In this essay I will be discussing how Shakespeare presents flaws in characters in his play, Othello and I will compare this to the way which Robert browning presents character flaws in his Porphyria’s lover and child Rolland to the dark tower came. I will show how Othello’s pride leads to his down fall and how figurative language is often used to describe downfalls as well as flaws. I will discuss the underlying theme of mental instability as a fundamental flaw in Robert browning’s poems and I will compare how this mental instability is presented. Finally I will compare how Shakespeare and Robert Browning present flaws and argue that Robert browning’s characters usually have more extreme unrealistic flaws and/or downfalls.

Iago is often overlooked when studying flaws in Othello due to the fact that Othello is considered the victim of the tragedy. Despite this Iago’s jealousy of Cassio is the original cause of his plan which leads to the final down fall of the protagonist. Shakespeare often uses metaphorical language to present and describe flaws for example when Iago says “beware jealousy, it is the green eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on” in this quote Shakespeare personifies jealousy and compares it to the evil animalistic behavior of toying with or mocking the powerless prey before killing and feeding on it, this implies that Iago has recognized his flaw and that it is causing a slow torturous downfall. I believe that Iago is comparing jealousy to something other than himself to convince himself that jealousy is not part of himself and therefore negate some of responsibility for his actions.

In Othello, Iago is able to manipulate Othello very well because he his gullible and cannot see through Iago’s lies, this is prevalent when Iago merely suggests that Casio “is not honest” Othello responds with anger, “think, my lord! By heaven, he echoes me, as if there were some monster in his thought to hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something.” At this point Iago has already suggested in a discrete way the idea that Cassio is hiding something, and Othello starts to let his imagination, and negative thoughts run wild and almost makeup reasons why this may be true. He also states “thou dost mean something.” Rather than asking a question, this suggests that he is a very confident and proud individual who is certain that Iago knows something he does not, I think this is due to his status as general.

In Robert browning’s poetry character flaws are often presented in more unrealistic, abstract ways. In Porphyria’s lover the speaker’s flaw is his will not to lust, I think this due to the fact that when given a temptation he goes to extreme lengths to prevent lust “I found a thing to do, and all he hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her” I believe he did this to preserve her innocence and prevent lust although by avoiding one sin he committed a sin which is considered more severe by most, this leads me to believe that he is mentally unstable in some way which seems to be the fundamental flaw in many of browning’s characters.

Another example of mental instability and a strange, unrealistic flaw is found in Child Roland to the dark tower came. Child Roland seems to have an extreme paranoia which is shown when he says, in response to a man giving him directions, “my first thought was, he lied in every word” he has no reason to disbelieve this man which leads me to believe that he has been deceived many times in his past and has almost given up believing people. He then goes on to describe the man as a “hoary cripple, with malicious eye” it seems as though in his head everyone is out to get him. Child Rolland no longer trusts anyone or anything this is the flaw of extreme paranoia which may have its roots in a mental instability. Alternatively the mental instability could have been caused by his life of being deceived.

In conclusion, Iago’s flaw of jealousy is the original, and therefore most important flaw in Othello in regards to the tragic downfall, Othello’s anger and  lack of judgment being the second most important. I also explored how the flaws in Browning’s poems tend to be more surreal, examples of this include Child Roland’s extreme paranoia, and Porphyria lovers overreaction to the natural emotion of lust. This more unrealistic and extreme behavior makes the browning poems, in my opinion, more interesting compared to the more realistic (although still far from reality) flaws of Othello.