Outline For Othello

Thesis William Shakespeare’s Othello, The Moor of Venice should be labeled as an Aristotelian tragedy due to his portrayal of Othello as a tragic hero. Shakespeare portrays Othello in a light that causes the reader to see his character in both a positive and negative light by first casting him as someone who commits terrible wrongs but without evil intentions, also as someone who is to be both feared and pitied, and finally as someone whose righteousness becomes arrogance, leading to a fatal flaw, all of which go along with Aristotle’s views of Greek tragedy.

Outline

I. Introduction/Thesis

II. Othello made terrible wrongs

III. Feared and pitied

IV. Righteousness becomes arrogance leading to fatal flaw

V. Counter arguments

VI. ConclusionIntroduction/Thesis

Othello joining Desdemona, in Act II, in Cyprus claiming, “If it were now to die, ‘Twere now to be most happy” (Masquerade Press, n.d.), is one example of how Shakespeare uses Aristotle’s definition of how a tragic hero is feared and pitied. Another example is Othello’s fall from the vicious villain, Iago, who manipulates him to believe lies. Othello is completely gullible and open to Iago’s deception that he builds up a wall of mistrust among his lieutenant and his wife. Othello’s anger towards his wife creates an emotional fear as well. His deception of making his wife believe that he will sleep with her in the last scenes creates a fear as well knowing that his plot is to kill her by strangulation. The most feared moment is when Othello comes to Desdemona’s bed and says, “Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men” (Masquerade Press, n.d.), kisses her, the suffocates her with a pillow. In the end, Shakespeare brings pity to the scene when Othello finds out that Iago has lied to him all of this time and realizes he has made the biggest mistake of his life by killing the woman he has loved unconditionally. The audience has pity on Emilia, Iago’s wife who reveals to Othello the truth, but dies in the end herself. Othello then takes his own life knowing that he can’t live with the guilt and pain of killing innocently the love of his

Othello’s character was that of a nobleman. He was revered as a trustworthy and hardworking man. The state of Venus entrusted him as a military general. His wife, Desdemona loved and admired him beyond what he ever deserved. His lieutenant feared and admired him as well, enough so that he begs Desdemona for her to stand in for him to beg for his job back. Iago, however, hates Othello for not giving him the lieutenant position and plots a way to get back at Othello. He uses his control tactics to fool Othello into thinking that his wife was cheating on him with his lieutenant, Michael Cassio. Othello becomes extremely arrogant and allows jealousy and anger to get the best of him. Othello allows pride to keep him from finding out the real truth and builds up a wall between him and Desdemona. Othello never reveals to Desdemona why his is so angry. She has a hard time understanding why he is so angry and begs him to tell her. Unfortunately, Othello is too blinded by deceit that he can’t see the real truth or find out the real truth. His arrogance and pride supersedes his better judgment and ends in a fatal flaw. Even when Othello finds out the truth, Iago still tries to hurt Othello when he says, “Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word” (Masquerade, n.d.). Shakespeare