Since the terrible attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the actions of New York City's police officers and firefighters have given us one definition of a hero: they ran in the doomed buildings trying to save people while everyone else ran out. That tragic event illustrated that a heroic person often does not know where his or her actions will lead.

             Don Quixote would be an example of a hero who courageously enters a dangerous situation without knowing what the outcome will be. Don Quixote was delusional of course, but he believed in his artificially constructed persona and repeatedly showed no hesitation when charging, sometimes literally, into trouble, with the goal of saving someone or righting some wrong. His encounter with the windmill demonstrates the kinds of events that typically happen to heroes. Convinced that the windmill is an evil giant, he gallops toward it. He gets caught in its blades and thrashed quite soundly. Afterward he rationalizes that the giant magically turned himself into a windmill because that's what it would take to defeat such a great knight. Quixote has not anticipated the difference between the ideal battles in his head and the realities of battles with other men.

             Othello, in Shakespeare's play Othello, the Moor of Venice, is a more realistic hero. He has been a great general and is thought of highly. It is his status as a war hero that makes it possible for him to marry the beautiful Desdemona. Othello surely recognized his battlefield decisions as important, but it did not occur to him that the issue of whom he should or should not promote would lead him to ruin. Othello has not anticipated the level of jealousy others might feel for his accomplishments. Cassio, who otherwise would probably have remained loyal to Othello, instead joins a plot to bring Othello down. Othello, who can read a battlefield well, does not see what is going on around him.