Hamartia
An error or a flaw in the character of the protagonist of a tragedy. It causes the hull or the protagonist from the zenith of his success to the nadir or his misery. It is also called tragic flaw. Dr. Faustus' thirst
[or god-like power in Doctor Faustus, King Lear's error of mdgement in king Lear, Hamlet's indecision in Hamlet, Macbeth's high ambition in Macbeth and Othello's jealousy in Othello, are the causes of their tragic doom. Each of these flaws is known as hamartia. If the protagonist suffers and dies for his pride, the flaw in his character is called hubris.
Heroie Couplet:
A pair of iambic pentameter verse lines which rhyme together.
Example:
Brit when / to mis / chief mor / tals bend / their will
How soon / they find / fit ins / truments / of ill!
(Pope: The Rape of the Lock)
Each of these lines consists of five iambic feet. In other words, each line consists of five pairs of syllables and in each pair the first syllable is unstressed and the second is stressed. Such five feet arranged in a verse line are called iambic pentameter. When two such iambic pentameter lines end with similar sounds as "ill" in the above lines, they are called heroic couplet. The meaning of this couplet is complete in itself. This kind of couplet is called closed couplet. Here is another example of closed couplet:
Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;
Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
(Pope: The Rape of the Lock)
However, the meaning of a couplet may not be complete in itself as in the following one:
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive; I call
(Robert Browning: "My Last Duchess")
Heroic couplets are mostly used in poems which deal with heroic actions, grand emotions and lofty thoughts. Pope and Dryden are the well-known masters of heroic couplet. [see Foot, Couplet]
Humours:
The four kinds of human temperaments. The four fluids that determine the four temperaments are also called humours.
The theory of four temperaments was introduced by an ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-370BC). According to his physiology, the four fluidsâblood, phlegm, black bile (or melancholy) and yellow bile (or choler) â are analogous to the four basic elements: air, water, earth and fire. Thus, blood is as hot and moist as air; phlegm is as cold and moist as water; black bile is as cold and dry as earth; yellow bile is as hot and dry as fire. The predominance of any of these humours in a person determines his or her character. For example, the predominance of blood makes a person sanguine, joyful and amorous. The predominance of phlegm makes a person phlegmatic, dull and cowardly. The predominance of black bile makes a person melancholic, thoughtful and sentimental.
The predominance of yellow bile makes a person choleric, impatient and obstinate. Humours, therefore, mean four fluids as well as four temperaments. [see Comedy of Humours]
Hyperbole:
An exaggerated statement or an extreme overstatement.
Examples:
"Ten thousand saw I at a glance,"
(Wordsworth: "Daffodils")
From the east to western Ind
No jewel is like Rosalind.
Her worth being mounted on the wind Through all the world bears Rosalind.
All the pictures fairest lined
Are but black to Rosalind.
(Shakespeare: As You Like It, Act III, Scene II)
"Ay sir, to be honest as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of two thousand."
(Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act II, Scene H)
I lov'd Opelia; forty thousand brothers
Could not (with all their quantity of love) Make up my sum.
(Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act V, Scene I)
An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest;
(Andrew Marvell: "To His Coy Mistress")
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street,
(W.H. Auden: As I Walked Out One Evening")
Hyperbole is used to create strong emotional response. It can be positive as well as negative. It can be a source of laughter. It can also be a bitter criticism.
