Hamartia is the error or frailty that leads a tragic hero to catastrophe. Aristotle used the term in the Poetics to describe the cause of the hero’s reversal of fortune.

The word is often translated as “tragic flaw,” yet it can also mean a specific mistake in judgment rather than a fixed character defect. Oedipus’s determined pursuit of the truth, Macbeth’s ambition, and Lear’s misjudgment of his daughters all function as hamartia. The hero is not simply wicked; the error arises from a quality that might elsewhere be admirable or from a moment of blindness. Because the audience can see the mistake and its consequences, the fall arouses pity and fear.

Later critics have debated how moralized the concept should be. Some emphasize the hero’s responsibility; others stress the role of fate or circumstance. In either case, hamartia remains a useful name for the pivot on which a tragedy turns—the point at which the protagonist’s action or nature becomes the engine of their own undoing.

The misstep or weakness that sends a noble figure toward disaster is hamartia.