OUTLINE OF ARISTOTLE’S POETICS
Treatise composed around 350 B.C and was meant to classify different genres of art, poetry, histories and dramas whereby men could judge what makes good or great art, etc.
Part One
Aristotle discusses the art of imitation.
People imitate objects through color, form, or through rhythm, harmony and language.
One art form uses language for imitation and can be divided into poetry or prose.
Language employs meter which gives rise to rhythm.
Iambic: two syllables which are either stressed/unstressed/, or unstressed/stressed or stressed/stressed.
Elegaic: refers to poetry which mourns someone who has died.
Epic poetry: poetry that expresses, against a vast canvas of time, the movement and struggles of a large group of people bound by a common nation or ethnicity. The Epic has at least one hero who represents the best, most heroic elements of that group of people.
Hexameter: a type of verse that employs four iambs or eight syllables per line.
Part Two
The purpose of art is the imitation of people in action or people doing things: waging war; outwitting the enemy; overcoming impossible odds; battling the elements, etc.
The people depicted in the arts are either better than they are in life (Tragedy) or worse than they are (Comedy). By worse, Aristotle means sillier. Or as they really are. The goodness or badness of a character is determined by his moral character. The art forms which divide people into moral characters are themselves divided into categories: the art form which shows people better (more noble) than they are is Tragedy. The art form which shows people less than what they are is comedy.
Part Three
One difference which distinguishes artistic imitation (the artful recreation of an object, animal or human) is the manner in which the object may be imitated. The manner may be in poetry, and in this manner the writer may choose narration in which he takes on the roles of different characters and speaks as those characters, as Homer does in THE ODYSSEY. Another manner in which the object may be imitated is the writer creates individual characters who speak for themselves (as in a play).
There are three differences which distinguish artistic imitation: the medium: language, dancing, lute playing (or music) or painting; the object or the thing imitated: human or animals; and the manner: comedy or drama.
Homer and Sophocles are similar imitators in that they create humans who are better than humans really are; their creations are more noble. Aristophanes (playwright of THE ORESTEIA CYCLE, among many others) is also in the same category as Homer and Sophocles for he depicts noble people engaged in action. The word drama is derived from this concept of people actively pursuing some desire.
Part IV
Imitation is an intrinsic part of humanity. We love to imitate; we love to imitate other people, animals, etc. and we love to watch other people imitate people and animals. Imitation gives us great pleasure and from imitation we learn about ourselves and about the things imitated.
Imitation, harmony and rhythm are instinctive to people. They are a part of who we are. Meter, which is created from iambs, is a subdivision of rhythm. Centuries ago, people who had an aptitude for imitation and rhythm, began to improvise and from these improvisations, poetry grew.
Poetry branched or diverged in two directions, comedic or tragic, according to the personality or character of the writer. More serious writers wrote poetry that dealt with serious matters and with noble characters. The serious writers wrote hymns praising the gods. Less serious writers wrote less serious poetry and created satires which made fun of groups of people in Greek satire. Satire is a type of writing, usually of a comedic bent, which exaggerates the behavior of a group of people in order to highlight the flaws, the toxic effects or the sheer stupidity of their behavior. Before Homer, there were no writers to whom to attribute satiric writings, which is not to say that there were none.
Epic poetry came first but was succeeded by tragedy which is of a higher art form than epic poetry.
Tragedy began slowly and like comedy, started from improvisation. One form of tragedy arose from the dithyrambs, which began as frenzied hymns to the Greek god of theatre and wine, Dionysus, (the Roman god Bacchus). Dionysus was linked with wild, drunken, animalistic behavior and was contrasted with Apollo who, at the other end of the Greek god spectrum, was linked with the coolly refined, rational, intellect.
Comedy began with the phallic songs, which were bawdy songs created to celebrate the male phallus in honor of Dionysus.
Aristotle states that tragedy has evolved slowly and it remains to be seen how it will continue to grow.
Aeschylus, the great Greek playwright, 525-456 B.C.E., wrote THE ORESTEIA CYCLE. He introduced the second actor, diminished the importance of the chorus, and used dialogue to carry the plot. Sophocles raised the number of actors to three and discarded the short, simple plot for a longer plot of greater depth and complexity. He also introduced scene painting. The crude and vulgar language of the satyric plays was replaced by language of greater grandeur and refinement. Dialogue ushered in the iambic meter, which closely resembles the normal cadence of regular human speech. More episodes and scenes were introduced to the plays.
