In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello is the tragic hero. He is a character of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single villain, but is rather a consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments and misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification exhibited by the characters. Othello is first shown as a hero of war and a man of great pride and courage. As the play continues, his character begins to deteriorate and become less noble. Chronologically through the play, Othello’s character changes from a flawless military leader, to a murderer. He has certain traits which make him seem naive and unsophisticated compared to many other people. Iago knows Othello is a proud man, Othello’s open and trusting nature in the beginning of the play lets Iago- cunning, untrustworthy, selfish, and plotting; use him as a scapegoat. Othello, the Moor, as many Venetians call him, is of strong character. He is very proud and in control of every move throughout the play. The control is not only of power but also of the sense of his being who he is, a great warrior. In Act I, Othello has a scuffle with Brabantio, who has come to kill him, but before anything could happen, Othello said: "Hold your hands, both of you of my inclining and the rest. Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it without a prompter" (I, ii, lines 97-100). The power shown here is quite astounding.The nature of Othello's character is of a dark man. Not only because he is black, but also because his whole person is very mysterious. He is mysterious in that he believes there is magic everywhere. With this dark side, he is also very outgoing, and not very bright. He is not observant and the schemes of Iago work well on him. F...
