In many of Shakespeare's plays, the title character is not the tragic hero, and in many works of fiction, the role of the tragic hero is debatable. Many would say that in Shakespeare's Othello, Othello is the tragic hero, because he has a dramatic change in status, and his tragic flaw is that he trusts the wrong people. Although Othello is the title character of the play, he is too flat and uninteresting to be the tragic hero. His main role in the play is that of being manipulated by Iago. Iago, however, does fit the criteria of being the tragic hero. He goes from being in a high army position to being a criminal, he is a complex character, and he has a tragic flaw, jealousy, which leads him to manipulate the unrealistically gullible Othello.

Othello is a General in the Venetian Army. He is subject to...