#Hamartia

[onlyhereforangst]

CHARACTER ARC (n): the transformation of a character over the course of a story, sometimes enriched with hamartia to explore the complexities of human nature and endow a sense of authenticity as a character's flaw leads to their ultimate downfall.

being a police officer is my future. i love this job. i love it. i get to help people. i don't feel like a hero. at all.

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

gonna be honest, i never bought much into the ‘Hamlet’s fatal flaw is inaction’ take because what no one ever seems to mention is that he has a pretty good reason for said inaction (zero actual proof) and within about an hour of resolving this he’s gone and killed a man. which is very much an extreme immediate action in my humble opinion. and he follows it up with an absolute whirlwind of whatever the opposite of inaction is (more extreme and reckless action which results in the deaths of about 7 more people before the play is up).

No, I doubt inaction is the best word to describe where he went wrong. The play does leave it a little ambiguous, which is why we have hundreds of years of debates about all this, but personally, I believe Hamlet’s true fatal flaw is pride.

Which is impressive, given how much he seems to loathe himself at points. But Hamlet spends the entire play acting like he’s the smartest person in the room, looking down on and discrediting the people around him, and no matter how much reason they may give him to do so, this is ultimately what I think sends him down the wrong path.

It’s made clear with Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern especially, given that it’s this pride explicitly that gets the three of them killed. Hamlet is shown to consider himself multiple times their intellectual superior, running circles of wit around them in acts 2 and 3, in both of their second scenes, even mocking R&G to their faces for their attempt to play him. And this sense of superiority seems to be his path of reasoning when it comes to distancing himself from and justifying their murders- when Hamlet discovers he’s killed Polonius, his first instinct is to call him a fool, and as he drags the body out of the room, his final words on the matter are to again reinforce the idea that Polonius was a ‘foolish prating knave’ and that his death was divine punishment. With R&G, he kills them without remorse, remarking to Horatio after their deaths that they are ‘not near (my) conscience’, and that their deaths were their own fault for meddling where they shouldn’t have. Even when Horatio rightly points out that killing them was of no benefit to him and actually worsened his situation as there was now a time limit on Hamlet’s plans to enact vengeance imposed by the news of their death returning and Claudius taking more drastic action, Hamlet shrugs him off. Hamlet justifies their deaths at the time by bringing up the letter meant to kill him, but before he’d even found out about the letter or been sent off at all, in the same scene as Polonius’ death Hamlet tells his mother of how he wishes and expects to see the pair ‘hoist by their own petard’, suggesting a level of premeditation. All in all, Hamlet’s intellectual pride is a large part of why these three die, and in the ways they do.

With Ophelia, Hamlet’s pride wounds her as he refuses to let her even respond as he accuses her of cheating on him, and as it stops him from considering any options aside from him being correct, ever. He doesn’t listen to her, doesn’t let her explain, and doesn’t follow up with her besides sexually harassing her publicly and in front of her conservative father and then murdering said father. When he finds out about her death, and hears her brother mourning, his first instinct is to try and ONE-UP HIM, to claim that he loved her more and that he’s more saddened by her passing (after being the entire reason for her death). I’m not even kidding, he starts listing things he’d do that he thinks Laertes wouldn’t or couldn’r to try and ‘beat him’ at his girlfriend’s funeral. And Hamlet never considers in the moment that he might have played a part in her death, or might not have been a great boyfriend. He just wants to be better.

And it’s literally Hamlet’s pride that leads him to the fencing duel where he dies in the first place. It’s explicitly and obviously stated by Claudius and Laertes that they want to play on his jealousy of the attention Laertes has been receiving over his fencing skills and the pride he has in his own to offer him a challenge he can’t (and doesn’t!) refuse. It works, without a single hitch, because Hamlet cannot turn down an opportunity to prove he is better than someone at something. Horatio even tries to get him to turn it down, as they both instinctually know it’s a trap, but Hamlet is too prideful to leave.

Hamlet never considers himself to be wrong about the decisions he makes. It’s either deserved, unfortunate but ultimately deserved, or not his fault. Things happen, and everyone else knows less than he does. He readjusts his moral compass to align with whatever justifications he needs to be ‘right’, and he doesn’t look back. The closest he gets is feeling remorse for putting Laertes in the same situation he’s in, but his apology shifts the blame from himself entirely, even going so far as to victimise himself as well. He is too prideful to leave Claudius to God’s judgement, opting not to kill him in the church which is the turning point for everything going wrong.

And he never sees the consequences as the results of his actions. As he dies, he begs Horatio to live, to tell his story, as he believes it’ll save his reputation. Because it looks bad, sure, but if you just see it from his perspective, it’ll all make sense!

So that’s just my thoughts on it anyway. Hamlet does perhaps have a bit of an overthinking problem, but at the same time, it’s his spontaneity and recklessness that causes lasting damage. Hamlet may be cowardly and afraid to act in faith, but at the same time it’s often doubt that keeps him in check, and to commit murder solely based on the account of a spectre isn’t necessarily a noble act. Despite his seeming self-hatred, suicidal tendencies, and habit of beating himself up over every little thing, it’s a recurring and unsubtle theme that- when Hamlet acts on the belief that he is superior to those around him, without fail, bad things happen.

