Aristotle's poetics-six parts of tragedy

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Aristotle Poetics : Six parts of tragedy

M.K. Bhavnagar University

Department of English

Sem-1

Name- Hema Goswami

Roll no. : 15

Enrollment no. :2069108420180020

Course 3 : Literary theory and Criticism

Introduction

Aristotle only wants to study poetry and other fine arts when he make sure about its constitutive parts, so that he can draw general conclusions (sparknote stydy guide). In the poetics Aristotle mainly speaks about tragedy and epic poetry. He walks in the path of his mentor Plato but differently. He follows his mentor’s theory of mimesis, but he also criticize his theory at some point of his work. Plato attacked poetry in general including tragedy from moral and philosophical point of view. Aristotle feels like that he had to defend poetry against his mentor’s attack on the moral and philosophical ground. F.L Lucas very effectively says that:-

“Poetry, said Plato makes men cowardly by its picture of the afterworld. No, replies Aristotle, it can purge men’s fear.”

 Aristotle says that poetry is mimetic and in mimesis, it creates a representation of objects and events of the world. Aristotle says that tragedy is the most unified version of poetry.

Aristotle’s views on history of Tragedy

Aristotle says that tragedy deals with lofty matters. He also traces brief history about tragedy. It evolved from dithyrambic hymns in the praise of god. The name of that god is Dionysus. It was sung by a large number of people or choir, sometimes only narrator. The famous Greek philosopher Aeschylus invented tragedy by bringing a second actor into dialogue with the narrator. And later on other Greek philosopher extended this idea by introducing a third actor, and then tragedy slowly shifted to its dramatic form.

Aristotle further extended his definition on tragedy. He says that tragedy is mimetic, serious and it tells any story in an appropriate length without breaking it into any parts, means it tells full story spontaneously. Tragedy contains harmony and rhythm and it occur in different combination of different parts of tragedy. Tragedy is more performed and less narrated. When tragedy was being performed into the stage or in any other way, it arouses feelings of pity and fear and then released these feelings in form of relief. This situation is better known as Catharsis in Greek language.

Catharsis

Catharsis is derived out from Greek word ‘katharsis’ meaning “purification” (wikipedia the free encyclopedia). So it means catharsis is the purification and purgation of emotions such as pity and fear, any change in our emotion which leads to feel like extreme is known as catharsis.

Aristotle uses this term to define tragedy in more significant way. This is the word from which Aristotle ending his definition, he did not end with other words like ‘delight’. As we know that the famous playwright Dryden ended his definition of the play by the word ‘delight’. He puts more emphasis in this word, rather than catharsis in the play.

Aristotle’s views on catharsis are very true, since in present time also. Whenever we watch any tragedy, we may feel certain kind of tension after some hours. At some point it rise to its extent and afterward we feel relaxed just like release of burden. This type of relaxation is not purgation, moderation. But it is kind of satisfaction or fulfillment. It leads to reasonable conclusion. this is kind of psychological change or the truth of psychology. It helps us to gain something, a sort of artistic delight. In the anatomy of that delight we find the truth of psychology.

 Literary Examples of Catharsis 

1-

    Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

 

In Act 5 scene 3, when Juliet was lying dead, then Romeo finds Juliet and speaks to Juliet of his intention to spend eternity with her, describing himself as shaking “the yoke of inauspicious stars/From this world-wearied flesh” he drinks poison, kisses Juliet twice and dies. This scene makes us to feel catharsis. We feel pity and fear in this scene. We feel pity for Juliet who is not still dead, who is just enacting to be look like dead and was faint for several hours only, but Romeo was unaware about the truth and he drinks the poison, this scene brings fear for Romeo that he may meet Juliet if he waits for some minutes but he eagerly takes decision to kill himself.

-  -Isabella, or the pot of Basil by John Keats

This long beautiful love poem is full of catharsis. At every point in this poem we feel pity and fear for these two star-crossed lovers.

“ A whole long month of May in this sad plight

  Made their cheeks paler by the break of June:

 “To-morrow will I ask my lady’s boon”-

“O may I never see another night,…..”

These lines of the poem arouse feeling of pity for the lover. The lover was so helpless that he was not able to meet his beloved. He knows that his death was near and therefore he ask question to himself that will he able to see another night anymore or not. This misery of the lover brings our feeling on highest peach of sorrowness.

Six parts of Tragedy

A tragedy has six parts in general. In the above smart art the parts are listed in order from most important to least important. The first one is plot which is the soul and most important part of tragedy, the second is character, then thought, diction, melody and last important part is spectacle.

For each and every part there is Greek name given to them.

English            -       Greek

1-Plot              -       Mythos

2- Character  -       Ethos

3- Thought     -       Dianoia

4- Diction       -       Lexis

5- Melody      -       Melos

6- Spectacle  -       Opsis

In modern times this theory has lost its importance, because now a day new words are emerging like catastrophe, to  give other meaning to the parts of tragedy. The significance was limited to the Aristotelian idea about tragedy.

1.                         Plot(mythos)

Aristotle says that a well formed plot must have beginning, middle or end.

A beginning is not necessary starts with any previous action, but a middle follows logically from the beginning. An end, which follows logically from middle and afterwards no further action takes place. There must be unity in the structure of the plot. There should be no loose ends.

