Happy almost St. Patrick’s day to everyone! I’m trying to get this post out of the way so I can get a good night of sleep tonight and go out and celebrate the Irish Tradition tomorrow evening. 

At first I didn’t know where I should begin because there are so many aspects of this piece of literature that can be further explored. I decided to take some of Colleen’s suggestions into consideration and eventually chose to further explore the term hamartia that she presented.

Prior to this post I had never heard of the word hamartia before. Following some research that I found on about.com, I learned that Hamartia is a concept used by Aristotle to describe tragedy. Hamartia refers to the fall of a noble man caused by some excess or mistake in behavior, not because of a willful violation of the god’s laws. Hamartia is related to hubris. (I believe hubris means overwhelming pride.) When I first read about.com’s definition of hamartia, I immediately thought of Dorian Gray.

“Dorian, the gods have been good to you. But what the Gods give, they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live. Then your youth goes – and your beauty will go with it. Then you will discover that there are no more triumphs left for you” (18).

My initial interpretation of the word was that a hamaritious person (Yes, I think I just invented the word hamartious) is someone who is well liked by society for varying reasons but experiences a great fall due to an error in behavior or judgment. I thought my initial interpretation of the word accurately described Dorian Gray’s character.

The above passage from page 18 of the book is foreshadowing the outcome of Dorian’s character. At first we see Dorian as beautiful and of elite society; than we learn that something causes him to make poor choices and his behavior begins to spiral out of control. This makes me second guess my initial interpretation… maybe this term isn’t describing Dorian

After reading the definition of hamartia from Britannica.com my perception of my initial interpretation has changed:

Aristotle introduced the term, hamartia, casually in the Poetics in describing the tragic hero as a man of noble rank and nature whose misfortune is not brought about by villainy but by some “error of judgment” (hamartia). This imperfection later came to be interpreted as a moral flaw, such as Othello’s jealousy or Hamlet’s irresolution, although most great tragedies defy such a simple interpretation.

For whatever reason, I immediately thought of Basil Hallward after reading Britannica’s definition of hamartia. My interpretation from this definition is that hamartia describes a character that is of noble rank but unfortunately something happens for people to misinterpret this character, therefore he is never seen as the hero but sometimes he is seen as the villain, or nether. I could be completely way off but that is the way I interpreted Britannica’s definition.

I thought of Basil Hallward because Oscar Wilde is known for his passion for aestheticism, therefore, Basil being an artist, can be portrayed as noble rank in the novel. Many people in elite society regarded artists as important people. The error in judgment could be that he was the one who painted the picture of Dorian Gray; therefore, he might be blamed for Dorian’s wild antics after the picture ultimately impaired Dorian’s morals and values.

The definition goes on to say that this imperfection later came to be interpreted as a moral flaw, “such as Othello’s jealously or Hamlet’s irresolution.” Perhaps Basil’s moral flaw is that he worries too much about Lord Henry’s influence on Dorian but doesn’t consider how is painting might influence Dorian. Maybe if Basil had insisted that he see the portrait when Dorian wouldn’t let him the course of events what have greatly been altered. I also think that Basil is very naïve. On page 146 he says,

“You must care Dorian. Of course, I don’t believe the horrible things people say. I think sin is something that writes itself across a man’s face. I cannot be hidden. You look as young and pure as you did when we first met” (146).

Basil is easily fooled by Dorian’s looks. Therefore his moral flaw could be that he judges people based upon how they look and not how they act. Basil’s painting could have just fueled Dorian’s narcissism and immoral values. I think a lot of people tend to point their finger at Lord Henry, but in reality they both could have made a bad influence on Dorian. I might have this all wrong but just some ideas I’ve been trying to put together the last couple of days. Maybe I should just go straight to Aristotle’s, Poetics, (where the word hamartia originated) to develop a further understanding of the term.


Works Cited:

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/drama/g/Hamartia.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/253196/hamartia