The Tragedy of
Othello Moor of
Venice
Key words from the play’s title
• ‘Tragedy’ – genre of play
• ‘Othello’ – exotic name
• ‘Moor’ – he’s foreign
• ‘Venice’ – setting, also exotic but familiar, civilised, sophisticated
Key words from the play’s title
• ‘Tragedy’ – genre of play
• ‘Othello’ – exotic name
• ‘Moor’ – he’s foreign
• ‘Venice’ – setting, also exotic but familiar, civilised, sophisticated
What expectations does the title generate in responders? What can
we deduce from it?
What exactly is a ‘tragedy’ play?
What words come to mind when you
think ‘tragedy’?
What do we expect from a tragedy play?
What is a Renaissance tragedy play
actually about?
Aristotle
Quick Facts About Aristotle:
Born: 384 BCE
Died: 322 BCE (aged 62)
• A student of Plato (who studied under Socrates)
• Described as ‘a towering figure in ancient Greek
philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics,
mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics,
agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre.’
• He ‘radically transformed most, if not all, areas of knowledge he touched.’
• Was highly regarded by King Philip of Macedonia and was the tutor of Philip’s son,
Alexander the Great
(Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/aristotl/)
Aristotle’s Poetics
• First book to theorise Greek tragedy
• Theory based on Sophocles’ work, especially Oedipus Rex
• Theorised that tragedy plays have a five-point structure:
1. A hero or heroine who is ‘great’ in some way
2. Hero/heroine commits a violation – a hamartia
3. There is a reversal or plot twist as a result – peripeteia
4. Hero recognises his/her own responsibility for their sudden
change of fortune – anagnorosis
5. The ending is a ‘purge’ of the ‘emotional catastrophe’ for both
characters and the audience. The purge often takes the form of
the hero’s death at his/her own hands – the catharsis.
How Othello fits into Aristotle’s tragedy structure
1. A ‘great’ hero: Othello is a venerated war leader and protector of
the state, often referred to by others as ‘noble’, ‘valiant’ and
‘warlike’. He is well respected, liked and admired.
How Othello fits into Aristotle’s tragedy structure
1. A ‘great’ hero: Othello is a venerated war leader and protector of
the state, often referred to by others as ‘noble’, ‘valiant’ and
‘warlike’. He is well respected, liked and admired.
2. The hero commits a violation: he marries Desdemona.
How Othello fits into Aristotle’s tragedy structure
1. A ‘great’ hero: Othello is a venerated war leader and protector of
the state, often referred to by others as ‘noble’, ‘valiant’ and
‘warlike’. He is well respected, liked and admired.
2. The hero commits a violation: he marries Desdemona.
3. A reversal of fortune: he comes to believe Desdemona has
betrayed him; loses his second-in-command, Cassio, begins to lose
his wife, his status and the respect of others (e.g. Lodovico etc.).
How Othello fits into Aristotle’s tragedy structure
1. A ‘great’ hero: Othello is a venerated war leader and protector of
the state, often referred to by others as ‘noble’, ‘valiant’ and
‘warlike’. He is well respected, liked and admired.
2. The hero commits a violation: he marries Desdemona.
3. A reversal of fortune: he comes to believe Desdemona has
betrayed him; loses his second-in-command, Cassio, begins to lose
his wife, his status and the respect of others (e.g. Lodovico etc.).
4. Recognises his part in his own downfall: Othello learns that he has
been manipulated, his trust in Iago violated.
How Othello fits into Aristotle’s tragedy structure
1. A ‘great’ hero: Othello is a venerated war leader and protector of
the state, often referred to by others as ‘noble’, ‘valiant’, ‘brave’ and
‘warlike’. He is well respected, liked and admired.
2. The hero commits a violation: he marries Desdemona.
3. A reversal of fortune: he comes to believe Desdemona has
betrayed him; loses his second-in-command, Cassio, begins to lose
his wife, his status and the respect of others (e.g. Lodovico etc.).
4. Recognises his part in his own downfall: Othello learns that he has
been manipulated, his trust in Iago violated.
5. Purge: Othello kills himself. The audience maintains sympathy
because his downfall is partly due to his lack of understanding of
the evils in the world around him.
The ‘Tragic Hero’
• From Aristotle’s Poetics.
• He suggested that ‘a hero of tragedy must evoke in the audience a
sense of pity or fear’.
• Pity comes not from a person becoming better but when a person
receives undeserved misfortune
• Fear comes when the misfortune befalls someone like us.
• The change in fortune must be from good to bad, not bad to good
• The tragic hero’s misfortune must come from some error of
judgement, not through vice or depravity
Mild-mannered high school
chemistry teacher Walter
White thinks his life can't
get much worse. His salary
barely makes ends meet, a
situation not likely to
improve once his pregnant
wife gives birth, and their
teenage son is battling
cerebral palsy. But Walter is
dumbstruck when he learns
he has terminal cancer.
