Kevin Huynh

Introduction to Literature

Professor Stykiewicz

23 March 2015

The Downfall of Tragic Heroes

It is commonly observed that the great men are taken down by their own flaws. Two

examples are Troy Maxson from “Fences” by August Wilson and Othello from Shakespeare’s

Othello. Troy is a middle-aged man that that works in the garbage collecting business. His

relationship with his sons is not the best, but he is trying to get by in life. Othello on the other

hand is a Moor, a black or dark skinned person, and an officer in the Venetian military.

Troy Maxson is not the best person. He is very insistent that Lyons, his son from a

previous marriage, is lazy and does not deserve the money that Lyons is asking for all the time.

Cory, in his mind, is wasting his time playing football and is a fool for giving up his job at the

A&P, so Troy gives Cory a hard time about it and even has Cory on a three-strike system. The

first strike is losing his job at the A&P to play football. The second strike is punching his father,

and his third and final strike is when he fights and loses against Troy.

Rose is a rock in Troy’s life. He depends on her to call him out on his crap, and to stick

by him. It is, however revealed at the end that Troy had an affair with another woman, Alberta,

who has died delivering his child, who is named Raynelle. Although Rose agrees to raise

Raynelle, she does leave Troy in the end. “I'll take care of your baby for you...cause...she

innocent...and you can't visit the sins of the father upon the child. A motherless child had got a

hard time....From right now this child got a mother. But you a womanless man”.

Bono is one of the relationships that Troy has that isn’t all that bad. He is a friend from

way back when they were both in prison, and now they’re both garbage men and drink together

every Friday. Throughout the play, Troy is always on good terms with Bono.

Troy himself is prideful and is not the most moral person, either. He roadblocks Cory’s

attempt to play football in the summer only because Troy didn’t get to play Major League

Baseball when he was younger because he was too old when they eventually let black people

play. He also has an affair with Alberta while he was still married to Rose. It’s revealed in the

end that Troy has succumbed to a heart attack seven years after Cory leaves. Cory shows up back

home when Troy’s funeral is happening, but refuses to attend.

Troy does deserve our sympathies, or at least has my sympathies, because he does work

with what he has or got. In Troy’s words, his father is an evil man. Troy grew up motherless

because no woman would stay with him. At one point when Troy was fourteen he slacked from

watching over a mule that his father owns, who saw the mule had wandered away from Troy. His

father found him fooling around with his crush and, after beating Troy with his leather reins,

raped the girl. That would scar anyone, really, if we can trust what Troy says.

Othello‘s flaws are that he is excessively prideful and, as we find out later in the play,

jealous. He appoints Cassio to be his lieutenant, but Iago does not like that. So Iago begins to

spin his web of lies and ends up successfully getting Othello to believe that his wife, Desdemona,

is having an affair with Cassio. Othello’s pride gets in the way of believing that someone as

“trustworthy” as Iago would lie to him, and his jealousy makes him believe Iago more.

Especially with how Iago is staging things to happen so that his claims seem indubitable.

Othello is not the only target of Iago’s manipulations. Cassio is made to look like he

having an affair with Othello’s wife and as a result of that, is stripped of his position. In the end

however, Iago’s plans are discovered and everything has been put to rights. At least as much as it

can be put to rights as Othello, Desdemona, Iago and his wife, Emilia, who is also Desdemona’s

attendant, all die.

Othello does definitely gets our sympathies he is manipulated into thinking that his wife

is being unfaithful with his lieutenant, thinks people are lying to him when they are actually

telling the truth, and most importantly, he kills his wife because he thinks she is a whore, and

when it’s revealed that she isn’t and Iago is a horrible person that deserves his fate, he commits

suicide.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, and M. R. Ridley. Othello. London: Metheun, 1962. Print.

Wilson, August. Fences. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2007. Print.