المحاضرة 4
- Aristotle on Tragedy
- Western scholars who dislike Plato’s discussion of poetry or disagree with it are usually full of praise for Aristotle.
- One must keep in mind Plato’s devaluation of mimesis
- Plato is known to have had shifting opinions on art depending on whether he thought art was useful for or detrimental to his ideal state. Aristotle’s was also an aesthetics of effect, but a more enlightened and dehumanised one
The Czar and the Bible of Literary Criticism
- Aristotle has, for centuries, been considered in Western cultures as the unchallenged authority on poetry and literature
- Tragedy, is an imitation of an action that is serious
- Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Melody.”
- Tragedy is the “imitation of an action (mimesis) according to the law of probability or necessity.”
- Aristotle says that tragedy is an imitation of action, not a narration. Tragedy “shows” you an action rather than “tells” you about it.
- Tragedy arouses pity and fear, because the audience can envision themselves within the cause-and-effect chain of the action. The audience identifies with the characters, feels their pain and their grief and rejoices at their happiness.
Plot: The First Principle
- Aristotle defines plot as “the arrangement of the incidents.” He is not talking about the story itself but the way the incidents are presented to the audience, the structure of the play.
- Plot is the order and the arrangement of these incidents in a cause-effect sequence of events.
- According to Aristotle, 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 hero/protagonist.
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Qualities of Good plots:
- The beginning, called by modern critics the incentive moment, must start the cause-and-effect chain.
- The middle, climax, must be caused by earlier incidents and itself causes the incidents that follow it
- The end, or resolution, must be caused by the preceding events but not lead to other incidents. The end should therefore solve or resolve the problem created during the incentive moment.
- Aristotle calls the cause-and-effect chain leading from the incentive moment to the climax the “tying up”, it’s called the complication.
- He calls the cause-and-effect chain from the climax to the resolution the “unravelling”
The plot: “complete” and should have “unity of action.”
- By this Aristotle means that the plot must be structurally self-contained, with the incidents bound together by internal necessity, each action leading inevitably to the next with no outside intervention
- According to Aristotle, the worst kinds of plots are “‘episodic
- The plot must be “of a certain magnitude,” both quantitatively (length, complexity) and qualitatively (“seriousness” and universal significance).
- Aristotle argues that plots should not be too brief
Character
- Character should support the plot
Characters in tragedy should have the following qualities :
• “good or fine” - the hero should be an aristocrat
• “true to life” - he/she should be realistic and believable.
• “consistency” - Once a character's personality and motivations are established, these should continue throughout the play.
• “necessary or probable” - must be logically constructed according to “the law of probability or necessity” that govern the actions of the play.
• “true to life and yet more beautiful,” - idealized, ennobled.
- Aristotle says little about thought, and most of what he has to say is associated with how speeches should reveal character
Song and Spectacle
Song, or melody is the 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.
- Aristotle argues that 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