Hamartia
A character's fatal flaw or critical error of judgement that leads to their downfall in a tragedy. Aristotle introduced the concept in his Poetics, and it has been debated ever since—does hamartia mean a moral failing (like Macbeth's ambition) or simply a mistake made in ignorance (like Oedipus not knowing his true parents)? Either way, hamartia makes tragic heroes sympathetic: they are undone not by pure villainy but by being imperfectly human.
