Musings on Hamartia
Dec. 20th, 2014 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keshwyn posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
alt_fenThis morning, amidst the chaos of prepping for the holidays, I abruptly realized that Antosha is a perfect example of the Greek hero with the tragic flaw - hamartia[1]. The Greek writers didn't assume that the hero was a moral person - hamartia for them was an intellectual missing of the mark, a conscious overwhelming choice that resulted in the downfall of the hero/protagonist who made it.
Oedipos is the classic example, in that he allowed his rage free rein at the crossroads, where he slew his father without knowing it. All of his other failures - marrying his mother and impregnating her, thus cursing his city (of which he otherwise was the perfect king) with the wrath of the Gods, and so forth - stemmed from that single act.
Antosha's flaw is the oath he took to Voldemort, lo these many years ago. And he says as much in his elisions in his rant to Barty: Why must this damnable vow hanging around my neck like a millstone force me to destroy everything I have built? [2]
He seems to believe that the breaking of that oath will damn him before the Gods - if I die having broken the oath I made, I will have lost not only this life but any hope of the next. And I wish very badly we knew exactly what he'd sworn! - and so he has not yet broken it, even though he feels Voldemort has broken faith with him. But I wonder what cost would be great enough for him that he will break that oath - Barty's death?
He seems to feel that his own afterlife is more important to him than the lives of those around him, which is interesting; if he breaks the oath after Barty dies, will he have damned himself to never seeing his son again? (Presuming, of course, that he thinks Barty died with honor and thus will be worthy of the afterlife.) Or will he keep it to keep that single hope alive? Has he even consciously considered this?
(Has he, student of the classics that he is, realized yet that he IS a tragic hero? Some of my favorite characters are tragic heroes - Obi-Wan Kenobi jumps to mind - but none of them ever seem to realize what they are amidst the carnage. I wonder if he will get enough time to consider his situation, and understand it...)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamartia
[2] http://alt-antonin.dreamwidth.org/38248.html
Oedipos is the classic example, in that he allowed his rage free rein at the crossroads, where he slew his father without knowing it. All of his other failures - marrying his mother and impregnating her, thus cursing his city (of which he otherwise was the perfect king) with the wrath of the Gods, and so forth - stemmed from that single act.
Antosha's flaw is the oath he took to Voldemort, lo these many years ago. And he says as much in his elisions in his rant to Barty: Why must this damnable vow hanging around my neck like a millstone force me to destroy everything I have built? [2]
He seems to believe that the breaking of that oath will damn him before the Gods - if I die having broken the oath I made, I will have lost not only this life but any hope of the next. And I wish very badly we knew exactly what he'd sworn! - and so he has not yet broken it, even though he feels Voldemort has broken faith with him. But I wonder what cost would be great enough for him that he will break that oath - Barty's death?
He seems to feel that his own afterlife is more important to him than the lives of those around him, which is interesting; if he breaks the oath after Barty dies, will he have damned himself to never seeing his son again? (Presuming, of course, that he thinks Barty died with honor and thus will be worthy of the afterlife.) Or will he keep it to keep that single hope alive? Has he even consciously considered this?
(Has he, student of the classics that he is, realized yet that he IS a tragic hero? Some of my favorite characters are tragic heroes - Obi-Wan Kenobi jumps to mind - but none of them ever seem to realize what they are amidst the carnage. I wonder if he will get enough time to consider his situation, and understand it...)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamartia
[2] http://alt-antonin.dreamwidth.org/38248.html