Hamartia

"Hamartia" (Ancient Greek: Polytonic|ἁμαρτία) is a term developed by Aristotle in his work Poetics. The term can simply be seen as a character’s flaw or error. The word hamartia is rooted in the notion of missing the mark (hamartanein) and covers a broad spectrum that includes accident and mistake [Aristotle. "Nicomachean Ethics". V.8 1135b12-20.] , as well as wrongdoing, error, or sin. [Bremer. "Hamartia"] . In "Nicomachean Ethics", hamartia is described by Aristotle as one of the three kinds of injuries that a person can commit against another person. Hamartia is an injury committed in ignorance (when the person affected or the results are not what the agent supposed they were). [Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics". 1135b]

This form of drawing emotion from the audience is a staple of the Greek tragedies. In Greek tragedy, stories that contain a character with a hamartia often follow a similar blueprint. The hamartia, as stated, is seen as an error in judgment or unwitting mistake is applied to the actions of the hero. For example, the hero might attempt to achieve a certain objective X; by making an error in judgment, however, the hero instead achieves the opposite of X, with disastrous consequences.

However, hamartia cannot be sharply defined or have an exact meaning assigned to it. Consequently, a number of alternate interpretations have been associated with it, such as in the Bible "hamartia" is the Greek word used to denote "sin." [ [http://www.zhubert.com/word?root=%E1%BC%81%CE%BC%E1%BD%B1%CF%81%CF%84%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B1 The Resurgence Greek Project] ] Bible translators may reach this conclusion, according to T. C. W. Stinton, because another common interpretation of hamartia can be seen as a “moral deficit” or a “moral error” (Stinton 221). R. D. Dawe disagrees with Stinton’s view when he points out in some cases hamartia can even mean to not sin (Dawe 91). It can be seen in this opposing context if the main character does not carry out an action because it is a sin. This failure to act, in turn, must lead to a poor change in fortune for the main character in order for it to truly be a hamartia. Also, in a medical context, a hamartia denotes a focal malformation consisting of disorganized arrangement of tissue types that are normally present in the anatomical area.

History of Hamartia

Aristotle first introduced hamartia in his book “Poetics of Aristotle.” In this book he explained the meaning of the word, which is “tragic flaws.” However through the years the word has changed meanings. Many scholars have argued that the meaning of the word that was given in Aristotle’s book, is not really the correct meaning, and that there is a deeper meaning behind the word. In the article “ Tragic Error in the Poetics of Aristotle,” a scholar by the name of J.M. Bremer, first explained the general argument of the poetics and in particular, the immediate context of the term, he then traces the semasiological history of the hamart-group of the words from Homer, (who was another scholar who was trying to figure out the meaning behind the word) and Aristotle and he concluded that of the three possible meanings of hamartia (missing, error, offence), the Stagirite uses the second in our passage of Poetics. It is, then a “tragic error, i.e. a wrong action committed in ignorance of its nature, effect, etc., which is the starting point of a causally connected train of events ending in disaster. Today the word and it’s meaning is still up in the air; even so the word is still being used in many plays today.

Greek tragedy

In Greek tragedy, the concept of "hamartia" as an error in judgment or unwitting mistake is applied to the actions of the hero. For example, the hero might attempt to achieve a certain objective X; by making an error in judgment, however, the hero instead achieves the opposite of X, with disastrous consequences. Aristotle cites the example of Oedipus ["Poetics" 1453a] , who acts to prevent the fulfillment of the prediction that he would kill his father and marry his mother, but by his actions instead causes those very things to happen. In other cases, a hero might undertake an action with no real objective in mind, but which has disastrous consequences unforeseen by the hero; Aristotle cites the example of Thyestes [ibid.] , who attends a banquet to reconcile with his brother Atreus, not knowing that he is being fed his own children. In terms of plot mechanics, the hero's "hamartia" is the cause of his "peripeteia", or reversal of fortune. The Greek word also relates to drama techniques and themes used for theatre and play.

Major Examples of Hamartia in Literature

Hamartia is often referred to as tragic flaw and has many examples throughout literature, especially in Greek tragedy. Isabel Hyde discusses the type of hamartia Aristotle meant to define in the Modern Language Review, “Thus it may be said by some writers to be the ‘tragic flaw’ of Oedipus that he was hasty in temper; of Samson that he was sensually uxorious; of Macbeth that he was ambitious; of Othello that he was proud and jealous-and so on… but these things do not constitute the ‘hamartia of those characters in Aristotle’s sense” (Hyde 321). This explains that Aristotle did not describe hamartia as an error of character, but as a moral mistake or ignorant error. Even J.L. Moles comments on the idea that hamartia is considered an error and states, “the modern view (at least until recently) that it means ‘error’, ‘mistake of fact’, that is, an act done in ignorance of some salient circumstances” (Moles 49).

