights fashion plays that some might consider tragedies. However, this modern understanding often strays from the original meaning of the word, defined in Ancient Greece. During this time, the philosopher Aristotle defined tragedies based on his response to the dramatists of his time. Since that time, only writers of the Renaissance, such as Shakespeare, seem to be able to follow those guidelines. Based on Aristotle’s definition of not only a tragic hero but also of tragedy, Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice could rightly be described as a tragedy due to the main character’s lack of knowledge as well as due to the play’s depiction of a community and adherence to tragic guidelines.
Through this combination of attributes, Othello occupies the required starting position of a tragic hero for Aristotle. In order to be a true tragic hero, the character must be one of wealth and high status yet not of above average morality, otherwise they would not be relatable (Battin, 1974, p. 166). As mentioned before, Othello clearly possessed the high status required of the character in order to be honorable and able to engage in the journey required. Yet by being of a different ethnic origin, his character seems to be less divine then someone who might be a native European. However, his trust in his inferiors and devaluation of the impact of his racial status help to establish the necessary tragic mistake. For Aristotle, the key element of a tragic hero was the tragic flaw or mistake made which lowers the hero from the high status to desolation (duBois, 2004, p. 68). For Othello, this was his trust of his inferiors and compatriots to be honorable. Without this trait, he would not have been as susceptible to Iago’s lies and trickery. Ultimately these mistakes lower him to his death by the end.
Yet equally as important to this descent is the very fact of Othello’s ethnicity. According to Clegg, Iago intentionally used Othello’s blackness in order to serve his purposes of tarnishing his reputation and honor (2009, p. 220). Such a device would not be possible if Shakespeare had not devised the character to be something ethically different than the native Italians which surrounded him. As such, this serves as a tragic flaw, yet possibly not in the way that Aristotle imagined. It is not a choice as mentioned before but rather a predetermined condition. Perhaps, however, by not recognizing the impact that this element could have on other people, Othello creates his own tragic flaw in a more traditional sense. As such, Othello’s flaw is “his lack of self-knowledge” as well as his own ego (Mudford, 1971, p. 2). By accepting this, the reader can identify the first element of Aristotle’s tragic formula in this work.
Furthermore, to truly be a tragic hero, a character must possess a final characteristic to make him or her believable. According to Aristotle, not only should a hero be moral good and respectable, but they also must be consist and true to life (Barnes, 2011). Without such regularity, the character’s actions lose an element of believability that allows the audience to understand the progression of their destruction. In essence, this element allows the actions of the antagonist to unfold logically in full view of the audience with little hope of a solution. Thus the audience sees the fall as it progresses with no ability to stop the inevitable. In Othello, this consistency is made evident publically through his pursuit of justice, even to the extreme, and privately through his insistence on monogamy (Clegg, 2009, p. 222). By establishing these traits, Shakespeare creates a belief system within which Iago can work and manipulate in order to achieve his ends. Additionally, these qualities ring true on the surface as honorable traits by which the masses can respect the hero.
Of less common knowledge is Aristotle’s requirement of the masses as a means of raising up the hero and later in observing the actions. For any hero to gain prominence there must be a group that esteems that individual and to which that individual is compared (duBois, 2004, p. 66). By merely mentioning the other choices for second in command, Iago highlights the number of people and soldiers which Othello outranks and surpasses. Though this group is mostly silent, they still exist in fact, and occasionally in reality, through the appearance of characters such as Cassio and Roderigo. Curiously, however, these characters do not quite serve in the same capacity as the masses did in Ancient Greek times. An essential part of the Greek drama, the chorus often commented on the action while also interacting with the main characters (duBois, 2004, p. 66). True, the characters mentioned before do interact with the principal characters, but they never quite do so as a group, nor do they comment on the action and summarize it. Consequently, Shakespeare seems to have updated the role of the masses in order to serve the plot of the play.
Of even greater importance is the fact that these lesser characters contribute to the advancement of the plot, an element which is of even greater importance than that of the characters. For Aristotle, the chief element of any play was that of the action which the audience should be able to understand and with which they can relate (Barnes, 2011). Thus a plot must make logical sense and move from event to event with little pause. As such, the story cannot dwell solely on one character alone without mention of society; otherwise the plot would not adequately parallel the reality which the audience knows. Additionally, by moving from one scene and situation involving characters to the next, the play moves to its evitable conclusion, giving the plot a conclusion (Mudford, 1971, p. 2). With this form and movement, the plot transforms the play into a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end through which the audience can travel. As such, the story is not just a tragedy but also more importantly, a play.
For Aristotle, the presence of a beginning, middle, and end in a plot helped to differentiate it from another popular literary form, the epic. In Othello, the plot clearly begins at a definite point in the first scene when Iago tells Roderigo of his plot to ruin Othello and draws the suitor into the action (Shakespeare, 1623). This moment starts the purpose and objectives of each of these characters, giving a problem to be solved in order for the plot to be complete. Without this goal, the plot becomes a story of life, which has no definite end, just like an epic. As such, a tragedy differs from an epic as the dramatization of the events limits the time frame to a definite amount of time, as opposed to an epic, whose narration makes the timeline indefinite (Battin, 1974, p. 168). The key difference then lies in the matter of storytelling, which allows the audience member to see the interactions between and among characters, rather than simply being told about the quality of the interactions. As such the story becomes that which can be seen and therefore imitates the Dionysian festivals of ancient Greece. By writing in this form, Othello and its chorus of characters echoes this tradition.
