Aristotle’s Poetics (Part II)

Catharsis (meaning purification). Aristotle implicitly suggests that tragedy helps to keep pity and fear in their due proportions by allowing to find the spiritual purgation of these elements. Catharsis directs out pity and fear towards worthier objects. In a tragedy where the sufferings being witnessed are not our own. These emotions find a free and full outlet relieving the soul of their excess. By showering them on persons other than ourselves we are lifted out of ourselves – our petty self, interest; and ultimately, we emerge nobler than before. So, the emotional appeal of poetry is not harmful as Plato believed but health-giving and artistically satisfying.

Origin of Tragedy

Poetry is an imitative art which implies two kinds of actions – a noble action (good men) and a mean action (bad men). A noble action is that of good men who are brought out in an epic. It talks of the graver spirits and imitated actions of good men. An epic is full of composed hymns to God and that of famous persons whose deeds have evolved out of tragedy or comedy. Whereas; a mean action of bad men is being satirized showing a mere trivial sort of imitated mean actions which is mainly practiced through comedy. An epic with a tragic note is considered superior which poses a spectacle and a compact design. Thus, Aristotle notes that, “tragedy, then, is a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself, of some amplitude; in language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the play; presented in the form of action not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.”

Characteristics of Tragedy

• The tragedy which is basically an imitation of action comprises all human activities –
  • Deeds
  • Thoughts and
  • Actions
• It (tragedy) gives a serious note possessing –
  • Pity and
  • Fear

• It is complete and self-contained in nature which has a beginning, a middle and an end.
• A beginning has further action which flows out intelligibly in itself. It has neither consequence nor dependence on any previous action
• A middle flows inevitably from what has gone before which leads to an inevitable conclusion
• An end follows from what has gone before and does not lead to further action
• It is of certain magnitude in size, its language is embellished in verse and songs; verse in a dialogue form and song in chorus. it also involves pity, fear, and purgation.

Constituent Parts of Tragedy

• Plot (is the arrangement of incidents)
• Character (Character and Thought are the objects it imitates or represents)
• Thought
• Diction (Diction and Song are the medium it employs to imitate those objects)
• Song and
• Spectacle (the manner of imitating them)

Plot

A plot should have a magnitude or reasonable length or size which is an essential condition of beauty. It should be of reasonable length so that the mind can comprehend fully in one view. The representation of such an action is a plot of a tragedy. The plot is an ordered arrangement of incidents with complete, as a whole i.e., well-knit. The completeness here means organic unity or a natural sequence of events that cannot be destroyed. If the plot is too short the mind will miss many things in it to comprehend fully. Whereas, if the plot is too long the mind with its limited perspective cannot take in all the events within the time required by the story. “For tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life and life consists in action”. He also says that the plot should be of “a length which could be easily embraced by the memory”. Rather it should have the length enough to unfold its sequence of events – the beginning, the middle and the end both naturally and fully. He answers the question of whether plot makes a tragedy or a character that “without action, there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character”. As plot imitates the action, character imitates men, thought imitates men’s mental and emotional reactions to the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Character

Character according to him, “determines men’s qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or reverse”.

Thought

Followed by character is thought or what a character thinks or feels during his career in the play. Thought also reveals itself in speech.

Diction

To accomplish the above, Aristotle employs the medium of diction or words “embellished with each kind of artistic ornament”, of which song is one. It is by their means that he expresses the thoughts of his characters and the meaning of the play.

Spectacle and Stage Representation

Spectacle depends on the work of a stage mechanic. It constitutes the way the tragedy is presented to the public.

The artistic ornament here implies the rhythm, harmony, and song. Rhythm and harmony in verse may be used to develop some parts and song to imply others. They are all designed to enrich the language of the play to make it more effective.