Hyde goes on to question the meaning of true hamartia and discovers that it is in fact error in the article, “The Tragic Flaw: Is It a Tragic Error?” She claims that the true hamartia that occurs in Oedipus is considered “his ignorance of his true parentage” that led him to become “unwittingly the slayer of his own father” (Hyde 322). This example can be applied when reading literature in regards to the true definition of hamartia and helps place the character’s actions into the categories of character flaws and simple mistakes all humans commit. Within Oedipus, it is apparent that these errors are the result of hamartia caused by the gods and these tragic actions occur because tragedy has been willed upon the characters. R.D. Dawe brings this use of hamartia in literature to the forefront in the article “Some Reflections on Ate and Hamartia” found in Harvard’s Studies of Classical Philology. For instance, “this hamartia is in reality as predestined as the incest and parricide and belongs to the category of the ‘forced error’… from the artistic point of view it provides the satisfactory illusion of a voluntary choice” (Dawe 118-119). This forced error is caused by the gods and the hamartia the characters engage in has been predestined since their birth.

Another example of true hamartia in Greek tragedy is Antigone. Although she has been presented with the decree from her Uncle not to bury her brother and her obsession with her dead family ties initially gets her in trouble, the true hamartia or “error” in this tragedy rests on Creon. It occurs when he orders his men to properly bury Polynices before releasing Antigone which can be identified as the mistake or error that led to her death. Creon’s own ignorance causes the hamartia that results in Antigone’s death and Dawe agrees here, “Creon believed himself to be acting rightly in the interests of the city. Antigone, Haemon, Tiresias, the chorus and Creon himself (post eventum) recognize that he is in fact mistaken” (Dawe 113). Many characters have flaws that influence their decisions to act in a certain way yet they make mistakes, only to realize them later. True Aristotelian hamartia arises when mistakes or errors cause the plot or direction of action to change in a tragic way as described in the tragedies of Antigone and Oedipus.

"Tragic flaw"

While the modern popular rendering of "hamartia" as "tragic flaw" (or "fatal flaw") is broadly imprecise and often misleading, it cannot be ruled out that the term as Aristotle understood it could sometimes at least partially connote a failure of morals or character:

Whether Aristotle regards the “flaw” as intellectual or moral has been hotly discussed. It may cover both senses. The hero must not deserve his misfortune, but he must cause it by making a fatal mistake, an error of judgement, which may well involve some imperfection of character but not such as to make us regard him as “morally responsible” for the disasters although they are nevertheless the consequences of the flaw in him, and his wrong decision at a crisis is the inevitable outcome of his character (cf. Aristot. Poet. 6.24.). [Thus n.1 to the www.perseus.tufts.edu English translation of the "Poetics" [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0056;query=section%3D%2313;layout=;loc=1452b#anch1] .]

Aeschylus' "The Persians" provides a good example of one's character contributing to his "hamartia". Xerxes' error would be his decision to invade Greece, as this invasion ends disastrously for him and Persia. Yet this error is inextricably bound up in Xerxes' chief character flaw: his "hubris". [R. Caldwell ("The Pattern of Aeschylean Tragedy," "TAPA" 101 (1970), pp. 77-94) cites with approval the conventional wisdom that the Persians "is the one play in the entire extant literature - not just in Aeschylus - which is genuinely and fully founded upon hubris."] A morally-tinged understanding of "hamartia" such as this can and has been applied to the protagonist of virtually every Greek tragedy. For example, Peter Struck comments on "Oedipus the King":

The complex nature of Oedipus' "hamartia," is also important. The Greek term "hamartia," typically translated as "tragic flaw," actually is closer in meaning to a "mistake" or an "error," "failing," rather than an innate flaw. In Aristotle's understanding, all tragic heroes have a "hamartia," but this is not inherent in their characters, for then the audience would lose respect for them and be unable to pity them; likewise, if the hero's failing were entirely accidental and involuntary, the audience would not fear for the hero. Instead, the character's flaw must result from something that is also a central part of their virtue, which goes somewhat awry, usually due to a lack of knowledge. By defining the notion this way, Aristotle indicates that a truly tragic hero must have a failing that is neither idiosyncratic nor arbitrary, but is somehow more deeply imbedded -- a kind of human failing and human weakness. Oedipus fits this precisely, for his basic flaw is his lack of knowledge about his own identity. Moreover, no amount of foresight or preemptive action could remedy Oedipus' hamartia; unlike other tragic heroes, Oedipus bears no responsibility for his flaw. The audience fears for Oedipus because nothing he does can change the tragedy's outcome. [ Struck 2000 [http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/tragedy/oedhero.php] ]

Thus, while the concept of "hamartia" as an exclusively moral or personal failing is foreign to Greek tragedy, the connotation is not entirely absent.