Part V
Comedy uses characters who are lower class. They are not ugly, but there is something about them which is ludicrous, which is a subdivision of ugly, but there is a defect that is not painful or destructive. An analogy would be the comic mask which is ugly and distorted but does not imply pain.
The history of Tragedy is well known, but the history of comedy is not well known for it was not taken seriously. No one knows who introduced masks or prologues in comedies, or who increased the number of actors in comedic plays.
Both epic poetry and Tragedy are imitations in verse of noble characters. Epic poetry differs from Tragedy in that it uses only one type of meter and is in narrative form - the story is told from the perspective of a narrator. The Epic poem and Tragedy differ in length for in Tragedy the length of the plot is confined to the “single revolution of the sun” or one day. The Epic poem has no limits of time, but rather is concerned with vast stretches of time in which a large group of people struggle.
In Tragedy and in Epic poetry there are some similarities between the two; for example, there are some elements of an Epic poem that are found in Tragedy but there are elements of Tragedy that are not found in Epic poetry.
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Part VI
Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude or importance. The language used in Tragedy has rhythm, harmony and song. Some parts of the Tragedy is spoken and other parts are sung. Language is used to arouse pity and fear in the audience and through the “purging” of these emotions, catharsis is achieved. The plot of Tragedy is shown through action and not narration (it is acted out and not simply told).
Tragic imitation implies that people are acting like the characters and are acting out the events of the story. It thus follows that “Spectacular Equipment” (or scenery, props and costumes) will be a part of the Tragedy. Song and diction are also integral to the media of imitation. Diction is the metrical arrangement of the words (syntax but placed in a rhythmic pattern) and song is exactly as we understand a song to be - words put to music.
The elements of Tragedy are in order of importance:
Plot
Character
Diction
Thought
Spectacle
Song
Tragedy is an imitation of an action and an action implies character and thought. There must be a character and a thought before there is action.
Plot is the imitation of the action. By plot, Aristotle means the arrangement of the incidents which make up the plot.
Character must possess thought whenever a statement is proved or a general truth is spoken.
The quality of each of the six components of Tragedy determine the overall quality of the Tragedy.
Two of the components constitute the medium of imitation.
One of the components constitute the manner.
Three of the components constitute the objects of imitation.
The structure of the incidents (or the plot points) of the play are very important. For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of action and of life, and life consists of action, not of quality.
Character determines people’s qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or not. Dramatic action is not used to represent character; character is a subsidiary to the actions. The most important components of Tragedy is the plot and the incident which make up the plot. Without action there cannot be a tragedy.
Most of the contemporary poets and artists of Aristotle’s time failed (in Aristotle’s estimation) in the rendering or depiction of character. Aristotle briefly discusses two artists, one who depicts character well (Polygnotus), and one (Zeuxis) whose characters lack an ethical quality.
Aristotle argues if a poet strings together a series of well written speeches that are spoken by interesting characters, with brilliant ideas expressed in beautiful language, the essential tragic effect will not be created nearly as well as a play that is deficient in interesting characters and beautiful language but has a plot and well constructed incidents.
The most important emotional elements in Tragedy is Peripeteia or Reversal of the Situation, and the Recognition scenes, which are parts of the plot. Novices or beginner writers have a tendency to create interesting characters and pretty speeches but forget to create an interesting plot.
The plot is the soul of Tragedy and is the most important element. Character is the second most important element in Tragedy, just as it is in painting. The most beautiful colors applied in a confused way will not bring the same pleasure as a simple chalk outline of a portrait. Tragedy is the imitation of an action.
The third element in Tragedy is thought, which is the faculty to say what is pertinent to the given circumstances. The case of oratory deals with speeches in the realm of the political and the art of rhetoric. The older poets make their characters speak the language of civic life. The poets of our times, the language of of the rhetoricians. Character reveals moral purpose in what the man choses to do or avoid. Speeches in which the speaker does not make a choice is not expressive of character. Thought is round where something is proved to be or not to be.
The fourth element in importance is diction. Diction is the selection of words and how they are put together (syntax).
Of the remaining elements Song is the most important place among the embellishments (or ornamentation or not essential or decorative).
