Tragic Flaws In Othello

In Othello, one of ten tragic plays created by the prominent William Shakespeare, Iago uses the power of his persuasion to exploit both Othello and Cassio to do his bidding. Othello and Cassio both have their own tragic flaws. It is very clear that Cassio’s tragic flaw is getting drunk too easily. Without this flaw, Iago’s plans would have never worked. Although it is true that Iago planted the seeds to Othello’s downfall, what this claim overlooks is that, just as before, Iago’s plan would have never worked if it weren’t for Othello’s tragic flaw of trusting people too much. This is why both Cassio and Othello are to blame for their own downfalls. To start with, Cassio’s weakness is that he is a lightweight when it comes to drinking alcohol. Just before the celebration party of the destruction of the Ottoman naval fleet, Cassio states that he already had one glass of wine to drink. Because of this one glass, Cassio is already feeling tipsy. So Iago urges Cassio to have one more. Cassio responds to Iago, “I have drunk but one cup

One of Othello’s tragic flaws is his tendency to trust others too much, particularly Iago and Desdemona. Just because Othello is so trusting of Iago, Iago actually manages to get Othello to kill his own wife. Iago gives his idea of a solution to Othello, “Do it not with poison; strangle her in her bed, even the bed she / hath contaminated” (IV.i. 195-196). Othello happily agrees with this solution when there are so many better solutions. If Othello had just tried to investigate the problem himself, instead of having Iago do it for him, Othello may have come to a better solution of solving the problem. The reason Othello doesn’t do this is because he trust Iago to give him truthful information. Without this trust, Iago would have not succeeded in his