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ENGL 1302, 38
2 April 2018.
Othello’s Hamartia
Many tragic heroes often have a personal weakness, hamartia or make a decision that
leads to their downfall. These weaknesses are often exploited by the villains in the story who
usually have a well schemed out plan to destroy the hero. In “Othello” by William Shakespeare,
the tragic hero is Othello, who is easily manipulated by the deceptive Iago. He places everything
in the words that come out of Iago than any other person because he believes he is “honest.”
Although Iago created a plot that led to Othello’s downfall, other factors also contributed. Iago
appears to be the primary cause for Othello’s downfall, but it is the combination of Othello’s
lack of confidence in Desdemona love for him because of his race and age, Othello putting his
trust the wrong man and his jealousy, which was easily exploited from Iago’s tactics.
Othello believes Iago is a man of honesty and can be trusted: “A man he is of honest and
trust, / To his conveyance I assign my wife.” (Act I Scene III, 638-639). Othello does not say
anything negative about Iago until when the truth is finally exposed. He does not believe Iago to
be a criminal, but he believes that he could be trusted. He has doubt that Iago is trying to trick
him: “If thou dost slander her and torture me, /Never pray more; abandon all remorse; / On
horror's head horrors accumulate; / Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed; / For
nothing canst thou to damnation add / Greater than that.” (Act III Scene III, 2046-2051). But he
recklessly allows himself to be talked out of his suspicious thoughts:
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O grace! O heaven forgive me! / Are you a man? have you a soul or sense? / God be wi'
you; take mine office. O wretched fool. / That livest to make thine honesty a vice! / O
monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world, / To be direct and honest is not safe. / I
thank you for this profit; and from hence / I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such
offence (Act III Scene III, 2052-2057).
Othello persistently compliments Iago’s honesty, which shows how he feels about Iago. Othello
should listen to the those who were sincere to him, rather he kept his trust in the one who was
trying to get to him. This show the audience how Othello is towards Iago’s character. Emilia is
the wife of Iago. She does everything for her husband despite how he disrespects her, but the
duty of a woman was to be completely submissive to her husband: “A thing for me? it is a
common thing— / To have a foolish wife.” (Act III Scene III,1970-1973). Although she is
submissive to Iago, she never lies to Othello. Iago makes Othello believe that his wife,
Desdemona, has been unfaithful to him. Even after hearing the truth from his wife, he still does
not believe her because she is a woman. Emilia helps to defend Desdemona, but Othello does not
believe them because they are women and rather decides to stick with the words of Iago.
Othello’s race and age also makes him insecure about Desdemona’s love for him. His
insecurity leads him to commit crimes caused by jealousy. These crimes lead to his downfall.
From the story, it is conclusive that Othello is a moor, but it is obvious that he is different from
the other characters. Othello was kidnapped at the age of seven and bought his freedom after
working. This process takes years to accomplish, so it can be inferred that he is old enough to be
Desdemona’s father. After Othello is filled with the thoughts that Desdemona is committing
adultery, he wonders to himself, “Haply, for I am black” (Act III Scene III 1924). This is the first
thing he believes could be the reason his wife is cheating on him, which proves his race is his
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major insecurity. Iago uses more of these thoughts to put more doubts of Desdemona’s love for
Othello into his mind and makes him build up emotions that blind him from the truth. “Cassio’s a
proper man” (Act I Scene III 749). By “proper”, Iago is referring to Cassio as a man with good
looks and of proper age for Desdemona. Cassio is a young man, who is very familiar with
women and Iago uses this to get to Othello: “After some time, to abuse Othello's ear / That he is
too familiar with his wife. / He hath a person and a smooth dispose /To be suspected, framed to
make women false” (Act I Scene III 752-755).
After deceiving Othello into believing his wife is unfaithful, Iago persistently does many
other things to make rage and jealousy grow within him. Iago knows the significance of the
handkerchief Othello gives Desdemona because it was the first gift he gave to her: “What
handkerchief? / Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona / That which so often you did bid
me steal.” (Act III Scene III 1976-1978). His wife, Emilia, finds a way to retrieve it from
Desdemona and gives it Iago. Knowing how important it is to Othello’s relationship, he decides
to use it to aggravate Othello’s jealousy. He plots a way to implant the handkerchief in Cassio’s
room to make a scene that Desdemona and Cassio are sleeping together. He says to himself, “I
will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, / And let him find it. Trifles light as air / Are to the
jealous confirmations strong / As proofs of holy writ: this may do something. (Act III Scene III
1994-1997). Iago’s plan to plant the handkerchief in Cassio’s room is successful and makes
Othello convinced that Desdemona is cheating on him. Othello’s failure to be curious on how the
handkerchief got there was one of his mistakes. This plan of Iago causes Othello to become
extremely jealous. Iago tries to calm him down when he is still in doubt, but he refuses and rather
goes into actions. If he had calmed down like Iago said, though it was ironic he would have had a
wider perspective on the evidence. Othello should have discussed the issue with the people that
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were involved because he is close to them rather than jump in conclusions and having them
killed. Moreover, he let himself get filled with jealousy that makes him do things that are on
called for.
Iago is mentioned in all the reason that led to Othello’s downfall. He seems to be the
primary reason for the unfortunate events that happen to Othello. Although his main aim was to
destroy Othello and Cassio, Iago exploits the weaknesses of all the characters to gain his goal.
Othello would not have faced his downfall if Iago was out of the picture because no one else was
against him. Although Iago is the cause of his downfall, Othello still had choices to make, but he
made the wrong ones. He allowed jealousy to take over him which led to him biased in his
decisions. He decided to trust only one person rather than believe others. Othello is portrayed to
be calm in the beginning. If he had kept that nature to rule over his decisions, his downfall would
be nonexistent. He was not confident in himself and race and allowed Iago to easily manipulate
him. If he did not allow this, he would not have been weak against Iago’s tactics. Othello’s
downfall does not have a primary cause, it is the combination of these factors that contributed to
his downfall.
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Work Cites
The Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice.
<https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=othello&Scope=
entire&pleasewait=1&msg=pl#a3,s3>