What is Aristotle's concept of Hamartia?

OR
What is a tragic flaw in Aristotle's views?

HAMARTIA: TRAGIC FLAW

(i) Definition:
Aristotle defines tragedy as an imitation of a human action, which is serious
and not comic in nature. The serious action concentrates on the sufferings,
pains and pangs of the tragic hero who is, generally speaking, a good person
but possesses a minor tragic flaw. The word which Aristotle used in poetics
for tragic flaw is Hamartia.
(ii) The Word “Hamartia":
The word Hamartia is borrowed from the art of archery. It is used for a miss
short. Aristotle takes its metaphorical sense and applies it for the hero's error
of judgement. A tragic hero, according to Aristotle, is necessarily a man of
noble birth, towering personality and extra-ordinary qualities but possesses
one minor moved weakness that causes his fall. The hero, when passing
through an extremely critical phase of his life, is caught up in such an
irritating situation that he has to take an important decision in his mind,
collecting all the good things that would happen, but what happens later on
proves quite opposite to his expectations. Owing to his error of judgement,
the tragic hero faces a reversal of fortune (and this reversal of fortune is the
same thing which Aristotle calls in his poetics by the frame of 'peripeteia').
(iii) Fame of a Tragic Hero:
When the audience meet him in the beginning of a play, the tragic hero is
found on the top of his fame. But when he commits his error of judgement,
his reputation falls down. The reversal of fortune brings a chain of sufferings
for the hero. The sufferings go on multiplying. During the course of suffering,
he faces so many problems and agonies. His towering personality is sheltered
like sand castles and he becomes a miserable wretch, until death releaves
him. The audience pity his fall and fear his destiny. The tragic flaw
emotionally moves the audience whose feelings of pity and fear perform a
soothing function, which is the end of a tragedy.
(iv) Self-Enlightenment of the Hero:
The sufferings of a tragic hero are not merely incidents of torture, but they
help the tragic hero in gaining self-knowledge. This attainment of self-
knowledge from ignorance is given the name of anagnorisis by Aristotle. The
wisdom brought by sufferings makes the hero understand his own typical
tragic weakness.
(v) Hamartia as a Key-Concept:
Hamartia is a key concept in Aristotle's definition of tragedy because it plays
the vital role both in the development of a tragic end of a tragic hero.
(vi) Conclusion:
As discussed earlier, 'Hamartia' is an error of judgement on the part of the
hero. But 'Hamartia' is not a moral failing. Bradley has transmitted it rather
loosely as “tragic flaw.” According to Aristotle, the cause of hero's fall must
lie "not in moral depravity. In some error or 'Hamartia' on his part." Butcher
says, "Hamartia” is not a moral failing, but an error of judgement on part of
the tragic hero."
Firstly, the error of judgement is derived from ignorance of some trivial fact
or circumstance. 'Hamartia' is accompanied by many moral infections, but
not in itself a moral imperfection.
Secondly, an error of judgement may arise from some hasty or careless view
of a given situation. The meaning fits with “the”, when the hero has all the
opportunities to know the circumstance fully but he took a careless view of
the whole situation, and, so, committed an error of judgement. Such an error
has the greatest appeal to our emotions.
Thirdly, it may be an error of judgement not committed voluntarily, but
deliberately, as in the case of acts committed in anger or passion.