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More than anything, his humility. Humility is a good quality, but Iago makes Othello's lack of pride work against him. When it comes to fighting in a battle or dealing with a load of hoodlums in the street, Othello is all confidence: he knows how to deal with those things and he knows he knows it. However, in matters of love, he is not so sure. He has reached middle age without really having to deal with women. His relationship with Desdemona starts off with him telling her stories of his life. He isn't trying to woo her, to pick her up or in any way get her to love him. But she does love him. Othello is amazed that she should fall for someone who is old, who is not of her class, who is a foreigner and has an unpopular skin colour. Why should this wonderful young woman pick him of all people?

We can see through Desdemona's eyes past these superficial qualities to the qualities of the man within. Othello is competent, commanding and very human. His very humility makes him a good commander and leader. It also makes him doubt whether a woman like Desdemona could love someone like him, a doubt which Iago exploits and turns to the certainty that she must love someone who appears to be more deserving--someone like Cassio.

In Othello more than any Shakespeare play we see the pointlessness of the "tragic flaw" type of analysis, which tries to make the plays into parables designed to convey trite bits of morality. The characteristic which leads to Othello's demise is a virtue, but as those compassionate and generous souls who have been conned by phoney charities know, even virtues can be exploited by the wicked. Both Othello and Desdemona are very good people, and yet their doom overtakes them anyway, and in part because they are so good. That's what makes it so heart-wrenching.

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