Realizing that his illness will
probably ruin his family
financially, Walter makes a
desperate bid to earn as
much money as he can in
the time he has left by
turning an old RV into a
meth lab on wheels.
According to Aristotle, the tragic hero has to be someone who is ‘not
eminently good and just, whose misfortune is brought about not by
vice and depravity, but by some error or frailty.’
The hero must be virtuous but does not need to be ‘eminently good’.
VIRTUOUS: having or showing high moral standards
EMINENTLY GOOD: very good
That is to say, Othello is a good man, but not a VERY good man –
marrying Desdemona, for example, is a bit naughty; however, he is a
man who is shown to have high moral standards.
Othello’s ‘high moral standards’
What are some examples from the play – scenes, interactions with
other characters – which show Othello’s moral standards?
Othello’s ‘high moral standards’
What are some examples from the play – scenes, interactions with
other characters – which show Othello’s moral standards?
• He expects excellent behaviour from his men
Othello’s ‘high moral standards’
What are some examples from the play – scenes, interactions with
other characters – which show Othello’s moral standards?
• He expects excellent behaviour from his men
• He is faithful to Desdemona (and expects the same from her)
Othello’s ‘high moral standards’
What are some examples from the play – scenes, interactions with
other characters – which show Othello’s moral standards?
• He expects excellent behaviour from his men
• He is faithful to Desdemona (and expects the same from her)
• He maintains law and order
Othello’s ‘high moral standards’
What are some examples from the play – scenes, interactions with
other characters – which show Othello’s moral standards?
• He expects excellent behaviour from his men
• He is faithful to Desdemona (and expects the same from her)
• He maintains law and order
• When he realises his error, he seeks to redress it by killing himself
Recapping: The Tragic Hero
To be a tragic hero, the character must hold a position of authority and
respect.
The tragedy takes place when he falls from this position.
We feel pity when the hero receives undeserved misfortune
We feel fear when the misfortune befalls someone like us (someone we
can identify with, who is not foreign/exotic/the Other)
Recapping: The Tragic Hero
The hero’s misfortune is due to an error or frailty in their own
character, which is preyed upon/manipulated by an external evil (in this
case personified by Iago).
The tragic hero is a person of high moral worth and ambition.
A single mistake or character flaw, however, can bring them to ruin and
they lose everything they possess.
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
A ‘hamartia’ is a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic
hero or heroine.
What are Othello’s hamartia’s?
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
A ‘hamartia’ is a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic
hero or heroine.
What are Othello’s hamartia’s?
• His unworldliness
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
A ‘hamartia’ is a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic
hero or heroine.
What are Othello’s hamartia’s?
• His unworldliness
• His lack of experience with women
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
A ‘hamartia’ is a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic
hero or heroine.
What are Othello’s hamartia’s?
• His unworldliness
• His lack of experience with women
• His epilepsy
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
A ‘hamartia’ is a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic
hero or heroine.
What are Othello’s hamartia’s?
• His unworldliness
• His lack of experience with women
• His epilepsy
• His trust in Iago – linked to his innocence of worldly matters
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
A ‘hamartia’ is a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic
hero or heroine.
What are Othello’s hamartia’s?
• His unworldliness
• His lack of experience with women
• His epilepsy
• His trust in Iago – linked to his innocence of worldly matters
• His ‘Otherness’, or foreignness – he does not rightly belong to this
world
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
JEALOUSY
Othello’s flaws, or “hamartia’s”
JEALOUSY
“O beware, my lord, of jealousy: / It is the green-eyed monster
which doth mock / The meat it feeds on.” (III:3:167-9)
Freytag’s Pyramid: Dramatic
Structure
Aristotle theorised on the structure of Greek
tragedy. In the 19th century (1863 to be exact),
Gustav Freytag devised a pyramid structure
based on Greek and Shakespearian drama (not
just tragedies).
Gustav Freytag
Born 1816, Kingdom of Prussia (German empire)
Died 1895
Freytag’s Pyramid: Dramatic
Structure
ACT ONE: Exposition
Freytag’s Pyramid: Dramatic
Structure
ACT ONE: Exposition
ACT TWO: Rising Action
Freytag’s Pyramid: Dramatic
Structure
ACT ONE: Exposition
ACT TWO: Rising Action
ACT THREE: Climax or Crisis
Freytag’s Pyramid: Dramatic
Structure
ACT ONE: Exposition
ACT TWO: Rising Action
ACT THREE: Climax or Crisis
ACT FOUR: Falling Action
Freytag’s Pyramid: Dramatic
Structure
ACT ONE: Exposition
ACT TWO: Rising Action
ACT THREE: Climax or Crisis
ACT FOUR: Falling Action
ACT FIVE: Dénouement (Resolution, revelation or catastrophe)
Freytag’s Pyramid Structure