Protagonist is a better term for Othello , as it would be for McBeth ,I suppose that to qualify as "hero" they would have to be shown makeing correct and moral choices.
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No, a hero is a main character that starts out perfect or nearly so, always makes the right decisions and wins triumphantly in the end. Epic poems like the El Cid, the Chanson de Rolande, and the Kalavala have heroes, as do kiddie lit tales.
A protagonist is someone with a moral dilemma that the reader can identify with and come to a realization of some greater truth about, called the catharsis.
This indicates more juvenile works from more mature ones. Luke Skywalker always knows he must stay with the Light, Bright and Right Side of the Force, but he does have this minor temptation from Darth Vader, his "Dark Father", so Star Wars has a more juvenile plot than most of the Star Trek films, where the crew has to choose between violating the Prime Directive again. It seems that they always violate the Prime Directive, but the agonize more about it, so Star Trek is somewhat less juvenile.
Most of the major action films like all the Swartzenegger, Die Hard, Chuck Norris films are clearly juvenile: there is so much action, there is no time to consider moral alternatives. It's always pure good against satanic evil.
