HAMARTIA!
The poem "In the Secular Night" by Margaret Atwood (yes, I'm talking about this one again) is filled with a lot of emotion that seems to result in the speaker reaching a point of hamartia and not of redemption or creation. The tragic flaw that I see displayed in this poem is shown through the speaker as she remains in desperation throughout the poem. At the beginning when she is younger it seems as if it is just exaggerated emotion, but even after 40 years she is still the same character as she was in the beginning. This could be a tragic flaw for human nature in some ways as there are people everywhere who surround themselves with consistency, even if that consistency is destructive. The desolation of this does enhance the message as the last few lines about the person getting hit by a car severely changes your feelings towards the poem and you see it for something much worse than just a girl eating lima beans at home. That is why I believe the tragic flaw of this character is so essential to the message of this poem.
Our need for relationships...
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We've been dancing around the idea that God has created human beings so
that we need love and meaningful relationships as much as we need air and
food and...
16 years ago
1 comment:
"This could be a tragic flaw for human nature in some ways as there are people everywhere who surround themselves with consistency, even if that consistency is destructive."
I think this is a very crucial statement when pondering the essence of hamartia. Often times, hamartia is actually found in each and every one of us! We have all of our faults in life and sometimes those faults can cross the line and leave us with thinking how human we are. Haha, if that made any sense ...
All in all, I think "In the Secular Night" strongly portrays the idea of hamartia through the teenage and later 40 year old woman.
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