The Concept of Tragedy on the Play "Othello"

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Tragedy and Othello
Introduction
In literature, the concept of tragedy refers to a series of unfortunate events by which one or more of the literary characters in the story undergo several misfortunes. Generally these misfortunes usually result into a disaster of ‘epic proportions. In terms of tragedy and tragic hero, Othello contains probably one of the most disturbing murder scenes in literature that of Othello smothering his bride, possibly on their wedding night. Othello’s actions are important in illustrating the impact of unchecked emotions, especially jealousy in our lives.
From ancient literature, a tragic hero is of noble status and greatness. However, he possesses a tragic flaw which associates him with errors during judgment on important matters other than his dream. Othello is noble and quite capable as a leader. Consequently, he is chosen to lead in the military fight against the Turkish invasion against Cyprus. Cassio argues the senate to “sent about three several quests” to look for Othello as a way of illustrating how noble he was perceived. Although he is of high stature and greatness, he makes an error in his judgment against his wife, Desdemona. Therefore, unlike the epic hero, Othello is flawed which represents him as a tragic hero (Leavis, 2015). However, it is one thing to be jealous, and another thing to use the jealousy as a driving factor. Nevertheless Othello acted on his jealousy and murdered his wife, Desdemona.
Although Iago planted seeds of jealousy, Othello lacked self control. Consequently, Iago states that “He is much changed” to imply how Othello is no longer noble. In his “seven basic plots” this phenomenon is well explained by Booker (2009) who states that “As he still pursues the dream, vainly trying to make his position secure, he begins to feel more and more threatened – things have got out of control” Consequently, things got out of control as Othello took his own life out of utter hopelessness. Not only does Othello represent a hero as a general of an army, he is the chief character of the play and his only fault is his deception by Iago. However, although Othello miscalculated his relationship with Iago, that does not make him to be a tragic hero. Instead, murdering his wife proves to be the connection with the concept of tragic hero.
Consequently, Othello is a tragedy as his fall was due to his error of frailty, which induces fear and pity to readers. In his definition of strateg...