Tragedy

Aspects of tragedy:

• Hamartia = fatal flaw leading to the downfall of the trafic hero.
• Hubris = pride.
• Fate = development of events outside a person's control (supernatural power).
• Catharsis = purge of repressed emotions.
• Pathos = emotions evoked eg: pity, sympathy and fear.
• Megalophyschia = greatness of soul.
• Anagnorisis = when a character recognizes another character's true identity.
• Peripetia = sudden reversal of fortune.

Greek tragedy + Othello

• Othello = high ranking general who has a megalophyschia but suffers from hubris.
• Othello's fate = inevitable from when he arrives in Cyprus, saying he feels 'too much joy'.
• Act 5 = tragic actions take place, evoking pathos.
• Here Emilia performs some functions of a Greek Chorus when commenting on Othello's foolishness.

Conflict + suffering in tragedy

• In othello Shakespeare presents a different type of conflict - the focus is narrower.
• The conflict we witness is in Othello's mind.
• Othello = divided against himself and very conflicted towards his feelings…