Here we are at the end of The Flaws You Expect with a Tragic Hero! Part one is Life's Full of Expectations and part two is The Worse Flaw is a Tragic Flaw! Naturally, you have read both and are now ready for me to get to the point. A tragic hero is a person of noble birth/potentially heroic qualities. They are fated by the Gods/other supernatural force to doom/destruction/or the very least great suffering. It's sad that if you're a tragic hero the minor punishment is great suffering.
But with that definition out of the way let’s talk about getting the hero of a tragic story to suffer. That suffering involves...character development. Now the hero of the story needs both good and bad qualities about them. This makes them feel more like a real person. The goal of the author is to have a simple and complex hero. The reader should be able to explain the main character in a few short sentences but have them be complex enough to drive the story. A tragic hero needs to be relatable while the main character in a teenage drama story does not. (Because who really relates to the teens in those books?)
A tragic hero has different effects on the author than they do for the reader. The obvious difference is the fact that the author is the "parent" of the book and the reader is taking the book on a "date". An author puts a part of themselves in the story they write, so the main character is dear to them. So when the main character is a tragic hero, there is a stronger attachment because their child is suffering. That's why there are some characters that only the author can love. The reader can feel a wide range of emotions towards the tragic hero. But indifference is probably one the author doesn't want them to feel.
Before the story ends the tragic hero's biggest flaw has to trip them up. The reason for this is because a supernatural force (the author) makes sure the hero developed this flaw. The reader has to be able to figure out that this flaw is the reason why the tragic hero is going to suffer. My goal would be to make the reader see either a bit of themselves or those close to them in the tragic hero. And of course, watch as they suffer and the other characters that are around get dragged into the madness. Creating that connection with the reader is important. After all, I do love drama, don't you?
But what does the reader want when it comes to the fall of the tragic hero? If I had to guess, that the story doesn't suck. No reader wants to be bored by the story and certainly not by the main character. This is why people are such picky book readers. (I should know because I'm picky with books.) As a reader, if you're going to be brought down by a book it should be because the story moved you; not because it was badly written. A book that does that for you is purely up to your taste in literature.
