While early literature (like Beowulf and Sir Gawain) tended to focus on members of the court at the center of society, literature seems gradually...

Both Beowulf and the works about Sir Gawain function as outgrowths of oral traditions that celebrate and memorialize the heroes of a specific culture and give members of those cultures models to emulate. As we move into the early modern period, literary works become increasingly focused on the individual qua individual rather than as culturally paradigmatic.

Othello: In many ways the characters of Othello appear to be similar to those of the heroic tradition. The leading characters are all either the nobles of Venice or noble warriors in her service. The first character who is an outsider is the prostitute Bianca, who serves a minor role in Iago's plot to make Othello jealous. Like the servants and messengers, though, Bianca does not represent a distinctive break with earlier traditions, as there are often servants and other minor characters who are not nobles who play ancillary roles in heroic epics and in romances. The obvious major figure who is an outsider is the protagonist, Othello himself, who despite being an heroic warrior and a General in the Venetian army, is by heritage a Moor, an African Muslim. Although he is a Prince in his own land, he suffers some degree of prejudice due to his dark skin and foreign origins, with Iago in particular being prone to racist slurs. 

Paradise Lost: Paradise Lost is a retelling of the Bible, and thus contains figures who are divine rather than human. Even Adam and Eve, existing before the Fall, are quite different from postlapsarian humanity. The narrative is one that focuses on insiders becoming outsiders, the double fall of Lucifer and humanity, described as follows:

The first sort [Lucifer and followers] by their own suggestions fell,

Self-tempted, self-depraved: man falls deceived

By the other first: man therefore shall find grace,

The other none (3:129-132) 

Lucifer was once the brightest of the angels and thus an insider, but he and his angels rebelled, and thus were cast out of Heaven and became outsiders, living in Hell. Similarly, by eating the forbidden fruit in response to Satan's promptings, Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of Paradise, becoming outsiders. The Son, in his plan to sacrifice himself to save humanity, also volunteers to become a temporary outsider.

Oroonoko: This story by Aphra Behn is also concerned with a form of fallen hero. Prince Oroonoko, as an African, would be "outside" English culture. Moreover, over the course of the narrative, Oroonoko and his wife are sold into slavery, and much of the novel focuses on their lives as slaves and participation in a slave rebellion. They are displaced both from the central life of the court and from the geographical region of Africa, thus becoming doubly outsiders.