Spectacle, or scenery, costumes, etc. hold an emotional power, but of all the elements spectacle is the least artistic and least connected to poetry. The power of Tragedy can be felt without spectacle, but spectacle depends more on the art of the stage designer and stage technician.
Part Vll
Definition of Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete, whole and of a certain magnitude (or importance). By whole, Aristotle means the play has a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning does not follow anything, but after the beginning the events, the action or plot points follow each other, and the end follows the preceeding events but does not have anything following it. A well constructed plot does not begin or end haphazardly, but confirms to these principles.
A beautiful object, whether it be a living organism or any whole composed of parts, must have an orderly arrangement but must be of a certain magnitude (or size). It cannot be too small for the view of it is confused and is seen in an almost imperceptible amount of time; nor cannot it be too large for it cannot be taken in at one time by the eye. The unity and sense of the whole is lost. The object must be able to be embraced by the observer in one view. In plot, a certain length is necessary and is one that can be easily embraced by the memory. The proper length is determined by the nature of Tragedy. The greater the length the more beautiful the piece will be, provided that the whole is in balance. The play must be long enough so that the sequence of events will allow for a change of fortune from good to bad, according to the law of probability or necessity.
Part Vlll
Unity of plot does not consist in the unity of the hero for there are many disconnected, ununified events in a man’s life and there are many actions of one man that are not connected. Playwrights err when they try to use the character as the unifying factor of a play. Homer has discerned this important rule of not using the character as a unifying principle for he does not include all the adventures of Odysseus - for example, Odysseus’ goring at Parnassus or his feigning madness at the mustering of the host-generals - incidents between which there is no necessary connection. He centered both THE ODYSSEY and THE ILIAD on one central plot. The central theme in THE ODYSSEY is a man meeting the challenges of an angry god in order to go home; in THE ILIAD, the central unifying factor is the ten year war between two powerful armies.
In other imitative arts, there is the imitation of one object. The plot, being an imitation of an action, must be whole so that all the separate parts of the action form one complete, unbreakable unit. If one part is taken out, the plot will become disjointed and disturbed.
If a part can be taken out without harming the overall completeness of the plot, then that part is not an organic part of the whole.
Part lX
It is not the poet’s job to relate what has already happened, but what may happen and what is possible according to the law of probability. To relate what has happened is the province of the historian. To write what may happen is the province of the poet. The works of the historian Herodotus (Hi RO’ dotus - rhymes with “eroticus) could be put into verse or meter but it is history, not poetry. Poetry is of a higher philosophical level and of a more elevated status than history for poetry expresses the universal but history can only express the particular or the specific. By universal Aristotle means the depiction or imitation of how a certain type of person on a specific occasion may speak or act.
In comedy the writers construct a plot according to what is probable and then attaches appropriate names to the characters. Lampooners write about specific people.
In tragedies, the writers use real people for what has happened is credible. What has not happened we are not sure is possible. But even in tragedies there are few plays in which real names are used; most tragedies use fictitious names for not all heroic stories are known to all and even those stories using fictitious names still give pleasure.
Poets are creators of plots rather than verse for what he writes is an imitation of action. Even those poets who take on historical subjects are still poets for those things that have occurred can still conform to the law of what is probable and possible.
The worse type of plot is episodic for it is a series of events which follow each other without probable or necessary sequence. Bad poets compose each pieces by their own fault; but good poets compose pieces to please the players for show pieces for competition. Poets stretch the plot beyond its capacity and often break the natural continuity of the plot.
Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action but of events inspiring fear or pity. Fear or pity is best produced when the events come on us by surprise and the impact is heightened when, at the same time, the events follow as cause and effect. This type of impact, one which is caused by cause and effect, is much better than that impact which occurs by accident. Even an accidental incident is better if there is an air of design - fate or the gods causing this seeming accident to occur is much more satisfying than one in which the accident is random and meaningless.
Part X
Plots are either simple or complex for plots are imitations of real life in which a series of events can be either complex or simple. An action which is complete and continuous with a reversal of fortune occurring without a “reversal” and without recognition is called “simple”.
A complex action is one in which the change of fortune occurs with reversal, or recognition or both. These should be the result of the internal structure of the plot; the reversal and/or recognition must occur as a probable result of the preceding actions.
PROPTER HOC means the fallacious belief that an event was the cause of a succeeding event because the two are correlated: ice cream sales went up this summer; drowning deaths went up this summer; therefore, eating ice cream causes drowning deaths.
