Outline of Aristotle`s Theory of Tragedy

Introduction to Drama
AP English Language and Literature
3rd Quarter
Mr. Fenn
“To understand a drama
requires the same mental operation as to understand an existence, a
biography, a man.
It is a putting back of the bird into the egg, of the plant into its seed, a
reconstitution of the whole genesis of the being in question.
Art is simply the bringing into relief of the obscure thought of
nature; a simplification of the lines, a falling into place of
groups otherwise invisible.
The fire of inspiration brings out, as it were, designs traced beforehand in
sympathetic ink. The mysterious grows clear, the confused plain; what is
complicated becomes simple - what is accidental, necessary. In short, art
reveals nature by interpreting its intentions and formulating its desires.
Every ideal is the key of a long enigma.
The great artist is the simplifier” (emphasis and breaks added).
Henri-Frédéric Amiel, 1882
Elisabeth Woodbridge
 “All art, and hence all great drama, is in its nature both
universal and personal, both general and selective.
 The painter cannot, for example paint every leaf of a tree,
and if he did so his painting would certainly be more
unsatisfactory to us than if he had worked with less
o His art lies in determining which of the impressions into which
the infinitely complex total which we call “tree” may be
resolved - which of these is to be preserved as essential, which
may be rejected” (emphasis and breaks added).
δρᾶμα (drama) which means “action”
 The drama masks represent tragedy and comedy
 From the Greek
Drama as
Art Begins
 Egyptian drama, ca 2800-2400 BC, dramas about the dead
pharaoh going to the underworld
o Memphite Drama, recounting the story of Osiris and his son,
Horus’, coronation
o Abydos passion play concerns the story of Osiris – performed
annually from 2500-550 BC
 Greece, ca 700 BC, many festivals honoring Dionysus,
goddess of fertility
o The art form of drama begins
o “tragedy” comes from “goat” and “song” – the winner of the
drama contest would win a goat
Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy
complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language
embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several
wherewith to accomplish its katharsis of such emotions. . . .
Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts
determine its quality—namely,
1. Plot
2. Characters
3. Diction
4. Thought
5. Spectacle
6. Melody.”
“imitation of an action”
 Mimesis
o the medium of tragedy is drama, not narrative; tragedy “shows”
rather than “tells.”
 “the law of probability or necessity.”
o tragedy is higher and more philosophical than history because
history simply relates what has happened while tragedy
dramatizes what may happen, “what is possible according to the
law of probability or necessity.”
o History thus deals with the particular, and tragedy with the
“The ideal, after all, is truer than the real;
for the ideal is the eternal element in perishable things:
it is their type, their sum, their raison d'etre, their formula in
the book of the Creator, and therefore
 at once the most exact and the most condensed expression of
cause-and-effect chain
• Events that have happened may be due to accident or coincidence;
for others.
• Tragedy, however, is rooted in the fundamental order of the
world operates.
• Tragedy therefore arouses not only pity but also fear, because the
audience can envision themselves within this cause-and-effect
Aristotle believed that Sophocles was
the perfect writer
 Only in Sophocles, the perfect writer, were united ideal
beauty, clearness of construction and religious inspiration-the three qualities which alone make tragedy great.
The Three Unities
 Time
o limits the supposed action to the duration, roughly, of a single
o Woodbridge states that it is “organic unity” not in terms of the
entire play taking only a single day but that the “beginning,
middle and end” occur during the “two hours allotted to the
poet, and by the means at his command” (p. 17).
 Place
o limits it to one general locality
 Action
o limits it to a single set of incidents which are related as cause
 “first principle”
o the most important feature of tragedy
 “the arrangement of the incidents”:
o not the story itself but the way the incidents are presented to
the audience, the structure of the play.
 Tragedies where the outcome depends on a tightly
constructed cause-and-effect chain of actions are superior to
those that depend primarily on the character and personality
of the protagonist.
Plots that meet this criterion will have
the following qualities:
 Whole - with a beginning, middle, and end.
