Hubris

"In classical Greek ethical and religious thought, overweening presumption suggesting impious disregard of the limits governing human action in an orderly universe.(Merriam-Webster)" In other words, hubris, or hybris, is an excessive sense of pride in a human being. They often believe that they can accomplish more than the universe itself will allow. Roger Fowler defines hubris as " a man's denial of his own mortality(p.198)." "Hubris is the Greek word for 'insolance' or 'affront'(Baldick p.260)." Baldick continues, " Thus, hubris is the pride that comes before the fall(p.260)."

Hubris is probably best defined through tragedy( generally, a play ending in death). " Aristotle attributes hamartia(tragic flaw or shortcoming) to the tragic hero(Barnett-Berman-Burto p.112)." In the case of a tragedey, hubris is often the tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero. In the most famous examples, the Greek tragedies, the gods would become offended by a man that believed in himself too much. Therefore, they would torture him with unfortunate events that would eventually lead to his demise. Hubris, at times, can also be a mistake. " In other plays, it(hubris) is merely a misstep, such as a choice that turns out badly(Barnett-Berman-Burto p.112)." For example, in Shakespere's Macbeth, Macbeth kills Duncan in order to improve his life. In reality, the exact opposite happens, and Macbeth slowly spirals through a chain of events into despair.

Works Cited

• Barnett,Sylvan, Morton Berman, and William Burto. A Dictionairy of Literary, Dramatic, and Cinematic Terms. 2nd ed. Little, Brown and Company(Inc.) 1971.
• Fowler,Roger ed.A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms. Rouletage & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1973.
• Baldick, Chris. from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. 260 p. [1]
• Hubris.Ed. Merriam-Webster.Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature 1995.[2].