POST HOC means the fallacious belief that a prior event was the cause of a succeeding event because the prior event occurred first and the second event occurred after, implying that one caused the other which may not be true.
PART XI
Reversal of situation is when an action veers around to its opposite but must be logical and probable and a result of the preceding events.
An example from OEDIPUS is when the messenger arrives to cheer Oedipus and free him from his alarms about his parents, but the news has the opposite effect and leads Oedipus closer to realizing who he is.
Another example is in LYNCEUS when Lynceus is being led away to be killed by Danaus, but the outcome is that Lynceus kills Danaus.
Recognition is a change from ignorance to knowledge, creating love or hate between the persons destined for good or bad fortune. The best form of recognition occurs with a reversal of the situation, as in OEDIPUS. Even inanimate objects or trivial things can be seen as objects of recognition. Recognition occurs between two people, but it may be that only one person recognizes the other, or that recognition may occur between two people. Recognition combined with reversal creates pity and fear in the audience.
Two parts of the plot - reversal of the situation and recognition - turn upon surprises. A third part is the Scene of Suffering. The Scene of Suffering is a destructive or painful action.
Section Two
Part Xll
Discussion of the division of a tragedy into prologue, episodes, etc.
Part Xlll
A perfect tragedy should be arranged on the complex plan. Fear and pity are aroused when a man of high status who is neither exceptionally good, virtuous and just, or exceptionally bad, treacherous and evil, is brought from prosperity to adversity, not through vice or depravity, but through some error in judgment or frailty.
The change of fortune must not be that of a good and virtuous man falling from prosperity to adversity for that only shocks us. Neither should the change of fortune be that of a bad man going from adversity to prosperity for nothing can be more alien to the spirit of Tragedy for it possesses not a single tragic quality. It neither satisfies the moral sense nor calls forth pity or fear. Nor should the downfall of a thoroughly bad man be exhibited, for this plot would satisfy the moral sense but it would inspire neither pity nor fear for pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune and fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves.
Pity is aroused by unmerited bad fortune, and fear is aroused by the misfortunes of a man, neither good nor bad, but middling like us, by some error in judgment.
A well constructed plot should have a focus on a single plot line. The change of fortune should be not from bad to good but from good to bad. This fall should be the result, not of vice, but of some great error or frailty. The best tragedies are those based on a few houses, such as the House of Oedipus and others who have done or suffered something terrible. The best proof is that on the stage, such plays are the most tragic in effect.
Euripides (480 - 406 B.C.E.) was one of the three great Greek tragedians (Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides). He wrote many plays but his best known plays are MEDEA, ELECTRA, THE TROJAN WOMEN, and IPHIGENIA in AULIS.
There are some who maintain that a higher ranked form of tragedy is one that has two plot lines with two different endings - one for the good character and another contrasting ending for the bad character; however, Aristotle disagrees with this for it does not give true tragic pleasure. Aristotle believes that the double plot lines work better for comedies, where two characters are bitter enemies at the beginning of the play but leave the stage at the end of the play the best of friends with no one slaying or being slain.
Part XIV
Fear and pity may be aroused by spectacle; but the better way is that fear and pity may be aroused through the inner structure of the plot, which indicates the better poet. The story should be so constructed that even without watching the play, but hearing the story should strike fear in the heart and melt the heart of the listener. To produce this effect through mere spectacle (sets, costumes, special effects) is less artistic and is extraneous to the true structure of tragedy, which is that pity and fear are aroused through imitation.
The circumstances which strike us as terrible or pitiful:
One action which arouses pity or fear is the slaying of one person who is dear or close to another; for example, a father killing his daughter such as Agammemon slaying his daughter, Iphigenia. Other actions, such as enemies killing each other or people who are indifferent to each other do not arouse feelings of pity or fear, aside from the witnessing of the suffering such actions bring.
The slaying may be done consciously as in Medea slaying her children out of revenge for Jason’s betrayal of her with the witch Cassandra, or it may be done without knowledge as in Oedipus slaying his father. The slaying occurs in ignorance and the kinship is discovered afterwards. In OEDIPUS REX the incident occurs prior to the beginning of the play; in other plays, the incident may occur within the play.
