Aristotle’s views on tragedy-essay

ARISTOTLE

             Aristotle lived from 384 B.C. to 322 B.C. He was the most distinguished disciple of Plato. Among his critical treatise, only two are extant- ‘Poetics’ and ‘Rhetoric’, the former deals with the art of poetry and the latter with the art of speaking.

THE PLAN OF POETICS

              Poetics contains twenty six small chapters. The first four chapters and the twentyfifth are devoted to poetry; the fifth in general way to comedy, epic, and tragedy; the following fourteen exclusively to tragedy; the next three to poetic diction; the next to epic poetry; and the last to a comparison of epic poetry and tragedy. Aristotle’s main concern thus appears to be tragedy, which was considered the most developed form of poetry in his day. Poetry, comedy, and epic come in for consideration because a discussion of tragedy would be incomplete without some reference to its parent and sister forms.

ARISTOTLE’S OBSERVATION ON POETRY

1. Its Nature.

              Aristotle calls poet an imitator. The poet imitates things ‘as they were or are’, ‘as they are said or thought to be’ or ‘as they ought to be’. In other words the poet imitates what is past or present, what is commonly believed, and what is ideal. He believes that there is a natural pleasure in imitation. This is an inborn natural instinct. There is also another inborn instinct i.e. the instinct for harmony and rhythm. This manifests itself in metrical composition. But unlike Plato, Aristotle does not consider the poet’s imitations of life as twice removed from reality, but reveal universal truths. To prove this, Aristotle makes a comparison between poetry and history. The poet does not relate what has happened, but what may happen. The historian relates what has happened. Poetry therefore is more philosophical and higher than history. Poetry expresses the universal, history the particular. The pictures of poetry are truths based on facts on the laws of probability or necessity. Thus Aristotle answers Plato’s severest charge against poetry.

2. Its functions.

              Aristotle considers pleasure as the end of poetry. Poetry springs from the instincts of imitation and rhythm and harmony. They are indulged in for the pleasure they give. Poetry is pleasing both to the poet and to the reader. Aristotle nowhere states that the function of poetry is to teach. However, he considers teaching desirable, if it is incidental to the pleasure it gives. Such a pleasure is regarded as superior to all others, for, it has a dual purpose i.e. teaching as well as pleasing.

3. Its emotional appeal.

            Poetry makes an immediate appeal to the emotions. For example, tragedy aroused the emotions of pity and fear- pity at the undeserved suffering and fear for the worst that may befall him. Plato considers them harmful to the healthy growth of mind. Aristotle has no such fear. According to him these emotions are aroused with a view to their purgation or catharsis. Everybody has occasions of fear and pity in life. If they go on accumulating they become harmful to the soul. But in tragedy, the sufferings we witness are not our own and these emotions find a free and full outlet. Thereby they relieve the soul of their excess. We are lifted of ourselves and emerge nobler than before. It is this that pleases in a tragic tale. Thus tragedy transmutes these disturbing emotions into “calm of mind”. So the emotional appeal of poetry is not harmful but health-giving.

ARISTOTLE’S OBSERVATION ON TRAGEDY

1. Its origin

                Poetry can imitate two kinds of actions- the nobler actions of good men or the mean actions of bad men. Tragedy was born from the former and comedy from the latter. Tragedy has resemblances to epic and comedy to satire. Aristotle considers tragedy superior to epic. Tragedy has all the epic elements in a shorter compass.

2. Its characteristics.

                   Aristotle defines tragedy as “ an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of certain magnitude, in a language embellished in with each kinds of artistic ornaments, the several kinds being found in the separate part of the play, in the form of action, not of narrative, through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions”. By a serious action Aristotle means a tale of suffering exciting the emotions of pity and fear. The action should be complete which means that it must have a proper beginning, middle and end. It should also be arranged sequentially also. In other words it should have an organic unity. The action must be of certain magnitude. i.e. It should have reasonable length. It should be neither too long nor too short. Then only it can be easily remembered. It should have a length enough to unfold the events naturally. By artistic ornament, Aristotle means rhythm, harmony and song. They are

all designed to enrich the language of the play. The form of action in tragedy  distinguishes it from narrative verse. In tragedy, the tale is told with the help of characters. Their speeches and actions make the tale. In the narrative the poet is free to speak in his own person. In tragedy, the dramatist is nowhere seen. All is done by his characters. It is meant to be acted as well as read. The narrative, on the other hand is meant to be read only 

3. Its constituent Parts.

                  Aristotle finds six constituent parts in tragedy. They are: Plot, character, thought, diction, song and spectacle. The Greek equivalents of these terms are: ethos, muthos, dianoia, lexis, melos and opsis. By plot is meant the arrangement of the incidents in the play in a logical and coherent way. Aristotle considers plot as the chef part of the tragedy because tragedy is an imitation not of men but men in action. Aristotle says: “without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character’. The actions themselves issue from characters. Character, he says, determines men’s qualities, but it is by their action that they are happy or sad. It is by their deeds that we know them. So it is these deeds that are woven into plot that matters. Character, is thus next only in importance to plot. Thought refers to what the character thinks or feels. It reveals itself in speech. As plot imitates action, character imitates men, so thought imitates men’s mental and emotional reactions to the circumstances in which

they find themselves. All these three i.e. plot, character and thought constitutes the poet’s objects in imitation in tragedy. To accomplish them, he employs the medium diction. By diction is meant, words embellished with each kind of artistic ornament. Song is one of them. Spectacle, the last of the six parts, is in fact the work of the stage mechanic. But it constitutes the manner in which the tragedy is presented to the audience.

