Tragic hero

A tragic hero, in literature, is a protagonist that is otherwise perfect except for a tragic flaw, that eventually brings him down in the end. The concept was created in ancient Greek tragedy. More often than not, the tragic flaw is hubris, such as in the work Antigone and Oedipus Rex. Another famous tragic hero is Shakespeare's King Lear. An example of a tragic hero in modern literature would be Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.