Othello, King Lear, and Hamlet are all tragic plays. They are tragic because many people die needlessly. Othello and King Lear are tragic because two characters, Iago and Edmund exact revenge that is unwarranted. It was shown to be unwarranted by of the death of two entirely innocent characters. In each play, the villain used the weaknesses of those who they intended to harm. Had Othello and Gloucester looked deeper into the stories they were told they could have prevented the tragedies. In Hamlet, the tragedy occurred when Hamlet did not act fast enough in his revenge leaving time for Claudius to reek further havoc. Hamlet's weakness was that he was unsure of what to do. Had he acted faster he could have changed the course of events greatly. .
In Othello, Iago resents Othello because he believes the moor tried to cuckold Iago and his wife, Emila. Othello shows no ill will toward Iago during the play, instead he trusts him completely. Iago is very close to Othello as an advisor and has plenty of opportunities to exact his revenge because of the trust factor. Iago's revenge is seen by his telling Othello that his wife, Desdemona is cheating on him. Iago's story is made up of purely circumstantial evidence such as, stories of Casio screaming her name in sleep. He uses Desdemona's innocence against her. Othello instead of trusting his wife or at least asking her gives into Iago's false testimony when he sees Casio with a handkerchief that was given to Desdemona by Othello. The revenge could not have been carried out had Othello not had a weakness. He let Iago's circumstantial evidence get to him. Instead of asking his wife, he assumed the worst. Othello, because of Iago kills Desdemona; this shows that Iago was not justified in his revenge against Othello. When an entirely innocent character is killed in such a matter, it is proof that the revenge character was no where near being justified for his crime.
