The Tragedy of Romance in Othello
William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, is often dismissed as a “domestic tragedy,” which suggests that it is less important than his other popular tragedies, such as Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear. This is because Othello is a play about a small group of characters and events, which ultimately lead the tragic hero, Othello, to commit a crime of passionate envy by murdering his innocent wife, Desdemona. Thus, Othello is often dismissed as a “domestic tragedy” because it lacks the concern with wider social issues of the other Shakespearean tragedies. However, it offers quite a bit of insight into the development of abusive relationships between two different people. There is a wide gulf of racial, age, gender,