The fourth case is when someone is about to do an irreparable deed through ignorance, but makes the discovery before it is done. For the deed must be either done or not done - either wittingly or unwittingly. But of all the ways, to be about to act knowing the person and then not to act is the least effectively tragically. This is the least effective for it is shocking without being tragic, for no disaster follows the action. This is rarely found in poetry. An exception to this is found in ANTIGONE in which Haemon threatens to kill his father, Creon, for condemning Antigone to death.
The better occurrence is when the deed is perpetrated. Still better is when the deed is perpetrated but in ignorance and the discovery of the identify of the slain occurs afterwards. There is nothing to shock us, while the discovery afterwards produces a startling effect.
The last case is the best when someone is about to slay another but realizes at the last moment the other’s true identity such as in IPHIGENIA, the sister recognizes the brother at the last moment and spares his life.
Part XV
There are four elements that must be aimed for with regard to creation of character. First, the character, through speech and action, must be good. Speech and action must show moral purpose. This rule is relative to class. According to Aristotle, this applies even to women(!?) even though they are inferior (!?) and to slaves who are, according to Aristotle, quite worthless.
The second aspect is propriety, or behavior appropriate to the status or gender of the character. Manly valor in a man is good but in a woman is inappropriate; likewise, unscrupulous cleverness is inappropriate for a woman.
Thirdly, character must be true to life.
Fourth, the character must be consistent. If the character is inconsistent, then s/he must be consistently inconsistent. One example of a poet failing to maintain consistency is Euripides’ Iphigenia, the suppliant, in no way resembles her later self.
As in plot, the character must behave in a necessary or probable way. The character’s behavior should also follow necessary or probable sequence. The character must behave in a logical way predicated on what has occurred before and in a manner that is consistent with the character’s make-up.
The unraveling of the plot, no less than the complication of the plot, must arise out of the plot and not through DEUS ex MACHINA - or machines of the gods, which is the unexpected irrational or supernatural solution to a story’s ending; for example, the gods intervening to save the hero from an inevitable ending at the last moment is unsatisfying and is an example of bad writing.
The DEUS ex MACHINA can only be used to for events that are external to the drama - for events that occur either before or after that which occurs in the play and that lie beyond the range of human knowledge and that must be reported or foretold.
Since tragedy is the imitation of persons who are above the common level, the likeness of the character to humans must be realistic but more beautiful. Even those characters who are indolent or irascible or have other defects of character must be somehow ennobled.
The poet should not be neglectful of appealing to the senses: for example, sight and sound, for although they are not essential to poetry, they are still important. They are concomitant (kon kom’ i tant).
Part XVl
Here we will discuss Recognition in greater detail. We will enumerate the different types of recognition.
The least artistic form of recognition, which is from poverty of wit, is the one most commonly employed and that is recognition from signs. The signs may be congenital scars or marks acquired before birth, and others may be acquired after birth. Another way of recognition might be from objects separate from the human body, such as tokens or a piece of jewelry.
Both the old swineherd’s recognition of Odysseus and the Old Nurse’s recognition of Odysseus by the scar on his thigh comes about by a turn of incident.
Another type of recognition is invented by will by the poet; it is not organic and it is flat footed or contrived and therefore lacking in art. An example is when Orestes in THE IPHIGENIA reveals his identity, and Iphigenia reveals her identity by a letter. But Orestes, by simply stating his identity is saying what the poet wants said and not what the plot requires.
The third kind of recognition depends on memory which is awaken by the sight of some object. An example of this is in THE ODYSSEY when Odysseus, hearing the minstrel sing of the great exploits of the Greek soldiers in the Trojan War, breaks down into tears, which prompts the King of the Phoenicians, in whose court Odysseus is residing, to demand the identity of his guest.
The fourth kind of recognition is by the process of reasoning. Aristotle gives several examples - a character states that no one looks like me but Orestes, therefore Orestes has come, etc.
There is a false recognition in THE ODYSSEY in “The Great Bow” when Odysseus bends the great bow and one of the revelers note that no one but Odysseus can do that; it is expected that the suitors would recognize that the old beggar is Odysseus but surprisingly, none of them does.
The best of all the recognitions is when it arises from the incidents themselves, where the startling discovery is made by natural means as in THE ODYSSEY when Odysseus strings the bow and shoots an arrow through twelve ax rings, an impossible feat that only Odysseus was known to be able to do.
