In the play Othello, jealousy is shown to be very evident through the actions of the characters. Jealousy is an emotion that everyone shares, and it is eventually responsible for the tragic ending of the play. Everyone feels jealous at certain times of their lives, and this feeling can cause people to do foolish things. This human emotion also shows people to be weak in the sense that they are never happy with what they have. Shakespeare shows through Othello, Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio that jealousy is the most corrupt and destructive emotion. Othello is horribly jealous of what he thinks is going on between his wife and Cassio.
This poisonous feeling turns Othello into a mad man and he strikes his wife. Jealousy causes people to act really different. People that are almost always kept back and honest can become crazy because of jealousy. Othello kills his wife because he feels that if he cant have her, nobody can. This is a very selfish action that Othello takes. He determines his wifes fatal fate just because he is jealous. People often think only for themselves when they are jealous. This shows humans to be selfish when their emotions are intense. There is almost no worse feeling that being very jealous of someone or something.
People will risk almost anything to get rid of this terrible feeling. Jealously causes people to act irrationally and irresponsibly. This is a feeling that always comes up throughout everybodys lives. The best thing that people can do to get rid of it is to suffer through it and hope that it will go away. Othello has many qualities that fit the category of a tragic hero. He falls from success to suffering, but not necessarily in a material sense. His fall is from happiness, contentment, and love to unhappiness, accusations, and distrust. He is admired by everyone in the play, even Iago comments on what a good man Othello is.
Secondly, a tragic hero can not be perfect. He or she must have a error of some kind. In Othellos case it is that he allows his emotions to take over. Manipulated by Iagos lies, Othello is forced to confront emotions he obviously can not handle. His wisdom and patience are replaced by anger and hate. The power of these destructive emotions ultimately leads to Desdemonas death and Othellos suicide. Without a doubt, Shakespeare’s play Othello is a tragedy. The main character, Othello, is a typical Shakespearean tragic hero. Othello is good man who is deeply in love with his wife.
He has one fault, jealousy, which gets the best of him, and triggers the downfall of his wonderful life. Othello was living a successful life, but he had one error: jealousy. As a result of his jealousy, his life begins to get chaotic because he no longer trusts his wife. Slowly Othello’s sanity and status become questioned, and he is no longer seen as important. The last straw is drawn, and Othello murders his beautiful wife only to find out that she did not deserve to die. Othello was a good man, but he was a tragic hero because of his mistake that lead to his demise.
