SPARK NTE Context → Table of Contents Themes, Arguments, and Ideas Aristotle was born in Stagira in northern Greece in 384 b.c.e. His father was a doctor at the court of Amyntas III of Macedon, father of Philip II of Macedon and grandfather of Alexander the Great. In 367, Aristotle moved to Athens to study at Plato’s Academy, where he stayed for twenty years. Aristotle left the Academy in 347, the year Plato died, and some have speculated that he felt snubbed that Plato did not choose him as his successor. The more likely explanation, however, is that anti-Macedonian sentiment was on the rise in Athens, causing Aristotle to fear being persecuted for his associations with King Philip’s court. Over the next four years, Aristotle traveled about the eastern Aegean, studying and teaching. During this time, he conducted a remarkable array of experiments and observations in the biological sciences. In 343, he was summoned back north to Macedonia to be the personal tutor to King Philip’s son, the young Alexander the Great. We do not know the precise relationship between Aristotle and Alexander, though their relationship has been the subject of much speculation and mythmaking over the centuries. As the Macedonians came to dominate Greece, Aristotle returned to Athens and set up his own philosophical school at the Lyceum, where he taught from 335 until 323. What we have of Aristotle’s writings are mostly lectures he gave at the Lyceum in these years. Their dry style and uneven structure is due partly to the fact that they were lecture notes never intended for publication and partly to the fact that they were patched together into their present form by editors many centuries after Aristotle’s death. Aristotle published many popular works admired for their lively style, but none of these have survived. Historically, Aristotle lived in the twilight years of the Greek city-state. Ancient Greece consisted of a number of independent city-states, of which Athens was the most significant. Though the city-states relied on slave labor and the disenfranchisement of women, the male citizens established one of the earliest forms of democracy, and in the span of less than two hundred years they managed to establish what the Western world still looks to as the basis of its political institutions, philosophy, mathematics, drama, art, and architecture. Because slaves and noncitizen workers performed the bulk of the city’s labor, male citizens enjoyed a great deal of leisure time. This leisure provided the opportunity for open inquiry into the nature of the world, and teachers like Aristotle were not uncommon. Aristotle’s writings show that he was well versed in Platonic philosophy. The centerpiece of Plato’s philosophy is his Theory of Forms, according to which the objects of experience are just shadows of a higher world of Forms that lie beyond sensory experience. For example, the various things we see in this world that we call beautiful have beauty because they participate in the Form of Beauty, which is itself immaterial and eternal. In Plato’s view, the purpose of philosophy is to train the intellect to see beyond appearances and to grasp the higher world of Forms. Counterbalancing the idealism of Plato’s philosophy is Aristotle’s background as the son of a doctor. Aristotle was probably brought up to pursue a medical career, and his writings on biology show a very sharp understanding of anatomy. Throughout his writings, Aristotle refers to biology as a paradigm for making sense of the world, much as Plato refers to mathematics. This emphasis on biology leads Aristotle to favor close observation of natural phenomena and careful classification as the keys to making sense of things. As a result, his philosophy is much more empirically oriented than Plato’s, and Aristotle rejects the idea that we can only make sense of this world by appealing to invisible entities beyond it. Aristotle’s influence on subsequent generations is immense. Only Plato can compare in importance. Though Aristotle’s works were lost to the West for many centuries, they were preserved by Arab scholars and transmitted back to Europe in the Middle Ages. Thanks mostly to the work of St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle’s writings carried an authority in the late Middle Ages that was second only to the Bible. His work in logic and biology was not significantly improved upon until the nineteenth century. Though modern science and philosophy found their legs by rejecting or disproving many of Aristotle’s results, his methods continue to have a deep influence on philosophical and scientific thought. Aristotle’s published writings were all lost or destroyed in the centuries after his death, and what we have are lectures, or notes on lectures, that Aristotle gave at the Lyceum. These works were first collected two centuries after Aristotle’s death by Andronicus of Rhodes. As a result, not only do we not know the chronology of Aristotle’s writings, but we are also unsure if Andronicus arranged them in the order that Aristotle had intended, or if all the works collected by Andronicus were written by Aristotle. We can also be quite confident that what Andronicus collected constitutes less than one-third of all of Aristotle’s writings. Even this small portion Chapters 1–3 → Chapters 4–5 Summary Aristotle proposes to approach poetry from a scientific viewpoint, examining the constituent parts of poetry and drawing conclusions from those observations. First, he lists the different kinds of poetry: epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, and most flute-playing and lyre-playing. Next, he remarks that all of these kinds of poetry are mimetic, or imitative, but that there are significant differences between them. The first kind of distinction is the means they employ. Just as a painter employs paint and a sculptor employs stone, the poet employs language, rhythm, and harmony, either singly or in combinations. For instance, flute-playing and lyre-playing employ rhythm and harmony, while dance employs only rhythm. He also addresses the question of non-poetic language, arguing that poetry is essentially mimetic, whether it is in verse or in prose. Thus, Homer is a poet, while Empedocles, a philosopher who wrote in verse, is not. While Empedocles writes in verse, his writing is not mimetic, and so it is not poetry. In tragedy, comedy, and other kinds of poetry, rhythm, language, and harmony are all used. In some cases, as in lyric poetry, all three are used together, while in other cases, as in comedy or tragedy, the different parts come in to play at different times. The second distinction is the objects that are imitated. All poetry represents actions with agents who are either better than us, worse than us, or quite like us. For instance, tragedy and epic poetry deal with characters who are better than us, while comedy and parody deal with characters who are worse than us. The final distinction is with the manner of representation: the poet either speaks directly in narrative or assumes the characters of people in the narrative and speaks through them. For instance, many poets tell straight narratives while Homer alternates between narrative and accounts of speeches given by characters in his narrative. In tragedy and comedy, the poet speaks exclusively through assumed characters. Analysis The very first paragraph of the Poetics gives us a hint as to how we should approach the work: it is meant to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. That is, Aristotle is not so much interested in arguing that poetry or tragedy should be one thing or another. Rather, he wants to look at past examples of poetry—tragedy in particular—and by dissecting them and examining their constituent parts to arrive at some general sense of what poetry is and how it works. This is the same scientific method that Aristotle employs so successfully in examining natural phenomena: careful observation followed by tentative theories to explain the observations. The immediate and pressing question, then, is whether Aristotle is right in applying his scientific method to poetry. Physical phenomena are subject to unchanging, natural laws, and presumably a careful study of the phenomena matched with a little insight might uncover what these natural laws are. Aristotle seems to be proceeding with the assumption that the same is true for poetry: its growth and development has been guided by unchanging, natural laws, and the Poetics seeks to uncover these laws. The results are mixed. In some cases, what Aristotle says seems quite right, while in others his conclusions seem very limiting. We will examine this question further when Aristotle delves deeper into the elements of tragedy. Before going any further, we might do well to clarify some terms. When Aristotle talks about art or poetry he is not talking about what we might understand by these words. Art is the translation of the Greek word techne and is closely related to artifice and artificial. Art for Aristotle is anything that is made by human beings as opposed to being found in nature. Thus, poetry, painting, and sculpture count as art, but so do chairs, horseshoes, and sandals. Our conception of art is more closely (but not exactly) approximated by what Aristotle calls mimetic art. The Greek word mimesis defies exact translation, though imitation works quite well in the context of the Poetics. A chair is something you can sit in, but a painting of a chair is merely an imitation, or representation, of a real chair. Paintings use paint to imitate real life, and sculptures use stone. Poetry is distinguished as the mimetic art that uses language, rhythm, and harmony to imitate real life, language obviously being the most crucial component. This raises the question of in what way poetry imitates, or mimics, real life. The events in Oedipus Rex did not actually happen in real life. In fact, it is important that tragedy be fictional and that there be an understanding that the events taking place on stage are not real: no one should call the police when Hamlet kills Polonius. Still, tragedy deals with humans who speak and act in a way that real humans conceivably could have spoken and acted. It is important that there be an understanding that the account is fictional, but it must also be close enough to reality that it is plausible. There are significant differences between the kind of poetry discussed here and our conception of poetry. In modern times, the definition of poetry is closely linked to its being written in verse. Aristotle directly contradicts that definition, pointing out that Empedocles philosophical verses are not poetry; they present ideas rather than imitate life. Further, narrative is essential to Aristotles definition of poetry. Not only comedy and tragedy, but also the epic poetry of the Greeks tells stories, as we find in the Iliad and the Odyssey . Both drama and epic poetry are fictional accounts that imitate real life in some way. On the other hand, a great deal of poetry in the modern world does not imitate life in any obvious way. For instance, the Robert Burns line, My love is like a red, red rose may be said to imitate or represent the poets love for a woman, but by that token, Empedocles verses might be said to imitate or represent certain philosophical concepts. Aristotle is not trying