WHY HAS OTHELLO always stood slightly apart from the other tragedies generallyacknowledged to be among Shakespeare’s supreme achievements? Regularly groupedwith Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, it is sometimes described as the most dramatic,the most playable, of the great tragedies, but such praise often masks a dubiousassessment of its artistic status. Even those who most admire it, however, agree thatOthello exhibits distinctive qualities that separate it from its dramatic kin. First, itstitle character is different. The Moor of Venice differs conspicuously from the othertragic heroes, differs from the English audience for which he was created, differs fromthe rest of the cast of Othello. The playwright takes pains to depict Othello as thealien whose strangeness is both fascinating and threatening. Second, the play’ssubject is unusual for tragedy, neither a struggle for control of the state nor a study ofancient heroism nor royal biography. Rather, Othello is about love - its beauty, itsfragility, its vulnerability to hate. The passions represented seem private or perhapsnarrow, not historically