Ø Class : M.A
Ø Sem : 1
Ø Topic : Hamartia in Shakespearean
Tragedy
Ø Year : 2016-2018
Ø Submitted to : SMT. S. B. Gardi and
M.K.Bhavnagar University
§ Definition
of Hamartia :
“Hamartia is a personal error in a
protagonist’s personality that brings about his tragic downfall in a tragedy.
This defect in a hero’s personality is also known as a “tragic flaw.” Aristotle
used the word in his “poetics” where it is taken as a mistake or error in judgment.”
According to Webster
Dictionary,
“Tragedy is a serious play or drama
typically dealing with the problems of a central character, leading to an
unhappy or disastrous ending brought on, as in ancient drama, by fate and
tragic flaw in this character, or, in modern drama usually by moral weakness,
psychological maladjustment, or social pressure.”
According to Britannica
Encyclopedia,
“Hamartia, also called tragic flaw,
inherent defect or shortcoming in the hero of a tragedy, who is in other
respects a superior being favored by fortune.”
§
Hamartia and
Hubris :
A
typical example of Hamartia in tragedies is “hubris” which is excessive pride and ego in a hero’s character
which ultimately bring his tragic downfall in a tragedy. In Greek tragedies,
the “hubristic” actions of a hero,
in a powerful position, causes his shame and humiliation.
§
Function of
Hamartia :
Hamartia imparts the sense
of pity and fear in the audience or
the readers identity with the tragic
hero as, like them, his character is a mixture of good and bad qualities.
They feel pity for the reversal of fortune that he undergoes. This arouses a
feeling of pity in them. Similarly, by witnessing a tragic hero suffer due to
his own flaw, the audience or the readers may fear the same fate may be fall
them if they indulge in similar kinds of action.
Therefore, Hamartia may be
employed for a moral purpose to encourage people to improve their characters by
removing the flaws that can cause a tragedy in their lives.
§
Tragic Hero :
Tragic hero is another
significant element of a Shakespearean tragedy. Shakespearean tragedy is
considered as a one Man show who may be hero or heroine. It is a story of right
one man or a woman, who suffers due to some flaw in their character or due to
their inevitable fate. Whatever may be the case, the hero is the most tragic
personality in his tragedies according to Bradley,
“It
is essentially a tale of suffering and calamity conducting to death.”
Usually the hero has to face death in the end.
An important feature of
tragic hero is that he is a towering personality in his state or locality. He
hails from elite stratum of society and holds high position in his state.
Tragic heroes are kings, prince or military generals who are very important for
their states. Look at the personality to Hamlet, who is the prince of Denmark.
He is intellectual, highly learned and sociable and holds a philosophic bent of
mid. In “Hamlet”, when ‘Hamlet’ takes revenge upon the death of his father, he
not only kills his uncle but invites his own death of Hamlet , the army of
Fortinbras enters Denmark and gets control of the affairs of Denmark.
§
Examples of
HAMARTIA in Literature :
Example : 1 Oedipus
“Oedipus” in a
famous Greek Tragedy is a perfect example of Hamartia. His downfall is cause by
unintentional wrongdoings. His “hubris” makes him try to defy the prophecy of
gods by at the ends up doing what he feared the most.
Example : 2
Doctor Faustus :
The tragic flaw of Faustus was his ambitious nature. Despite being a
respected scholar, he sold his soul to “Lucifer” by signing a contract with his
blood for achieving ultimate power and limitless pleasure in the world. He
learns the art of black magic and defies Christianity. We saw a tragic conflict
where Faustus thinks about repenting but it is all too late. Finally, the
devils takes his soul away to Hell and he is suffers eternal damnation because
of his over ambition.
Example : 3
Romeo
Romeo
and Juliet is easily Shakespeare’s most well known play, and Romeo is probably Shakespeare’s
most famous protagonist. Romeo falls deeply and madly in love the first time he
lays eyes on Juliet, the daughter of his father’s sworn enemy and Romeo is famous
for his headstrong, love-at-first sight relationship with Juliet. Romeo’s fatal
flaw is his impulsiveness. At the start of “Romeo
and Juliet” Romeo is in love with another women; Rosaline. In his mind, he
and Rosaline are destined for each other and in “true love.” But it takes only
one night at the caplet’s ball for Romeo to forget all about Rosaline and fall
in love with Juliet. After only one night together Romeo impulsively marries
Juliet, thereby setting a dire chain of even in motion. Shortly later in the
wedding, he impulsively slays Juliet brother Tybalt in a fit of anger, leading
to his banishment from Verona.
Example : 4 Hamlet
While Romeo lives at one end of the Spectrum, rushing into decision too
quickly. Hamlet lives at the other : his fatal flaw is his indecisiveness and
inability to commit to a course of action. While Romeo never stops to thin k of
the consequences of his actions; Hamlet broods over them too long. While it is
certain without a doubt that his uncle Claudius murdered his father, it takes a
starting visit from his father’s ghost to even being making Hamlet consider
that his father was killed by fold play.
Even after his ghostly
visit at the start of the play, Hamlet still isn’t convinced of Claudius guilt.
He stages a false play at the castle, a play containing the very murderous
actions he suspects his uncle to taking to try to discern further his uncle’s
guilt. By the time he decides to act against Claudius, its already too late.
Claudius has hatched his own scheme to poison Hamlet, and while Hamlet does
ultimately get his procrastination leads to not only his own death but the
death of his mother and Ophelia along the way as well.
Example : 5 Macbeth
Macbeth’s fatal flaw is a much baser human emotion: ambition, from the
start of the play, we see that Macbeth desires more than his current station.
While serving as the kings general, Macbeth encounters three witches who
foretell of his destined greatness. So strong is his desire to be king that he
takes the ambiguous prophecy of the witches to mean that he is destine to be
king, not one day, but right now. All Macbeth’s actions as king driven by his
ambition, and these decisions culminate in his death.
Each of Shakespearean’s
tragic characters has their own “fatal flaw.” But like the examples above, each
flaw is just a normal human trait taken to its extreme. Through his tragedies
Shakespeare sought to shine a light on the human condition and show every day
emotions and personality traits, could, when taken to extreme, leads to our own
downfall.
§ Hamartia
in Famous Character :
In the
“Lord of the Rings” series of books, the ring is Frodo’s fatal
flaw. Although the character himself is mostly a very good person, the ring
threatens to undo him the same way it did Gollum by driving him mad with the
power the ring’s possession affords him. Achilles, the legendary hero of Greek mythology, was a nearly
invulnerable warrior with one widely known fatal flaw; the heel that his mother
held him by when she clipped him into the river Styx to make him strong. The
heel ended up being his undoing. Today an “Achilles heels” refers to any ones
fatal flaw or Hamartia. The
Bible character David’s Hamartia was his passion for a
woman named Bathsheba when kind David decided to try and win her affections,
his first moved her husband to the front lines in battle, ensuring that he
would be killed. David’s mistake led to the loss of his son and many blessings
from God. Othello, another Shakespearean character also possesses a
fatal flaw. When Iago tells him lies Othello goes into a jealous rage. It is
his jealousy that drives him to murder Desdemona and once he realize her
innocence to commit suicide. In
the “Back to the Future” film series, Marty Mac fly gets himself into trouble
several times due to his fatal flaw the inability to walk away when someone
suggests that he is too afraid to follow through.
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