to condemn Robert Burns for writing love poems; he is simply trying to catalog the different kinds of poetry that existed in his time. They all employ language, rhythm, and harmony in some way or another, they all deal with people who are engaging in certain kinds of action, and they all involve some sort of direct or indirect narrative. Whether something is an epic poem, a comedy, or a tragedy depends on how it fits within these categories. For instance, a tragedy is a composite of language, rhythm, and harmony that deals with agents who are on the whole better than us, and the poet speaks directly through these agents. Chapters 4–5 → Chapters 1–3 Chapter 6 Summary Aristotle suggests that it is human nature to write and appreciate poetry. We are by nature imitative creatures that learn and excel by imitating others, and we naturally take delight in works of imitation. As evidence of the claim that we delight in imitation, he points out that we are fascinated by representations of dead bodies or disgusting animals even though the things themselves would repel us. Aristotle suggests that we can also learn by examining representations and imitations of things and that learning is one of the greatest pleasures there is. Rhythm and harmony also come naturally to us, so that poetry gradually evolved out of our improvisations with these media. As poetry evolved, a sharp division developed between serious writers who would write about noble characters in lofty hymns and panegyrics, and meaner writers who would write about ignoble characters in demeaning invectives. Tragedy and comedy are later developments that are the grandest representation of their respective traditions: tragedy of the lofty tradition and comedy of the mean tradition. Aristotle stops short of saying that tragedy has achieved its complete and finished form. He lists four innovations in the development from improvised dithyrambs toward the tragedies of his day. Dithyrambs were sung in honor of Dionysus, god of wine, by a chorus of around fifty men and boys, often accompanied by a narrator. Aeschylus is responsible for the first innovation, reducing the number of the chorus and introducing a second actor on stage, which made dialogue the central focus of the poem. Second, Sophocles added a third actor and also introduced background scenery. Third, tragedy developed an air of seriousness, and the meter changed from a trochaic rhythm, which is more suitable for dancing, to an iambic rhythm, which is closer to the natural rhythms of conversational speech. Fourth, tragedy developed a plurality of episodes, or acts. Next, Aristotle elaborates on what he means when he says that comedy deals with people worse than us ourselves, saying that comedy deals with the ridiculous. He defines the ridiculous as a kind of ugliness that does no harm to anybody else. Aristotle is able only to give a very sketchy account of the origins of comedy, because it was not generally treated with the same respect as tragedy and so there are fewer records of the innovations that led to its present form. While both tragedy and epic poetry deal with lofty subjects in a grand style of verse, Aristotle notes three significant differences between the two genres. First, tragedy is told in a dramatic, rather than narrative, form, and employs several different kinds of verse while epic poetry employs only one. Second, the action of a tragedy is usually confined to a single day, and so the tragedy itself is usually much shorter than an epic poem. Third, while tragedy has all the elements that are characteristic of epic poetry, it also has some additional elements that are unique to it alone. Analysis Aristotle further elaborates on the value of the mimetic arts with his assertion that we are naturally imitative creatures who delight in imitation. Aristotle relates this claim to our ability to learn and reason: we exercise our reason when seeing something as an imitation of something else. It takes a certain level of recognition to see a bunch of men dancing and singing in masks as imitations of characters from ancient myths, to see stylized gestures as imitations of real action, or to see the emotional intensity generated both by actors and audience as an imitation of the emotional intensity that would have been felt if the action on stage were transpiring in real life. Aristotle defines humans as rational animals, suggesting that our rationality is what distinguishes us from other creatures. If the ability to recognize an imitation and understand what it is meant to represent requires reasoning, then we are delighting in that very faculty that makes us human. Aristotles account of the origin of tragedy seems on the whole quite sound. The sparseness of archaeological and other evidence has long frustrated scholars, but it seems that Aristotles suggestion that tragedy evolved from the dithyramb is as good as any we have. Dionysus is the Greek god of vegetation and wine, and the dithyrambs in honor of him are thought to have been part of festivals celebrating the harvest and the changing of the seasons. These songs were thus part of religious ceremonies, and the speaker that accompanied the large chorus was probably a priest of some sort. Though initially improvised, these dithyrambs developed a more rigid structure, and the speaker often engaged in dialogue with the chorus. Aeschylus is generally credited with the innovation of adding a second actor, which transformed choral singing into dialogue, ritual into drama. In short, Aeschylus invented tragedy and is the first great playwright of the Western tradition. Near the end of Chapter 5, Aristotle mentions that one of the differences