Every tragic hero embodies societal values and simultaneously challenges societal order. Othello is one of these many heroes. But what makes Othello cherished by audiences across time, is that in his battles against society, he is driven by love.
Othello’s characteristics of war, glory, and past, embody society’s ideas. At the beginning of the play, the social order of marriage is established when Othello is put on trial by Brabantio for loving Desdemona, Othello mentions how Brabantio loved Othello and invited him to his house only because of the “battles, sieges, fortunes, that [Othello] has passed” (1.3 149-52). Barbantio, like society, is fascinated by the Athropphogagi, cannibals and redemption Othello has seen and experienced. In this…show more content… The social order, as seen by Brabantio and society, is that individuals don’t have the freedom to love or marry whom they want. When Othello breaks free from the strict social order, and attempts to marry Desdemona, Brabantio denounces Othello. Ironically, Brabantio was fascinated by the stories that Othello told, yet Brabantio starts to despise him once Othello finds the courage to love Desdemona. Brabantio, who is used by Shakespeare to represent what the social order believes in, furiously declares him as an “abuser of the world, a practicer of arts inhibited and out of warrant” (1.2.97-100). This moment is key to understand how the social order views Othello; as an outsider and abuser of…show more content… In his last words, Othello achieves profound self-awareness. “Then you must speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well” (5.2.403-05). Here, Othello realizes his mistake in loving too passionately. His bold courage to love Desdemona despite it being against society’s norms, ends in both Desdemona and Othello’s tragic death. Thus, Othello realizes that although Desdemona was a symbol to him of a society and privilege which he never belonged to, his decisions were out of passion and love, not reputation or honor. This final lament, like his bold decision to love Desdemona, makes the audience and society love Othello, despite his love being against the social order and