Wiktionary
n. (context chiefly literary criticism English) A personality trait or other characteristic of a real or fictional individual which is immoral, destructive, or otherwise faulty and which leads to the ruin or profound suffering of that individual.
WordNet
n. the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall [syn: hamartia]
Usage examples of "tragic flaw".
If Blanche is a tragic figure, she needs a tragic flaw, a quality of personality that leads to her destruction.
With this in mind, you can probably infer Blanche's tragic flaw from her dialogue with Mitch.
The traha had ever been the tragic flaw of the Aoibhells, but was it not hubris beyond even the traha smugly to think herself immune to it?
And Wilkinson's tragic flaw is that he doesn't even know he's a tragic figure.
In his view they constituted his onlymajor shortcoming - his one tragic flaw.
The hero had to have a tragic flaw, had to drive himself to his fate.
This was a particularly tragic flaw a million years ago, since the people who were best informed about the state of the planet, like *Andrew MacIntosh, for example, and rich and powerful enough to slow down all the waste and destruction going on, were by definition well fed.
As Picard watched, he saw before him a man who was his own tragic flaw.
It had taken everything he had left to overcome the years of training that Meryat had called his tragic flaw but, in the end, hed managed a solid kick in the ankle.
The Duchess set about studying Annette and shortly found her adversary's tragic flaw.