hamartia

noun

ha·mar·tia ˌhä-ˌmär-ˈtē-ə

: tragic flaw

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Hamartia arose from the Greek verb hamartanein, meaning "to miss the mark" or "to err." Aristotle introduced the term in the Poetics to describe the error of judgment which ultimately brings about the tragic hero's downfall. As you can imagine, the word is most often found in literary criticism. However, media writers occasionally employ the word when discussing the unexplainable misfortune or missteps of celebrities regarded as immortal gods and goddesses before being felled by their own shortcomings. For example, a writer for The New Republic in an April 2018 review of Chappaquiddick (a movie about U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy) comments that "Kennedy's ruthlessness and ambition, which are treated as the family's hamartia in Chappaquiddick, are swept under the rug of his compassion."

Examples of hamartia in a Sentence

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Kennedy’s ruthlessness and ambition—which are treated as the Kennedys’ hamartia in Chappaquiddick—are swept under the rug of his compassion. —