Othello

WHY HAS OTHELLO always stood slightly apart from the other tragedies generally
acknowledged to be among Shakespeare’s supreme achievements? Regularly grouped
with Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, it is sometimes described as the most dramatic,
the most playable, of the great tragedies, but such praise often masks a dubious
assessment of its artistic status. Even those who most admire it, however, agree that
Othello exhibits distinctive qualities that separate it from its dramatic kin. First, its
title character is different. The Moor of Venice differs conspicuously from the other
tragic heroes, differs from the English audience for which he was created, differs from
the rest of the cast of Othello. The playwright takes pains to depict Othello as the
alien whose strangeness is both fascinating and threatening. Second, the play’s
subject is unusual for tragedy, neither a struggle for control of the state nor a study of
ancient heroism nor royal biography. Rather, Othello is about love - its beauty, its
fragility, its vulnerability to hate. The passions represented seem private or perhaps
narrow, not historically