Othello - Aspects of Tragedy

• Othello

  A tragic text
• • ultimately how the tragedy affects the audience, acting as a commentary on the real world, moving the audience through pity and fear to an understanding of the human condition.
• • the way that language is used to heighten the tragedy
• • the use of plots and sub-plots
• • the structural pattern of the text as it moves through complication to catastrophe, from order to disorder, through climax to resolution, from the prosperity and happiness of the hero to the tragic end
• 1. the significance of violence and revenge, humour and moments of happiness
• • how the behaviour of the hero affects the world around him, creating chaos and affecting the lives of others
• • the presence of fate, how the hero's end is inevitable
• 1. the role of the tragic villain or opponent, who directly affects the fortune of the hero, who engages in a contest of power and is partly responsible for the hero's demise
• • the journey towards death of the protagonists, their flaws, pride and folly, their blindness and insight, their discovery and learning, their being a mix of good and evil
• • the settings for the tragedy, both places and times
• the type of the tragic text itself, whether it is classical and about public figures, like Lear, or domestic and about representations of ordinary people
• Othello is an example of a domestic tragedy as he is not a king but a soldier.
• However, these comic moments serve to highlight the darker themes of jealousy and betrayal that ultimately lead to tragedy.