Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher, said that a tragic hero must demonstrate positive characteristics and must have a tragic flaw that eventually leads to the downfall of the character. Many consider both Othello and Oedipus as tragic heroes, but why? What do these two have in common and do they meet all of the requirements to be named a tragic hero?
We will start out by analyzing Othello. The first thing that you should look for is the noble characteristic, so what is Othello’s noble characteristic? In the play Othello was a good leader and husband, at least until the end. Othello’s flaw on the other hand was much easier to decide for this character. Although Othello was a good leader and husband, he was very self-centered, jealous, and gullible. He was especially gullible towards Iago and his plot of revenge and when Iago told him that Desdemona was cheating on him, his jealousy took over. At the end of the story, Desdemona, Emilia, and Roderigo died. Not only that, but after Othello killed Desdemona he stabbed Iago then killed himself, which was his downfall.
Let’s now start analyzing Oedipus. Just by watching the story unfold, you can tell that Oedipus is a classic tragic hero. Like Othello, Oedipus was a great leader, but in different ways. Oedipus ended up becoming king because of his good traits and his help in freeing the city from the monster. Although like all other tragic heroes, Oedipus had a flaw which lead to his fall. Oedipus had excessive pride which lead to him finding out that the stories were true. Oedipus had killed his father because he had too much pride, then when he moved to the city and became king he married the queen and had children with her, and it wasn’t until later that he found out that the queen was his mother. At the end of it all his mother/wife took her life, and Oedipus bulged his eyes out with her pin.
How are Othello and Oedipus the same? How are they different? Oedipus and Othello were both very effective leaders, but they also had a lot of pride in themselves. In the end of both stories there are domestic tragedies, as in both of their wives die. Not only that but they even had similar jobs, Othello was commander of the army and Oedipus was king which are both very powerful leadership roles. Although these two characters acted very similar, the plots to both of these stories were very different. In Othello, the villain of the story was Iago who tried to sabotage everything, but in Oedipus, his fate was already planned.
In the end both characters seemed to be good people, but things were drastically different by the end of the story. If Othello would’ve found out what Iago was doing, no one would’ve died. In Oedipus, if he knew who his real parents were, or was killed when he was supposed to, we could’ve avoided that dreadful ending. Although these stories ended in the way they did, they’re just stories and if Othello would’ve found out what Iago was up to,it wouldn’t have been as entertaining and we may not have even read it.