Hubris

The Greeks saw hubris as an "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. These humans 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" (198). Indeed it seems that the only way for a person to obtain such pride is to loose all sense of fear for his own wellbeing. After all, if a person has no fear at all, then they have a perfect pride in themselves, and in some ways, may even believe that they are perfect. "Hubris is the Greek word for 'insolence' or 'affront'" (Baldick 260). Baldick continues, "Thus, hubris is the pride that comes before the fall" (260). Even though an overpowering sense of pride is healthy for one's self esteem, others could consider such pride insolence, or a negative trait.

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 112). In the case of a tragedy, hubris is often the tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero. In the most famous examples, the Greek tragedies, a man that believed in himself too much would offend the gods. 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 112). For example, in Shakespeare'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].