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, such pride could be considered insolence, or a negative trait, by others.

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, 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 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].