Oedipus' Hamartia

Nesreen Yusuf Oedipus' Hamartia in Oedipus The King

Oedipus' Hamartia in Oedipus The King

My focus in this paper, as the title says, is the 'Hamartia' of the tragic hero,

Oedipus, in the play Oedipus The King. Hamartia is a Greek word first presented by

Aristotle in his book Poetics. In this book, he is mainly concerned with the Greek

philosophers' theory of Tragedy. His conclusions are based on the Greek drama with

which he was familiar. He tried to lay down the best qualifications of the Greek

drama. No passage in the Poetics, with the exception of the 'Catharsis' phrase, has

attracted so much critical attention as his ideal of the tragic hero in chapter thirteen. In

this part, we read Aristotle's conception of 'Hamartia'.

The root meaning of the Greek word 'Hamartia' is "to miss the mark"1. In chapter

thirteen of Poetics, which Philip Harsh entitled "Hamartia Again" more than forty

years ago (Schütrumpf 137), Aristotle points out that the tragic hero must not be an

utter villain or a perfect man, but he must be, then:

the character between these two extremes, — that of a

man who is not eminently good and just, - yet whose

misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but

by some error or frailty. (Aristotle 17)

Aristotle also distinguishes hamartia from moral failing, and makes it quite clear that

he means by it some "error of judgment" (as translated by Ingram Bywater). This

error or frailty pushes the tragic hero from a state of happiness into a state of misery;

The change of fortune should be not from bad to good,

but, reversely, from good to bad. It should come about

as the result not of vice, but of some great error or

frailty, in a character either such as we have described,

or better rather than worse. (ibid. 17-18)

Hamartia, therefore, is an error or frailty, but this error may, according to Aristotle,

arise in three ways. First, It may be "done in ignorance, and the tie of

kinship or friendship be discovered afterwards. The Oedipus of

1 'Hamartia': n. tragic flaw [Greek, from hamartanein, to miss the mark, err]. (The American Heritage. Dictionary of the English Language, 4th.ed, 2000)

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Sophocles is an example"(ibid. 19). Secondly, it may be an error arising

from hasty or careless views of a certain case. Thirdly, the error may be

committed voluntarily, but not deliberately, as in the case of acts

committed in anger or passion. Aristotle's conception of hamartia,

then, is often interpreted an error of judgment or a mistake that the

tragic hero has a tendency to create by ignorance, hasty, or

passion. And this tendency exists in the tragic hero from the

beginning to the recognition scene, which Aristotle called

Anagnorisis. It is a sudden change "from ignorance to Knowledge"

which finally lead him to his Peripeteia, or downfall.

Concerning Sophocles' play Oedipus The King, written around 420 BC, it has long

been regarded not only as his finest play, but also the purest and most powerful

expression of Greek tragic drama. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play, is our focus in

this paper. He is a stranger to Thebes became the king of the city after the murder of

king Laius, about fifteen or sixteen years before the start of the play. The city offered

him the throne because he saved it from the Sphinx. He, then, married Laius' widow,

Jocasta, and had four children with her, two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, and two

daughters, Antigone and Ismene.

In the play, Oedipus appears as an excellent ruler who looks after his subjects very

well. At the very beginning of the play, when the citizens of Thebes beg him to do

something about the plague, he has already sent Creon to 'Pythian Apollo's shrine' to

learn from him how to save the city. Also, later in the play, we know that he had

saved the city once before from the curse of the Sphinx and become king virtually

overnight. He also determinate to search for the truth was for his people's good. So,

we have here a very good man. However, he also has an error in his personality. Some

critics considered his determination to search for the truth is his tragic flaw that brings

about the change in Oedipus' fate from good fortune to bad fortune.

For R. D. Dawe, for example, Oedipus' tragic error is his decision to pursue the

inquiry into which he reaches to the final moment of truth. Here is his explicit

analysis of Oedipus' hamartia:

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It must of course have been all part of the divine plan

that Oedipus should learn of his identity... The story

would be pointless other-wise; and it would be very

nearly as pointless if Oedipus did not make the

discovery himself. If Oedipus' hamartia consists in his

repeated resolve to pursue his enquiries, this hamartia is

in reality as predestined as the incest and parricide and

belongs to the category of the "forced error" that has

occupied our attention in the earlier pages of this paper;

but from the artistic point of view it provides the

satisfactory illusion of a voluntary choice. (Dawe 18-19)

In my opinion, we should not consider this view, because determination is an

admirable trait in the human being. Moreover, the reason that makes Oedipus set on

searching for the truth is to save his people. Creon brings him word from the Oracle of

Delphi that he must banish the murderer from the city or the plague that is ravaging

Thebes will continue. It seems like Oedipus is doing exactly what a good ruler ought

to do. He's trying to act in the best interest of his people.

Oedipus has a temper, and he has a habit of acting swiftly. Indeed it was rash

anger that led to him unknowingly kill his real father, King Laius, at the crossroads.

The killing of his father is an essential link in Oedipus's downfall. Also, within the

play, we see Oedipus's anger when he lashes out at both Creon and Teiresias for

bringing him bad news. However, it is important to notice is that these angry tirades

don't do the most important thing for a hamartia to do; they don't bring on Oedipus's

downfall. He just threatened to do bad things but never did. So, his violent temper and

hasty reactions may be his tragic flaws.

Many scholars point out that Oedipus's greatest act of arrogance is when he tries

to deny his fate. The Oracle of Delphi told him long ago that he was destined to kill

his father and marry his mother. Oedipus tried to escape his fate by never returning to

Corinth, the city where he grew up, and never seeing the people he thought were his

parents again. Ironically, it was this action that led him to kill his real father Laius and

to marry his mother Jocasta. But, I think that it is not fair to believe in that, because

Oedipus' attempt to avoid this bad fate should be considered as a wise behave.

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To conclude, I think that Oedipus' hamartia or tragic flaw, according to Aristotle's

conception is his violent passions and hasty acts. If he did not rashly leave the town in

which he grew up without knowing who his real parents are. If he did not rashly get

so angry when he met his real father, king Laius, in the crossroads and killed him, he

would not fall in the series of errors he made after that. He would not marry his

mother.

Works cited

Butcher. S. H. Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art London, 1902.

Dawe, R. D. Some Reflections on Ate and Hamartia. HSCP 72 (1967) 18-19.

Schütrumpf, Eckart. "Traditional Elements in the Concept of Hamartia in Aristotle's

Poetics". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology , Vol. 92, (1989), pp. 137-156

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Oedipus' Hamartia