Additionally, Aristotle dictated a number of other qualities of the plot in order for a play to be a tragedy. Specific the plot must have a reversal of fortune and recognition of that change in order to facilitate the sympathy of the audience (Barnes, 2011). This reversal of fortune, the fall due to that tragic flaw or mistake, ultimately leads to the fall from greatness to destruction. However, this can happen to many people, but has no emotional impact when unknown to the character affected. In the moment of revelation, the true tragedy becomes evident as the character reacts to their mistake and the resulting crime. In Othello, these two moments are painfully present as depicted by the murder of Desdemona and in Othello’s line “I am not valiant neither, but ever puny whipster gets my sword” (Shakespeare, 1623). By uttering that line, Othello recognizes his fall as the result of his trust in Iago, his tragic mistake. Additionally, the former act serves to complete Iago’s goal to ruin his commander, a feat made even greater by the fact that Desdemona died by Othello’s hand in his rage. Through this moment, Othello reaches the pinnacle of his journey as a tragic hero. Additionally, by including these elements, the play gains an emotional reaction powerful enough to affect its audience.
In this emotional magnitude, Shakespeare satisfies yet another necessary condition of Aristotle’s tragic form. By being thoroughly relatable in both the plot and the central character, a tragedy gains its greatest impact by allowing the audience to engage emotionally and intellectually with the story (Barnes, 2011). Because Othello is someone with logical human traits, the audience members can see a part of themselves in his choices. As such, his ultimate destruction affects them deeper than the destruction of Iago or Cassio, because their characters are not as sympathetic and, ultimately, tragic. Equally as relatable is the advancement of the plot through the success of small chances of fortunes (Mudford, 1971, p. 2). On their own, each circumstance which perfectly fits into Iago’s plan represents an everyday instance of bad luck or misfortune that the average person experiences in their daily life. However, by linking the moments of chance into a plan of destruction, Iago, and by extension Shakespeare, demonstrate the possibility of defeat through the device of bad luck and predictability. By viewing the combination of these elements, the audience views a destruction which is entirely possible and relatable in their own lives, engendering their emotional response.
For Aristotle, a play and its protagonist need to possess certain elements to truly be classified as a tragedy and a tragic hero, respectively. The play needs to be believable to its audience by possessing a plausible story that witness the fall of its main character, by utilizing characters, including the community, to advance the plot, and by depicting a timeline with a definite beginning, middle, and end. In turn, the tragic hero also must be relatable yet of above average standing, predictable but honorable, and subject to tragic mistake, such as a lack of information or personal quality. Though Shakespeare adapted some of these elements to serve his own purposes, they are still present in a unique way in Othello, the Moor of Venice. As such, Othello, with its cautionary yet relatable tale about the perils of authority, ethnic variety, and romance offers a Renaissance twist on the Greek tragic formula.
Bibliography
Barnes, D. (2011). The art of tragedy. Think, 10(28), 41-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1477175611000017
Written by a London based critic and philosopher, this article explicitly lists the elements required to create a Aristotelian tragedy. Beyond relating these elements to classic drama, Barnes also highlights their use in other storytelling, in order to explain their familiarity to the audience. While a scholarly article, this piece does not have the same level of credentials as the other sources on this list.
Battin, M. P. (1974). Aristotle’s definition of tragedy in the poetics. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 33(2). 155-170. DOI: 10.2307/429084
Perhaps one of the oldest references on this list, this article analyzes the elements of tragedy as well as what separates it from other literary forms. To do this, the author relies on multiple translations of Aristotle’s Poetics. Additionally, Battin provides graphics to illustrate his concepts through the piece.
Clegg, C. S. (2009). Othello’s tragedy and uncommon law. Ben Johnson Journal, 16(1/2), 216-247. Doi: 10.3366/E1079345309000571
This article principally examines the culturally influences involved in understanding the reception of Othello when it first debuted and today. It also goes beyond this by providing a detailed analysis of Othello’s position through quotations in the script. A professor of Renaissance English literature, Clegg offers a high level of credibility on this topic.
duBois, P. (2004). Toppling the hero: Polyphony in the tragic city. New Literary History, 35(1), 63-81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20057821
Written in the context of the O. J. Simpson trial, this article takes an in-depth look at the relationship of the common man to the tragic hero. It also emphasizes Aristotle’s preference of plot over character in the composition of Greek drama. This article was also included in a scholarly journal covering new interpretations of drama.
Mudford, P. G. (1971). Othello and the ‘tragedy of situation’. English, 20(106), 1-6. doi: 10.1093/english/20.106.1
Authored by an English professor in London in the 1970s, this article analyzes the elements which make up and lead to Othello’s eventual tragic fall. As a literary analysis it also takes into account many of the historical elements necessary to understanding the play. However, as a slightly dated piece, it lacks evidence that might have been discovered since its publication.
Shakespeare, W. (1623). Othello a play. Retrieved from http://www.william-shakespeare.info/script-text-othello.htm
Written in the 1600s, this play by Shakespeare has been edited and adapted according to other versions developed through productions over the years. This online version of the text serves as an average compilation of the work over the centuries. Unfortunately, the precise origin or date of translation is unknown.