Episodic plots are not considered as good plot because there is not any kind of unity or sequence of events is also not logical.

Aristotle further says that the best kind of plots contains surprises and these surprises fits logically into the events. There are two words which describes this situation in a better way:-

a)  Peripeteia- It is called reversal of fortune. A good plot progresses until the moment of peripeteia, at which point it reaches at a conclusion.

b)            Anagnorisis- It is called discovery, means to discover certain new thing in the plot which makes plot much effective.

Aristotle further defines plot as “the harmonious arrangement of the incidents”. There must be cause and effect chain of actions.

Magnitude of plot is very important both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Aristotle argues that a plot should not be too brief. Freytag’s gives Pyramid like symbol to explain the plot structure.               

              

Exposition indicates the starting of the incident then it moves upwards, the action follows is known as rising action. When it reaches its high peach, it is called climax, after the climax in any plot falling action began and at last there is end of the story that is denouement.

2-Character(ethos)

Aristotle gives second importance to character. He says that in a perfect tragedy, character will support plot. To arouse pity and fear in tragedy, we must observe a hero. A hero should be noble going from happiness to misery.

In a best kind of plot, one character avoid killing of his family members. The anagnorisis reveals the family connection suddenly. A hero should be realistic in his approach and a goodness in nature. Aristotle further says that in a good plot there is not necessary to portray dues ex machina. Dues ex machine is a machine used in play in which an actor plays the role of God. Fitness of character is also very much important.

Tragic Hero

 Aristotle gives definition of Tragic Hero that what quality should possess a Tragic hero.

Aristotle also differentiated two types of character:-

a)             Purely virtuous

b)            Thoroughly bad

The character of Job in Bible is purely virtuous character and the character of Basola in ‘Duchess of Malfi’ is thoroughly bad.

Hamartia

A good or bad character shows hamartia at certain points in the play which leads to his tragic fall. There are certain meaning of the term hamartia:-

a)             Error of judgement

b)            Tragic-flaw

c)              Missing the mark

d)            Small weakness in a strong character

e)            Mistake or a wrong step

f)               Ignorance

Examples-

Tragic flaw in Oedipus is that he was over hasty in taking decisions. And after the revelation of the whole truth he blinds himself by preaching the brooches of her mother and so called wife Jocasta.

Macbeth small weakness is his ambitious nature.

Othello was very much proud and jealous which leads to his tragic flaw.

Hamlet was very much thoughtful by nature, he thought too much and act very less, this was his small weakness which brings him towards his tragic doom.

Hamartia is an error which derived from ignorance of some material fact or circumstance. In modern plays, Hamartia was removed from the character of hero and he become a victim og circumstances- a mere puppet.

3-Thought( dianoia)

Thought is the third important element of tragedy. Aristotle speaks less about thought and more about the speeches of character which are associated with the thought. Thought also include the themes of the play.

The plot and characters are not able to work on their own account, the central thought was necessary for going further in detail, towards which they point.

The speeches of the characters express the vision or the ideas of the playwright.

4-Diction( Lexis )

Diction comes in fourth number and in fourth essential part of tragedy. Diction is the expression of meanings into the words. These words are proper and appropriate to the plot, character and end of the tragedy. The choice of beautiful words makes work of art more effective. In diction many, writers, playwrights, poets uses words to embellish language with beautiful ornaments, like metaphors, simile etc. these all are stylistic elements. Aristotle says that

“ it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances”

So, simply it was a choice of words. The various words fit to the verse form and evokes emotions which the poet wants to evoke.

5-Melody (melos)

Melody is the fifth and the musical element of the chorus. Aristotle says that chorus is very important for bringing unity of the plot, it should not be mere interludes, the song, musical dialogues, odes contribute to form a melodious Chorus. It is same as diction because its purpose was alto to evoke and intensify the emotions of the spectators. It was a singular feature of Greek tragedy and was very much necessary too in the Greek technique. In ancient times the Greek plays were played  openly in an open air theatre. They didn’t have other means to maintains the interest over the spectators but they only have this singular feature of melody. From their effective lyrical poetry they affect the audience’s attention. It brings certain illusion of reality and when it presents some serious thoughts then the eyes of the spectators filled with tears.

6-Spectacle (opsis)

Spectacle came in last series of importance to tragedy. It is least connected with literature. It was more depends upon the art of the stage, spectacular effects. It was more machinist than poetic. In simple words it was a technique of presentation. It shows the dramatic action of the character, not show the narration. Aristotle recognize emotional attraction of spectacle with the audience, which not create a sense, but only monstrous. He says that superior poet will never rely on spectacle to arouse pity and fear, but rely on the inner structure of the play.

Conclusion

So in every kind of representational literature plots has its own importance, characters are also tied together with unity, even if it has variation, it will have a definite central thought which was expressed in appropriate words (diction). It is important to remember that Aristotle, and the Greek world as a whole, viewed art as essentially representational.

                                  

                                        

Bibliography

sparknote stydy guide. (n.d.). sparknotes. Retrieved october 21, 2017, from www.sparknotes.com: www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/aristotle/citing.html

wikipedia the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved september 5, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis