"Charismatic groups form around a leader who displays extraordinary abilities in times of social distress and who is often thought to have supernatural or magical powers. Raphael Falco demonstrates that English tragedies are full of such figures. Most charisma is at first revolutionary, challenging traditional or bureaucratic forms of authority. But sooner or later groups that depend on the pure or personal charisma of a central figure begin to change, even to break down.

Tragedies often focus on this difficult process of charismatic transformation - a process, Falco argues, that is best understood not in terms of a single tragic figure but as a group experience."--BOOK JACKET.