Baldick (2008) defines that hamartia is a Greek word for “error” or “failure,” used by Aristotle in his Poetics (4th century BCE) to designate the false step that leads the protagonist in a tragedy to his or her downfall. The term has often been translated as ‘tragic flaw,’ but this misleadingly confines the cause of the reversal of fortunes to some personal defect of character, whereas Aristotle’s emphasis was rather upon the protagonist’s action, which could be brought about by misjudgement, ignorance, or some other cause. This paper examines Artistotle’s emphasis upon protagonists’ “some other cause,” i.e. “caste as tragic flaw.” African American tragic characters’ tragic flaw is race; but, Dalits’ tragic flaw is birth itself.
Joseph Macwan’s
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A few upper caste youths, hiding behind parapet of the building in an opposite auction place, stoned the pot. “C-r-a-ash” a sound Teeha heard. The youths struck Methi’s pot and her whole body became drenched completely. It is her caste that is her flaw. By the time, Teeha moved towards Methi as soon as the pot shattered. Methi’s companions stood at some distance from them. Mathi was wet from head to feet. She stood rooted to the ground. The upper caste youths’ eyes roved over Methi’s breast and navel visible through her wet clothes, because the woman was an untouchable’s community in that village. So the upper caste youths wanted to humiliate her in public place. Look at this caste that became a weak and means of under-estimation. Teeha, a Dalit and an outsider, has openly hit a Patel youth that is a burning issue. But a low-caste girl was assaulted which is considered as sign of upper caste …show more content…
You will be thrown out of the village, without even a drop of water from the lake. If you wish to live in this village harmoniously, then let Moti Dhula and Heera Khana be ostracized and made to answer for their conduct! (31)
Usually, the Patels employe Dalits for the odd seasonal works. They worked and earned under-wages from Patels’ farm lands. But the wages were too stopped after Teeha’s fight with Patels in this village. Moti and Heera Khana’s were considering as a social respectable persons of Dalits. They brought a few persons from the village and ex-communicated Moti and Heera. It is what the social discrimination. Dalits claimed the rights, but excommunicated. Is this justice? Is caste a flaw?
In addition, Patels’ evil intention is to rape Methi so that she could not show her face even to anybody else including her lover Teeha. They wanted to revenge and spoil the prestige of Dalits. Methi is being targeted. There was no punishment worse than this. They had toyed with the idea of raping Methi and teaching a lesson to Teeha. Patels called Methi’s child-marriage-husband Chunthia to an acquaintance’s house in Keradia. They realized that in the very first meeting and he was far from
Hamartia: a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine. Derived from the Greek verb hamartanein, meaning to “miss the mark” or “to err”, Aristotle introduced the term to describe the error of judgment which ultimately led to a hero’s tragic downfall. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare uses teenage love to portray the importance of moderation and vigilance. Although Romeo and Juliet are known as “star-crossed lovers, it does not negate the fact that they are impetuous in their love; fate may have designed their punishment but because of their recklessness it may not have needed to.
Indian society was patriarchal, centered on villages and extended families dominated by males (Connections, Pg. 4). The villages, in which most people lived, were admini...
In in the plays Oedipus Rex and Death of a Salesman, the concept of hamartia is evident within each protagonist. The tragic characters Oedipus and Willy Loman inherent flaws that ultimately lead to their downfalls. Aristotle describes tragic heroes and hamartia:
The idea of falling victim to one’s own flaws is often closely associated with the Aristotelian definition of tragedy, particularly the concepts of hamartia (a tragic or fatal flaw) and hubris (pride before a fall). Although The Winter’s Tale, The Great Gatsby and The Remains of the Day are not widely considered to be tragedies, yet there are elements of the definition that are relevant. This c...
Traditions control how one talks and interacts with others in one’s environment. In Bengali society, a strict code of conduct is upheld, with dishonor and isolation as a penalty for straying. Family honor is a central part to Bengali culture, and can determine both the financial and social standing of a family. Usha’s family poses no different, each member wearing the traditional dress of their home country, and Usha’s parents diligently imposing those values on their daughter. Those traditions, the very thing her [Usha] life revolved around, were holding her back from her new life as an American. Her mother in particular held those traditions above her. For example, when Aparna makes Usha wear the traditional attire called “shalwar kameez” to Pranab Kaku and Deborah’s Thanksgiving event. Usha feels isolated from Deborah’s family [Americans] due to this saying, “I was furious with my mother for making a scene before we left the house and forcing me to wear a shalwar kameez. I knew they [Deborah’s siblings] assumed, from my clothing, that I had more in common with the other Bengalis than with them” (Lahiri ...
Thesis: Tragedy was a source of entertainment back from the Ancient Greece that was written to tell a story and to pull audiences into feeling remorse and pity. It was also used to help the audience gain an appropriate response about the protagonist. Hamlet, Agamemnon, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is comparable pieces of literature that shares a similar element of Hamartia.
Daniel, Aharon. "Sati-Burning of the Widow." India History. Tripod, 2000. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. .