[traggalicious]

Going in the forever wip folder (this was supposed to become GABRIEL)

[il-predestinato]

Genuinely thought blind loyalty was Charles' thing. Guess Max has the same fatal flaw.

[ohwolfling]

What are your thoughts on Gale and hubris?

I thought hubris was defined as an overconfidence or pride in one's ability to the point of arrogance and ignoring common sense.

I think Gale was overconfident in his ability to handle whatever magic he thought he was returning to Mystra, and also overconfident in his relationship with her. In that, he truly thought he could be her equal, and she would ascend him if only he proved himself worthy enough. Which of course she would never do. And he was so blinded by his love and impatience to be her equal that he didn't see the truth of it.

A character's tragic flaw isn't necessarily a morally reprehensible one. And I don't think Gale's hubris is bad or came from a bad place because he was groomed and enabled by Mystra.

I am not a media analyst, and I could definitely be reading it wrong. Perhaps hubris is not one of Gale's flaws.

There is no pressure to answer this. I was genuinely curious if I was reading his story wrong, and you seem like the best person to ask a question about media analysis.

Hubris typically goes hand in hand with hamartia. Poor hamartia, oft forgotten in the sphere of tragedy. Hubris is sometimes considered part of hamartia, but I keep them separate.

Hubris is a false belief in or an exaggeration of your abilities or other actions of pride. Hamartia is a fatal flaw that leads to your downfall. So for example, Hamlet has the Hubris of thinking he can undo political machinations and avenge his father entirely on his own. The hamartia is Hamlet's endless indecision and lack of action. They're the same, but different. Twins holding hands.

I think technically, yes, Gale has some Hubris, just in general. You can interpret a lot of his actions at a belief that he is invincible or endlessly resourceful, though I think a lot of that is what I call his deathwish tendencies. Less that he thinks he's invincible, more that he doesn't particularly care what happens to himself or flat out doesn't think about it. A really beautiful thing about Gale is that distance from Mystra and then being commanded to die is what makes him realize he wants to be alive and actively alive. Gale wants a LIFE and I don't think that occurred to him before.

But with the Netherese orb he truly believed it was a fragmented piece of the Weave pre the fall of Netheril and so a part of Mystra when she was "whole," "pure," whatever. There's no reason for an archmage/archwizard to not think they could handle retrieving and transporting it to Mystra. Remember - Gale had no intentions on using this fragment for himself.

The hamartia is, I think, less about pride or arrogance though obviously any power imbalanced relationship can deeply wound your pride and self esteem and more about the idea that you can earn your way to personhood in someone's eyes. If he pursues the Crown of Karsus seeking Godhood, then it's the flawed idea that you can win abuse or that one upping the one who hurt you heals you.

All of that to say, hubris is there, but if we look below the surface there's waaaay more going on with stronger influences than the ol' hubris.

Thank you for asking! I really enjoy diving into storytelling in this way. Very meaningful you think of me for that kind of thing. <3

[annimagiclock]

Hamartia | modern reallife AU | Sune Moodboard

@iixtwo hat mich inspiriert<3

[daydreamervalchen]

hamartia mmff blog

www.tumblr.com/hamartia-mmff

(Daumen drücken, dass das so funktioniert, weil ich keinen Plan habe was ich tue :'D)

Ja hamartia bekommt noch einen Blog, bevor das neue Kapitel kommt. (es kommt, diesmal wirklich, ich schwöre lmao.) ദ്ദി ��͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

[westeroswisdom]

The ASoIaF universe has its Shakespearean moments. One of those is Oberyn Martell's hamartia at his trial by combat.

[princesssarisa]

Scholars on Greek mythology and drama seem locked in an endless debate of what Oedipus's hamartia is in Sophocles' play, or even if he has one at all. And if he does have a hamartia, whether it's a "tragic flaw" in the moral sense, or just an error or lack of information. A search through different analyses of the play online will reveal widely different interpretations.

So I thought I would find out what my Tumblr community thinks.

[weighty-ghosts]

‘I promise I will love you loudly and not in the shadows, I promise…’

I kiss the next words out of his mouth, swallowing his small, delicious gasp of surprise.

When I pull back, he looks dizzy. His mouth is kissed red and his cheeks pink and he’s never looked more beautiful. So I tell him that. And when he smiles that shy smile at me, I decide that I’ll tell him that every fucking day.

-Hamartia, by Scarlett Drake

[yeahlikethebird]

When your fatal flaw is an inferiority complex, call that "hamartia-marsha-marsha"

[traggalicious]

Lazarus! Did y’all miss him? (Third drawing is bc i looked at his face and was Haunted. I was like. This looks like someone. And then i realized… he looked like astarion. So i doodled him w/ our favourite vampire’s perfect hair. And despaired.)

[screwnames-ihatenames]

Technodrome fic pretty sure

Edit:I was wrong doing a reread and legit can’t remember anything

[audiocrypt]

Tribulation - 'Hemoclysm'

[annimagiclock]

Hamartia | Pokemon AU | Sune

Da schließe ich mich doch mal @hamartia-mmff an. Sunes Typ sollte deutlich und klar sein.

[hazygabe]

Hamartia by Scarlett Drake

« There was before him and after him, two sides, and I am two completely separate people on each. »