— Sharanya Kannan
What do the stories of Achilles, Gatsby, Macbeth, Oedipus and Othello all have in common? Well, apart from the fact that they’re all tragedies, of course. The answer: all of them use a plot device called hamartia.
What’s hamartia, then? Well, apart from being a word thrown around by ES-types, hamartia can basically be described as a fatal flaw that leads to the downfall of a protagonist. I don’t know if you can relate, but I first came across the term “fatal flaw” in Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters (did I just give you traumatic flashbacks to middle school?).
Annabeth: My fatal flaw is hubris.
Percy: The brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?
Annabeth: No, Seaweed Brain. That’s hummus. Hubris is worse.
Percy: What could be worse than hummus?
Annabeth: Hubris means deadly pride, Percy. Thinking you can do things better than anyone else… even the gods.
[…]
Annabeth: …every hero has [a fatal flaw]. If you don’t find it and learn to control it… Well, they don’t call it ‘fatal’ for nothing.
Percy: *has existential crisis*
My first memory of the concept of “fatal flaw” aside, the actual first appearance of the term “harmartia” was in Aristotle’s Poetics. To Aristotle, hamartia leads to the downfall of a noble person who is not actually evil or villainous in nature. The word itself derives from the Greek word “hamartanein”, which means, “to err”. Aristotle illustrated hamartia through the famous Greek tragedy of Oedipus, in which a series of unintentional mistakes by the protagonist lead him to his eventual downfall (discovering the fact that he married his mother and consequently blinding himself, that is.) In Aristotle’s construction, therefore, hamartia can be seen as a plot element wherein some unfortunate errors of judgement lead to the tragic end of the hero.
However, hamartia as it has come to be understood isn’t just confined to Aristotle’s interpretation. It has come to mean a wide variety of things, including fatal character flaws, character deficits, and unintentional as well as deliberate wrongdoing. Sometimes, it’s an uncharacteristic error that leads to the hero’s downfall rather than a fatal flaw per se. The most important thing to note is that the term “hamartia” can be used only in context of tragedies. Many works contain characters with glaring flaws, however, the work cannot be said to use hamartia unless their flaws or mistakes lead them to their tragic end.
Hamartia is an extremely important and essential element in the construction of a tragic hero. That’s why you’ll find hamartia often employed in Greek and Shakespearean tragedies. Through hamartia, the tides of the hero are permanently altered, cementing their downfall in the climactic moment of the story. Hamartia is also vital in making the hero more a more relatable and compelling character to the audience. It makes characters more morally gray, preventing them from falling into the boring boxes of “good” or “evil”. The most common manifestation of hamartia in literature is through the fatal flaw of “hubris” in the protagonist (see above for explanation). Other common fatal flaws include the reckless pursuit of power, jealousy and misplaced trust among others.
Hamartia has been used in a seemingly endless list of literature, and even finds itself in modern-day popular culture. Macbeth is perhaps the most iconic in its employment of the device. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s unrestrained ambition and lust for power are their fatal flaws. Due to his ambition, Macbeth is driven to increasingly reckless acts of violence that eventually culminate in his downfall. Unlike Banquo, whose ambition is restrained by his moral compass, Macbeth’s ambition leads to the loss of everything that he values.
Another famous example would be Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Victor’s pride and arrogance make him believe that he is capable of the godlike act of creating another creature. These very qualities prevent him from viewing the monster he created with even the slightest bit of empathy. In the end, although his ambition and pride led him to immense scientific breakthroughs, they also brought about his demise: Frankenstein’s monster ends up ruining his life.
The Great Gatsby is another popular example of hamartia. Jay Gatsby’s fatal flaw can be seen as his misplaced priorities in the form of his lavish lifestyle and blind love for Daisy. When Daisy ends up killing a woman after driving drunk, Gatsby’s immense love for her makes him try to protect her. Eventually, Gatsby is killed by the woman’s husband.
Or consider, even, Walter White from Breaking Bad. Many see Breaking Bad as a modern-day Greek tragedy, with Walt’s excessive pride and intellectual superiority leading to his downfall.
For me, personally, I just know my fatal flaw of procrastinating things until the very last minute is going to get me someday. Someday.
Design by Lakshmi P
Edited by Madhumitha R
Article 19 