4. The Structure of the Plot.

                 The plot is the soul of the tragedy. It should have unity of action. It means that only those actions in the life of the hero which are intimately connected with one another and appear together as one whole forms the plot. If any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjoined. The events comprising the plot will concern only one man. Otherwise there will be no necessary connection between them. By unity of time, Aristotle means the conformity between the time taken by the events of the play and that taken in their representation on the stage. The unity of place means the conformity between the scene of tragic events and the time taken by them to happen. A good tragic plot arouses the feelings of pity and fear in the audience- pity for the undeserved suffering of the hero and fear for the worst that may happen to him. The plot is divisible into two parts- complication and denouement. The former ties the

events into a tangle knot, latter untie it. Complication includes all the actions from the beginning to the point where it takes a turn for good or ill. The denouement extends from the turning point to the end. The first is commonly called the rising action, and the second the falling action.

5. Simple and Complex Plot.

                 The plot may be simple or complex. In a simple plot there are no puzzling situations such as peripeteia and anagnorisis. Peripeteia is generally explained as ‘reversal of the situation’ and anagnorisis as ‘recognition’ or ‘discovery’. By reversal of situation is meant reversal of intention (e.g. a move to kill an enemy turning on one’s own head, or killing an enemy and later discovering him to be a friend.) The discovery of these false moves is anagnoris. In other words it means a change from ignorance to knowledge. Both peripeteia and anagnorisis please because there is an element of surprise in them. A plot that makes use of them is complex. A perfect tragedy should be arranged not on the simple but on the complex plot.

6. Tragic Hero. 

           According to Aristotle, the ideal tragic hero should be good but neither too bad not too perfect. He should be a man whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or  depriving but by some error or frailty. This error is hamartia or the tragic flaw. For example, in ‘Hamlet’, it is his procrastination or inability to take action that leads to his down-fall. It is not a deliberate vice but flaw of characters and it makes the play tragic one.

7. Aristotle’s opinion about Comedy. 

                 Aristotle regards comedy as inferior to tragedy. He traces its roots to satire. Satiric verse originated in phallic songs sung in honour of Dionysus, the god of fertility, as epic originated from hymns to gods and praises of famous men. Consequently tragedy represents men as noble as they can be, and comedy taking its origin from satirical verse, represents men as worse than they are, but satire ridicules personality or rather the “sinner’ while comedy ridicules sin or rather human vices. Unlike Plato, Aristotle does not consider the characters in comedy as vicious. According to him they are rendered ludicrous by some defect that is neither painful nor destructive. They are not contemptible also. Like poetry, comedy shows not what has happened, but what may happen. The characters are presented in particular situations in which every human being would have acted in the same way. Thus, general, not individual weakness is displayed in them. 

8. Aristotle’s opinion about epic. 

                  The epic is earlier in origin than tragedy or comedy. In its nature it resembles tragedy, for it is an imitation of a serious action, whole, with a beginning, middle and an end. The structure also is like that of the tragedy, for the plot has a complication, and denouement, it can be complex, or simple, with or without perepeteia and anagnorisis. Its effect is the same, namely catharsis. But it lacks the song and spectacle found in tragedy. In its form it is different from tragedy, for it is narrative and is much longer than a tragedy. It is meant to be read or recited. While the tragedy presents only one main event, an epic contains several events which add to its variety and grandeur. Thirdly, an epic poet can introduce many improbable but marvelous incidents which presented on the stage may appear absurd, while they remain unnoticed when perceived by the imagination. They add to the pleasure of the poem, and Aristotle recommended probable impossibilities though not improbable possibilities. The supernatural element in the epic is an example of it. Aristotle still

considers tragedy superior to epic though the latter appeals to the cultured, refined  people and has no need of theatrical aid to achieve its effect. But Aristotle finds that tragedy with its music produced greater pleasure and its limited length attains more unity.

 9. Aristotle’s observation on Style.

              Aristotle lays down clearness and propriety as two essentials of good writing. According to him current words are the best. But writing should aim at dignity and charm. These are best attained by the use of archaic words, foreign words, dialect words and newly coined words. They have an element of surprise in them. Metaphorical use of words is to be preferred to the plain. Aristotle says that a perfect poetic style uses words of all kinds in a judicious combination. Compound words are the most suitable for the lyric, rare or unfamiliar words suit the epic form, and metaphorical use of language is best for drama. In the “Rhetoric” Aristotle comments that common, familiar words are best for prose that deals with everyday subjects. But metaphorical language may be employed to introduce an element of novelty and surprise. Multiplicity of clauses, parenthesis and ambiguity should be avoided in prose. Words may be arranged in two ways called loose style and periodic style. The former consists of a whole sentence with a beginning and an end. The periodic style is more intelligible and graceful

10. The Value of Aristotle’s Criticism.

                          Aristotle’s approach to literature is that of a scientist. Aristotle wanted literature to be an art and not to do the work of morality. He points the difference between politics and poetry. Politics is a social science, therefore it should be judged by the contribution it makes to social well-being. Poetry, on the other hand, should be judged by its capacity to please the audience. He judges literature by aesthetic standards alone. Unlike Plato, he does not regard poetry as twice removed from reality. Instead, he considers the representations in poetry as true to the facts of human life. He points out its capacity to see the permanent features of life. He suggests what kind of plot, character and style please men. He finds that perepetiea and anagnorisis, please most in a tragic plot, hamartia in the tragic hero, and metaphor in style. Tragedy, comedy and epic are all, in this way, considered with reference to the effect on the minds and hearts of their spectators. Poetics deals with the art of poetry and many more problems of literature and has therefore attracted greater attention than any other works of criticism.