ABSTRACT
Aristotle analyzes the different ways in which a character may change throughout the story. He prefers the model of a good person meeting with bad fortune. That bad fortune arises from something the hero does, from some mistake or misjudgment that itself arises from the hero’s fatal flaw, or hamartia. Ironically, Aristotle also prefers a plot where the hero realizes the error he has made before it can result in bad fortune. The reconciliation of these two observations leads to the precept that in the best plots, heroes either overcome their fatal flaw, or their fatal flaw overcomes them.
