"hamartia" is a lovely word I stumbled on.

"The hero of tragedy is not perfect, however. To witness a completely virtuous
person fall from fortune to disaster would provoke moral outrage at such an
injustice. Likewise, the downfall of a villainous person is seen as appropriate
punishment and does not arouse pity or fear. The best type of tragic hero,
according to Aristotle, exists "between these extremes . . . a person who is neither
perfect in virtue and justice, nor one who falls into misfortune through vice and
depravity, but rather, one who succumbs through some miscalculation." The term
hamartia, which Golden translates as "miscalculation," literally means "missing
the mark," taken from the practice of archery.

Taken from http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/Aristotle_Tragedy.html

The whole thing is well worth reading.