ABSTRACT
As we’ve noted earlier, heroism can be fragile and fleeting. The pedestal on which heroes stand is not a large, stable platform, but rather a tenuous, narrow ledge from which heroes can plunge if they take one small misstep. It seems that rarely a day passes when the news media fail to report a story about a hero who has self-destructed in some way. A great hero who possesses a tragic flaw that leads to his or her self-destruction is called a Tragic Hero.
