THE BEAUTY OF FAILURE: HAMARTIA IN ARISTOTLE'S POETICS

Abstract

In Poetics 13, Aristotle claims that the protagonist in the most beautiful tragedies comes to ruin through some kind of 'failure' - in Greek, 'Greek Passage'. There has been notorious disagreement among scholars about the moral responsibility involved in 'Greek Passage'. This article defends the old reading of 'Greek Passage' as a character flaw, but with an important modification: rather than explaining the hero's weakness as general weakness of will, it argues that the tragic hero is blinded by temper 'Greek Passage' or by a pursuit for fine, good and desirable things - that is, by what may be labelled 'qualified' weakness of will. The upshot is that 'Greek Passage' ends up as being less blameworthy than 'proper' 'Greek Passage', but still explains why morally outstanding people are unsuitable for the most beautiful tragedies.