Nevertheless, to import the notion of Hamartia as "tragic flaw" into the act of doing literary analysis locks the critic into a kind of endless blame game, an attitude of superiority, and a process of speculation about what the character could or (worse) should have done differently. Tragedy often works precisely because the protagonist in choosing good, chooses something that will lead to unhappiness. This is certainly the case with Oedipus and, arguably, the case with Hamlet.

Medicine

In a medical context, a hamartia denotes a focal malformation consisting of disorganized arrangement of tissue types that are normally present in the anatomical area. [http://books.google.com/books?id=QUTuvcB68DEC&pg=PA377&lpg=PA377&dq=hamartia+hamartoma&source=web&ots=PRBtaWxWBL&sig=xoueqxp01Boh8j-dEAEpsK96Stg#PPA377,M1] [ [http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands.jspzQzpgzEzzSzppdocszSzuszSzcommonzSzdorlandszSzdorlandzSzdmd_h_02zPzhtm Dorlands Medical Dictionary ] ] A hamartia is not considered to be a tumor, and is distinct from a hamartoma, which describes a benign neoplasm characterized by tissue misarrangement similar to a hamartia (i.e. tissue types that are typical of the area but arranged in an atypical manner).

Criticisms

Aristotle's Poetics terms have been used for centuries to enhance drama works, however some authors believe hamartia is sometimes incorrectly used. According to R.D. Dawe of Harvard's Study in Classical Philology, "In particular hamartia appears inaccurate when measured against the events in Oedipus Rex, a play which is clearly in the forefront of Aristotle's mind throughout the Poetics, and which he mentions by name in the present context" (Dawe 90). He continues to say readers have a choice "either hamartia in Aristotle's discussion has a meaning unknown from any of its other very frequent occurrences in Greek Literature (including Aristotle himself) and Aristotle has not seen fit to add a word to of clarification to his casual introduction of this novel concept: or else his words have almost no relevance in Greek as it was actually practiced..." (Dawe 91). Lastly, Dawe points out that Aristotle spends much less time on hamartia than he does peripetea or agnonorisis; thus it's "incorrect to speak of hamartia as a doctrine" (Dawe 90).

J.M Bremer, author of the article "Tragic Error in the Poetics of Aristotle and in Greek Tragedy" of the American Journal of Philology, is satisfied with the meaning "error" but thinks its wrong to believe "that there is any notion of fault or moral defect involved in hamartia" (Bremer 711). He suspects "that the meaning of hamartia is one of those problems which become the more insoluble the more fully they are examined" (Bremer 711) and adds that the meaning is very skeptical (Bremer 711). The more research done and the more input added on hamartia, the less a finite definition is found, which is partly why Bremer explains hamartia's problem is "insoluble."

Dawe and Bremer agree on the fact that the definition of hamartia can and does differ from reader to reader, thus adding significance to Dawe's comment of it not being comparable to Aristotle's more definite terms of peripetia and agnonorisis.

Notes

See also

* Tragic hero
* Victory disease

Works Cited

Bremer, J.M. "Hamartia." "Tragic Error in the Poetics of Aristotle and in Greek Tragedy". Amsterdam, Adolf M. Hakkert, 1969.

Dawe, R D. "Some Reflections on Ate and Hamartia." "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology" 72 (1968): 89-123. JSTOR. St. Louis University Library, St. Louis. 29 Apr. 2008.

Hyde, Isabel. "The Tragic Flaw: is It a Tragic Error?" "The Modern Language Review" 58.3 (1963): 321-325. JSTOR. St. Louis University Library, St. Louis. 29 Apr. 2008.

Moles, J L. "Aristotle and Dido's 'Hamartia'" "Greece & Rome", Second Series 31.1 (1984): 48-54. JSTOR. St. Louis University Library, St. Louis. 29 Apr. 2008.

Stinton, T. C. W. "Hamartia in Aristotle and Greek Tragedy" "The Classical Quarterly", New Series, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Dec., 1975): 221 - 254. JSTOR. St. Louis University, St. Louis. 29 Apr. 2008.