SHAKESPEARE is my Homeboy

Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes?

King Lear and Othello are two very different Shakespearean tragedies. Both plays present dynamic and complex central characters like those found in many of Shakespeare's other dramas. While many similarities can be drawn between the protagonist of each play, the actions and motives of Lear and Othello can be closely analyzed in order to discover distinct differences in the "nature" of each hero. As with all of Shakespeare's tragedies, these two plays deal with issues of importance universal to the human experience. Honor, greed, and the use (or misuse) of power are just some of the issues both plays address. Human "nature" is questioned and explored in each play. Both plays, however, present two very differently natured tragic heroes. Further analysis of these differences helps us to understand and interpret the complexity of Shakespeare's concept of tragedy, and the tragic hero.

One characteristic of "nature" that both Lear and Othello share is a strong will, which could also be interpreted as stubbornness. This trait leads each man to his eventual downfall. Lear disowns his daughter Cordelia after she refuses to profess her love to him in the manner of Goneril and Regan. Likewise, Othello disowns Cassio after he is accused of fighting. In each case, both Lear and Othello are quick to judge, and unremitting in their decision. For both men, their strong will and stubbornness prevent them from realizing their poor judgment.

Both plays present a misuse of power resulting from the hero's inherent nature. Both men are unheroic in the sense that they are led by their passions, and fall victims to their own nature. Othello says:

King Lear can arguably be seen as more of a sympathetic tragic hero because he undergoes a moment of "recognition" and a "reversal" within the play, both elements of Aristotle's description of tragedy contained in The Poetics (Aristotle 73). Lear not only realizes his fault in doubting his daughter's love, but he accepts responsibility for his situation and asks for his daughter's forgiveness (V,iii,10-11). Lear has been transformed into a better, more compassionate man by the play's end.

While Lear is simply arrogant and stubborn through his own royal decree, Othello can arguably be seen as more of a tragic victim, since his reason and judgment are constantly being undermined by Iago's plotting. Further, Othello doesn't have his own moment of "recognition" according to the Aristotelian ideal. After murdering Desdemona, he is informed of her innocence by Emilia. He neither accepts responsibility, nor is transformed by her death. Rather, he commits suicide in order to purge himself of guilt. He says:

An honorable murderer, if you will.
For naught I did in hate, but all in honor. (V,ii, 294-5)

Thus, Othello's death is more like a guilty, boasting villain than the humble, penitant death of Lear.

Shakespeare uses further characterization and language to create a less sympathetic protagonist in Othello. Othello can be seen as a misogynist who spends most of his time with men and gives women neither the respect, nor the trust they deserve. ("O curse of marriage!/That we can call these creatures ours,/And not their appetites!) (III, iii, 268-70) Further, Othello's reputation is tarnished by association with the devil. Emilia calls him "the blacker devil" (V, ii, 131). In a rage of anger, he himself curses:

Arise, black vengence, from the hollow hell! (III, iii, 447)

Finally, after the murder of Desdemona, Othello is repeatedly condemned by Emilia throughout the scene as a devil, and a villain. The result is to make Othello seem more villainous than heroic.

The supporting characters in each play also serve as a foil to distinguish the nature of each of the protagonists. Iago serves as a constant reminder of the fallibility and credulity of Othello by constantly bringing out his rage and darker nature. In King Lear, the Fool serves the same function, but in a much lighter, comic manner, he helps to show Lear as helpless in a much more sympathetic light.

Ultimately, Shakespeare presents much different tragedies with Othello and King Lear. He also presents much different interpretations of the "tragic hero" in each play. While both Lear and Othello face insurmountable and irreversible conditions, each man's nature causes a much different ending to his fate. Shakespeare uses very different characterizations of the tragic hero in each play. By closely comparing both plays, we are better able to understand the broad complexity of his tragic vision.