Hybris and hamartia in Los de abajo by Mariano Azuela

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the manifestation of hybris and hamartia in the character Demetrio Macías from Mariano Azuela's novel Los de abajo in order to demonstrate two hypotheses: a) The minimal hypothesis posits that Demetrio Macías is a complex character because he suffers from hybris and commits hamartia, which confirms that he is not a stereotyped character – as some critics of this Azuela novel claim – but rather a character that presents the artistic property of characters by which, according to Aristotle, the character has to be "good," "appropriate," "similar," and "consistent." b) The maximal hypothesis proposes the idea that the hybris manifested in Demetrio Macías, and contagiously reflected in certain characters, leads to his final downfall and, as an effect of that "excess of character," the character's actions are purposeless (or rather disproportionate). This last statement indicates, as a definitive postulate, that the novel, for a long time, was categorized as an ideologically "neutral" or "apolitical" work. However, it is the disproportionate actions – an effect of the hybris and hamartia that manifests the character and actions of the protagonist – that define the ambiguity in the general thesis of the novel.