 Complete – unity of action (no deus ex machina, or outside
 Of a certain magnitude – quant.: lengthy, complexity; qual.:
seriousness, universal significance
o Simple of complex – simple: only have a change of fortune
o Complex: have reversal of intention (peripeteia) and recognition
(anagnorisis) connected with the catastrophe
 Peripeteia – character produces opposite effect than intended
 Anagnorisis – change from “ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate
between the persons destined for good or bad fortune”
 In a perfect tragedy, character will support plot,
o personal motivations will be intricately connected parts of the
o The protagonist should be renowned and prosperous, so his
change of fortune can be from good to bad.
great error or frailty in a character.”
 Such a plot is most likely to generate pity and fear in the audience, for
like ourselves.”
“tragic flaw”
The meaning of the Greek word is closer to “mistake” than to “flaw”
“the law or probability or necessity”
know enough.
inevitability of its consequences.
leading to results diametrically opposed to those that were intended (often
that was previously lacking
Characters in tragedy should have the
following qualities
 “good or fine.”
o Aristotle relates this quality to moral purpose and says it is relative to
 “fitness of character” (true to type)
o e.g. valor is appropriate for a warrior but not for a woman.
 “true to life” (realistic)
 “true to life and yet more beautiful” (idealized, ennobled).
 “consistency” (true to themselves).
o Once a character's personality and motivations are established, these
should continue throughout the play.
 “necessary or probable.”
o Characters must be logically constructed according to “the law of
probability or necessity” that governs the actions of the play.
 found “where something is proved to be or not to
be, or a general maxim is enunciated.”
 Aristotle says little about thought, and most of what he has to
say is associated with how speeches should reveal character
 However, we may assume that this category would also
include what we call the themes of a play.
 “the expression of the meaning in words” which are
proper and appropriate to the plot, characters, and
end of the tragedy.
 “But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of
metaphors implies an eye for resemblances”
Song or melody
 musical element of the chorus
 Aristotle argues that the Chorus should be fully integrated
into the play like an actor
 choral odes should not be “mere interludes,” but should
contribute to the unity of the plot
 last, for it is least connected with literature
 “the production of spectacular effects depends
more on the art of the stage machinist than on that
of the poet.”
 superior poets rely on the inner structure of the play rather
than spectacle to arouse pity and fear
 those who rely heavily on spectacle “create a sense, not of the
terrible, but only of the monstrous”
 The end of the tragedy
 (purgation, cleansing) of the tragic emotions of pity and
 The word means “purging”
 Aristotle seems to be employing a medical metaphor
o tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear in order to purge away
their excess, to reduce these passions to a healthy, balanced
o Aristotle also talks of the “pleasure” that is proper to tragedy,
apparently meaning the aesthetic pleasure one gets from
contemplating the pity and fear that are aroused through an intricately
constructed work of art
Freytag’s Pyramid, 1863
Greek Tragedy
 Greek tragedy often leaves out the rising action and begins in
the midst of the struggle (Woodbridge)
 Consisted of the following parts:
o Prologue (described the situation and the setting,
mythological background for the play)
o Parados (an ode sung by the chorus)
o Episode (the acted story) followed by a Stasimon (a choral
ode, usually reflects on the previous episode, placing it into a
larger mythological framework)
o Exodus (climax and conclusion often with words of wisdom
related to the play)
(“Ancient Greek Theater”)
Shakespeare’s Drama
 5 acts, each corresponding directly with Freytag’s Pyramid
 Structured plots
 Explored the human spirit, human condition
Works Cited
Amiel, Henri-Frédéric. Amiel’s Journal:The Journal Intimé of Henri-Frédéric Amiel.
Trans. Mrs. Humphrey Ward. A.L. Burt Company, Publishers, 1883. PDF file.
“Ancient Greek Theater.” academic.reed.edu. Reed University, n.d. Web. 30 Dec.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 30 Dec. 2011.
Bellinger, Martha Fletcher. A Short History of Drama. New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 1927. PDF file.
McManus, Barbara. “Outline of Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy in the POETICS.”
cnr.edu. The College of New Rochelle, 1999. Web. 30 Dec. 2011.
Robinson, Scott R. “Theater History.” cwu.edu. Scott R. Robinson, 2000-2010.
Web. 30 Dec. 2011.
Woodbridge, Elisabeth, PhD. The Drama: Its Law and Its Technique. Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, 1898. PDF file.

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