between tragedy and epic poetry is that the action of a tragedy usually unfolds in the space of a single day. This is often interpreted as one of the three unities of tragic drama. In fact, the three unities—unity of action (one single plot with no loose threads), unity of time (action takes place within a single day), and unity of place (action takes place in a single location)—were not invented by Aristotle at all. The Italian theorist Lodovico Castelvetro formalized these unities in 1570. This formalization was inspired by the Poetics, but it is far more restrictive than anything Aristotle says. The only unity he insists upon, as we shall see, is the unity of action. His reference here to the unity of time seems to be a general guideline and not one that must be followed strictly, and there is even less evidence to suggest that Aristotle demanded unity of place. The fact is, Aristotles formulas were all drawn from Greek tragedy, and these tragedies frequently violated the unities of time and place. Chapter 6 → Chapters 4–5 Chapters 7–9 Summary Aristotle now narrows his focus to examine tragedy exclusively. In order to do so, he provides a definition of tragedy that we can break up into seven parts: (1) it involves mimesis; (2) it is serious; (3) the action is complete and with magnitude; (4) it is made up of language with the pleasurable accessories of rhythm and harmony; (5) these pleasurable accessories are not used uniformly throughout, but are introduced in separate parts of the work, so that, for instance, some bits are spoken in verse and other bits are sung; (6) it is performed rather than narrated; and (7) it arouses the emotions of pity and fear and accomplishes a katharsis (purification or purgation) of these emotions. Next, Aristotle asserts that any tragedy can be divided into six component parts, and that every tragedy is made up of these six parts with nothing else besides. There is (a) the spectacle, which is the overall visual appearance of the stage and the actors. The means of imitation (language, rhythm, and harmony) can be divided into (b) melody, and (c) diction, which has to do with the composition of the verses. The agents of the action can be understood in terms of (d) character and (e) thought. Thought seems to denote the intellectual qualities of an agent while character seems to denote the moral qualities of an agent. Finally, there is (f) the plot, or mythos, which is the combination of incidents and actions in the story. Aristotle argues that, among these six, the plot is the most important. The characters serve to advance the action of the story, not vice versa. The ends we pursue in life, our happiness and our misery, all take the form of action. That is, according to Aristotle, happiness consists in a certain kind of activity rather than in a certain quality of character. Diction and thought are also less significant than plot: a series of well-written speeches have nothing like the force of a well-structured tragedy. Further, Aristotle suggests, the most powerful elements in a tragedy, the peripeteia and the anagnorisis, are elements of the plot. Lastly, Aristotle notes that forming a solid plot is far more difficult than creating good characters or diction. Having asserted that the plot is the most important of the six parts of tragedy, he ranks the remainder as follows, from most important to least: character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle. Character reveals the individual motivations of the characters in the play, what they want or dont want, and how they react to certain situations, and this is more important to Aristotle than thought, which deals on a more universal level with reasoning and general truths. Melody and spectacle are simply pleasurable accessories, but melody is more important to the tragedy than spectacle: a pretty spectacle can be arranged without a play, and usually matters of set and costume arent the occupation of the poet anyway. Analysis Aristotles definition of tragedy at the beginning of this chapter is supposed to summarize what he has already said, but it is the first mention of the katharsis. The Greek word katharsis was usually used either by doctors to talk about purgation, the flushing of contaminants out of the system, or by priests to talk about religious purification. In either case, it seems to refer to a therapeutic process whereby the body or mind expels contaminants and becomes clean and healthy. Determining exactly what role katharsis is meant to play in tragedy is somewhat more difficult. First, we might ask what exactly katharsis is in reference to tragedy. The idea, it seems, is that watching a tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear in us and then purges these emotions. But, by virtue of mimesis, we arent feeling real pity or real fear. I may feel pity for Oedipus when he learns that he has killed his father and married his mother, but this is a different kind of pity than the pity I feel for the homeless or for those living in war zones. I know that Oedipus is not a real person and that no one is really suffering when I watch Oedipus suffer. As a result, I can empathize with the character of Oedipus without feeling any kind of guilt or obligation to help him out. Watching tragedy has a cathartic effect because I can let go of the emotional tension built up in me as I leave the theater. I am able to experience profound emotion without having its consequences stay with me and harden me to subsequent emotional shocks. Second, we might ask to what extent katharsis is the purpose of tragedy, and to what extent it is an occasional effect of tragedy. The question of in what way art may