Struggle for Meaning and Orderin Hamletand Othello

Tragedy is about torn-apart forces that influence human emotions and desires. The tragic heros are in defeat of making sense of their world in Shakespeare’s tragedies Hamlet and Othello. This paper will try to examine the three phases Hamlet and Othello experience--alienation from the world by facing its meaninglessness, struggling for making sense through acting against their natures, and reconciliation (a redemption towards meaning) with their worlds in the end--focusing on the fact that though these men suffer through emotional and moral dissolution that lead them to question their beings, and consequently, carry the imperative to act--to take revenge--as tragic heroes. In the end, they have the power to create something new out of nothing. In other words, they gain awareness of life which has once been insignificant.