Catastrophe

Catastrophe is the point in the tragic hero's downfall where everything just falls apart. So there's a hero just being awesome (or so they think) and being a jerk to one or more people. Then all of a sudden the rug to yanked from under their feet and they find themselves sprawled on the ground. While all their former "friends" are mentally and physically distancing themselves from the fallen "hero" or they are bawling over the loss of the hero. In my mind there are two types of tragic heroes. One type is the actually tragic hero where the audience is deeply saddened by the fall of the hero. The hero might of been arrogant but they really didn't deserve the fate they were given. The other type is the one where the "hero" was extremely arrogant and did deserve their fate. The audience still feels sorry for the latter type of tragic hero but at the same time they knew it was bound to happen at some point. 

Sadly or luckily, however you want to look at it, the tragic hero that my group studied was the tragic hero who was a complete jerk and deserved his fate. It probably didn't help that our film was from the "villain's" point of view so the hero was extreme jerk to gain sympathy and get the audience on the villain's side. One of the things that the tragic hero project has taught me is that when a tragic hero falls it's not only the hero that get severely impacted. In Oedipus Rex when Oedipus finds out the truth about what he has caused his mother/wife commits suicide and since since his children were interbred they will live as outcasts for the rest of their days. So not only did Oedipus become blind and exiled he also caused the death of his mother/wife and the social shunning of his children. In the film my group studied, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, when our hero tries to kill the villain he ends up being throw across a room, experiencing pain for the first time in his life and killing his girlfriend. Also since he was the hero of the city and he is now unable to protect it, the villain has free reign of the city. So the hero ended up kill his girlfriend and basically handed over control of the city to a villain. When a hero falls everything around thing around them falls too.