The way in which women are treating in Indian community is totally unfair and she talks about hegemony of male in Indian society and one interesting point is that, the women are fully following the culture and beliefs which treating them unfairly so this injustice or unfairness became part of their life and shaped their belief, even sometimes male are not believing to such value but still female are persisting or may there is the element of compulsion in the Fire movie it has been shown in Fire movie that wife is fasting because of long life of the husband but husband is not giving that much importance to such believes but here is the duty of female not to persist to such kind thoughts which has no meaning and it is just a trouble for them and the fire shows the extreme compulsion of the women to stay in husband house even in the worst situation because of not having any other option they have to deal with such a painful situation and it shows that religion and cultural value is very important for the society which they cannot escape from that in spite of creating so much trouble for them, such values have been shaped the thought system of the people and became part of the people life. Male can do whatever they want to do but if it comes to female it might be a big deal and a big issue if they do a small thing, it shows how the
The current manifestations of the caste system are now far more generalized across the Indian subcontinent than was the case in former times. Caste as we now recognize has been endangered, shaped and perpetuated by comparatively recent political and social developments. This is evident even i...
Mahesh Dattani writes on the burning issues that beset the post-independence Indian society, whether it is communal discord, politics and crime, growing homosexuality or the gender bias. He uses stage to condemn many of the drawbacks prevailing in society. His plays depict marginalized groups of society, people who are considered misfits in a society where stereotyped attitudes and notions reign supreme. His plays have varied content and varied appeal.
Premchand points out some of the problems in the social structure of India in “The Road to Salvation”. The story tells of two working men who ruin each other financially and morally. Premchand is not only talking about the turmoil between members of the same caste, he’s also saying that as long as people continue ruin each other, nothing good can come from it. Jhingur and Buddhu materialistic desires blinded them, and they may never see the true value of life. They are trapped in a cycle of revenge that brought their own destruction.
The Das parents’ negligent relationship with their children in Clear Light of Day mirrors India’s independence from Britain. Before their deaths, Mr. and Mrs. Das were preoccupied and inattentive to their four children, Raja, Tara, Bim, and Baba. They spent most of their time at the club, playing “their daily game of bridge” (Desai 50). This pastime is so important to them that they neglect to take care of their kids. For example, Mrs. Das tires of “washing and powdering” Baba, her mentally disabled baby, and she complains, “My bridge is suffering” (103). Mr. Das also does not focus on his children and “he [goes] through the day without addressing a word to them” (53). Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Das are unable to ever form a loving relationship with their children because they both pass away. After Mrs. Das falls into a...
The history of tribal oppression in India is an old one. “The Sanyasi Revolt”, “The Wahabi Movement”, and “The Naxalbari Rebellion”, are evidence of the tribal outcry that appropriately foregrounds their requirement for fundamental rights as citizens of the country. Even after sixty six years of independence, India’s rural poor and tribals are lamenting under the curbing effects of destitution, unemployment, undernourishment, illiteracy and human trafficking. For these people, the notions of liberty, equality and democracy have no meaning at all. Though the country is free from the bondage of foreign rule, their repression and prejudices still continue leaving them dependent on their new masters.
It was my observation after reading Hamlet, that the play and its main character are not typical examples of tragedy and contain a questionable "tragic flaw" in the tragic hero. I chose this topic because Hamlet is a tragedy, but one that is very different from classical tragedies such as Medea. I also found quite a lot of controversial debate over the play and its leading character. While reading through my notes, I found that, according to Aristotle, "the tragic hero will most effectively evoke both our pity and terror if he is neither thoroughly good nor evil but a mixture of both; and also that the tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is better than we are in the sense that he is of higher than ordinary moral worth. Such a man is exhibited as suffering a change in fortune from happiness to misery because of a mistaken act, to which he is led by his hamartia ("error of judgment") or his tragic flaw." It is important that this be clear, because I plan to demonstrate how Shakespeare makes Hamlet an atypical tragedy to begin with, and how controversial an issue Hamlet's tragic flaw is.
The Untouchables of the caste system are seen by many as outcasts, unwanted humans who are simply unworthy of being seen on earth. Members of this class are considered impure from birth, because they perform unsanitary jobs, with little pay. For example, citizens who handle items polluted by blood or human waste, a leatherworker who works with animal skins, a weaver who creates cloth, a person who cremates or buries the dead, and a manual scavenger, are all considered Untouchable. A Dalit woman describes her day-to-day job as a “sweeper,” (collecting feces on the street), “I feel very sick. I can’t breathe. I can’t bend and lift the vessel” (Dalit Freedom Network). There is no way to escape these horrific jobs, she explains, “I have been asking the supervisor to give me another job, but he wont shift me from here” (Dalit Freedom Network). The illegal job of a manual scavenger is still present in many parts of India, and is still relied upon by societies in the country. Woman, however, are usually targeted for this grueling job. Safai Karmachari Andolan, a manual scavenger describes, “ I slipped and fell into the gutter. No one would come to pick me up because the basket was so dirty and I was covered with filth.” (). These horrific jobs, which untouchables are forced to participate in, severely damage their emotional and physical health.