The central character, or protagonist, of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, The Moor of Venice is Othello. Aristotle defined the concept of a tragic hero as the destruction of a noble person, usually with a personal flaw, and this flaw determines their fate. Othello is a tragic hero with a tragic flaw in one of Shakespeare's best-known tragedies. Shakespeare so clearly shows the tragic flaw that Othello gets, allowing implications and thoughts to override reality and showing how the very insecurity one possesses can allow a person to become helpless. Othello's actions essentially destroy him, with the intentional help of characters like the infamous Iago. Othello's tragic flaw centers on his insecurity of being a dark-haired African in a Venetian society. The danger of mistrust, so evidently represented in Othello's initially noble character, leads to an eminent insecurity about himself, his race, and ultimately to his own death. Othello, honored in Venice as both a military and political leader, is portrayed as an outsider. Janet Adelman, an English professor at the University of California, said: “Othello. . . victim of the racist ideology visible everywhere in Venice, an ideology to which he is inexorably subject and which increasingly comes to define him as he internalizes it –” (125). At the beginning of the play Othello's name is not mentioned, he is only mentioned with racist insults. Roderigo and Iago talk on a street in Venice; it's not exactly obvious what they're joking about. When they wake Brabantio to tell him that The Moor or Othello has married his daughter, Othello is portrayed as a beast and unworthy of Brabantio's white Venetian daughter Desdemona: Thy heart is burst, thou hast lost half thy soul; Eva.... ..middle of paper......stics like jealousy and mistrust. This not only causes Othello's suicide, but also the death of his wife and other characters in Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, the Moor of Venice. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. “Othello, The Moor of Venice”. Literature and the writing process. Backpack edition. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print 585-669.Adelman, Janet. "Iago's Alter Ego: Running as Projection in Othello." Shakespeare Quarterly 48.2 (1997): 125. Premier Academic Research. Network. November 13, 2013. Little Jr., Arthur L. "'An Essence Unseen': The Primordial Scene of Racism in Othello." Shakespeare Quarterly 44.3 (1993): 304. Premier academic research. Network. November 13, 2013.Skura, Meredith Anne. "Reading Othello's Skin: Contexts and Pretexts." Philological Quarterly 87.3/4 (2008): 299-334. Premier of academic research. Network. November 13. 2013.