Hubris

Pronounced HYOO-bris.

Hubris: Excessive pride or self-confidence that invites downfall.

Hubris gives a downfall its motor: the character's defining strength curdles into the certainty that rules don't apply to them, and the plot proves otherwise.

Hubris examples

• "Oedipus is certain he can outrun the prophecy, and his certainty walks him straight into it."

  — Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

• "Icarus, warned twice, flies toward the sun anyway."

  — Greek myth

• "Victor Frankenstein assumes the right to create life and refuses every consequence of it."

  — Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

• "In Greek thought, hubris was the offence of mortals who overstepped their portion - the gods' response was nemesis."

  — common usage

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