A tragic hero is a character with heroic or noble traits, but also a fatal flaw that ultimately leads to their downfall. Tragic heroes typically have heroic traits that earn them the sympathy of the audience, but also have flaws or make mistakes that ultimately lead to their own downfall. They are often imperfect or wounded with some sort of fraught experience, and typically have some sort of fatal flaw. According to Aristotle, the tragic hero must evoke a sense of pity and fear within the audience, and the focus of the hero should not be the loss of his goodness. The tragic hero is a protagonist who, despite their virtuous and sympathetic traits, ultimately meets defeat, suffering, or an untimely end.

Here are some common characteristics of a tragic hero:

• Hubris: excessive pride is a common trait that tragic heroes have before their downfall.
• Good intentions: tragic heroes are typically well-intentioned people with a solid moral compass.
• Fatal flaw: tragic heroes have a fatal flaw that ultimately leads to their downfall.
• Relatable motivations: their motivations should be relatable, even if they are sometimes misguided.
• Reversal-of-fate: the character has to start out doing pretty okay, but the reversal-of-fate coming in the plot means the characters situation worsens.

Examples of tragic heroes include Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire.