Responding to the Erskine Park posting --
This one made me think hard about tragedy and the tragic hero. I don't
really believe in the idea of a "tragic flaw", i.e. a single well-defined
weakness which we feel would have brought the hero down sooner or later. My
idea of tragedy is that there is more chance or randomness in it than that.
Tragedy I think is when everything unlucky comes together, as in some
nightmares. In normal life the worst doesn't usually happen. We make
mistakes but we get away with it. Tragedy allows us to see what happens
when people, particularly successful and powerful people, make mistakes,
perhaps even small ones, but a combination of circumstances compound them
into a disaster which ends up enveloping many people around them. That's
why I think it's important not to underestimate Othello, or Iago for that
matter. Iago did deceive his wife for most of the time (the attack on Iago
you quote comes from very late in the play) and Roderigo and Brabantio; not
only that, even Cassio twice calls him "honest", after Iago has persuaded
him to try for Othello's pardon by appealing to Desdemona and then secures
him an interview with her; Desdemona calls him "honest," too. I don't think
it's surprising that Othello is deceived.
Then the "flaw" idea gives you just one straightforward explanation, when
the causation we see is many-layered: Othello is a soldier and not used to
town life or indeed female company; he is black and a convert to
Christianity, and insecure of his place in Venetian society; he is older
than his wife; he has a strong measure of pride and even machismo which
makes him touchy and prefer to sweep away problems rather than explore
them. Then he comes up against a fiendishly clever adversary who has the
best possible opportunity to get close to him and the skills to manipulate
everyone around (they all think he's honest).
I may say that I don't think that Desdemona loses respect for Othello, even
at the end. She may fear what he is about to do, but she puts up with it
(most frustratingly!) and of course lies to try to allow him to escape the
blame with her dying breath.
Going back to tragedy, there's the interesting question of why people might
want to watch it. It's usually violent, of course, which brings in the
audience. There may be the relief that these terrible things are not
happening to us. But are there other reasons we might want to watch a
really "together" individual experience progressive humiliation leading to
distress so severe that death is usually welcome?
Congratulations on a stimulating posting.