be good for us is a very difficult question to answer. The best art (and this applies to Greek tragedy) is not didactic: it does not try to tell us outright how we ought or ought not to behave. At the same time, there is definitely a lot we can learn from a subtle appreciation of art. The value of art, on the whole, seems to stem more from its ability to arouse emotion and awareness on an abstract, general level, rather than to teach us particular truths. Oedipus Rex is valuable because it engenders a certain state of mind, not because it teaches us to avoid marrying older women whose family histories are uncertain. Though katharsis may be an important effect of tragedy, it is hardly the reason for which poets write tragedies. If that were so, poets would be little more than emotional therapists. Again, Aristotle is writing as an observer more than as a theorist. He has observed that tragedy has a cathartic effect on its viewers, but he is not trying to enunciate this as the end goal of all tragedy. The other important concept we encounter in this chapter is that of mythos. While plot is a pretty good translation of this word in reference to tragedy, mythos can be applied to sculpture, music, or any other art form. The mythos of a piece of art is the way it is structured and organized in order to make a coherent statement. Thus, when Aristotle speaks about the plot of a tragedy, he is not just referring to who did what to whom, but is speaking about how the events in the story come together to bring out deeper, general themes. Plot, then, is central to a tragedy, because that is where, if at all, its value lies. If character were central to tragedy, we would be watching Oedipus Rex in order to learn something about Oedipus, about what makes him tick, or how he reacts in different situations. The character of Oedipus in itself is uninteresting: why should we care about the personality of someone who never existed? The value of Oedipus lies in what we can learn about ourselves and our world from observing his fate. What we learn from a tragedy—the effect it has on us—results from the way it is structured to draw our minds toward general truths and ideas; that is, from its mythos. Quiz 1 Which of the following is NOT a distinctive feature of poetry? (A) It uses language (B) It uses rhythm (C) It is written in verse (D) It uses harmony 2 Which of the following contains a mix of direct and indirect narrative? (A) Tragedy (B) Comedy (C) Homeric epic (D) Dithyrambic poetry 3 Which of the following is not art in the Greek sense of the word? (A) Tragedy (B) A spear (C) A table (D) A peacocks feather 4 Which of the following is NOT a reason for why we like imitations? (A) We learn from imitations (B) Imitations exercise our reason (C) We are not repelled by imitations of things we would normally find repellent (D) There is a sense of safety in not having to deal with reality 5 Which of the following was the last to evolve? (A) Tragedy (B) Dithyramb (C) Epic poetry (D) Invective 6 Which of the following is not one of the three unities? (A) Unity of action (B) Unity of character (C) Unity of place (D) Unity of time 7 Which is the only unity that Aristotle insists upon? (A) Unity of action (B) Unity of character (C) Unity of place (D) Unity of time 8 Which of the following is the most important? (A) Character (B) Diction (C) Plot (D) Harmony 9 Which of the following is the least important? (A) Character (B) Plot (C) Thought (D) Spectacle 10 Which of the following is NOT a part of Aristotles definition of tragedy? (A) It arouses pity and fear (B) It has an unhappy ending (C) It involves mimesis (D) It is performed rather than narrated 11 Which of the following genres has the same plot structure as tragedy? (A) Epic poetry (B) History (C) Biography (D) Episodic storytelling 12 Which of the following has an episodic structure? (A) Biography (B) History (C) Both (D) Neither 13 A complex plot must contain: (A) Peripeteia (B) Anagnorisis (C) Both (D) Either 14 Which of the following is NOT necessary to all tragedies? (A) Exode (B) Commos (C) Parode (D) Episode 15 Which is the best kind of tragic plot? (A) A harmful deed is done knowingly (B) A harmful deed is done in ignorance (C) A harmful deed is avoided knowingly (D) A harmful deed is premeditated in ignorance, but a discovery helps prevent it 16 Which is the worst kind of tragic plot? (A) A harmful deed is done knowingly (B) A harmful deed is done in ignorance () A harmful deed is avoided knowingly () A harmful deed is premeditated in ignorance, but a discovery helps prevent it 17 Which of the following is NOT a requirement for a tragic hero? (A) The hero must be good (B) The hero must be male (C) The heros character must be consistent (D) The hero must be of high social status 18 Which is the worst kind of anagnorisis? (A) Recognition by means of signs or marks (B) Recognition prompted by memory (C) Recognition through deductive reasoning (D) Recognition that arises through the structure of the plot 19 Which is the best kind of anagnorisis? (A) Recognition by means of signs or marks (B) Recognition prompted by memory (C) Recognition through deductive reasoning (D) Recognition that arises through the structure of the plot Which of the following is not within the domain of thought? (A) Exciting emotion with a powerful speech (B) Exhibiting shyness through hunched posture (C) Persuading someone by means of logic (D) Blowing a problem out of proportion by means of exaggeration Which of the following is not a metaphor? (A) Thats as likely as a cold day in July (B) Juliet is the sun (C) Im a race car in the red (D) My love is a red, red rose. Which of the following is not a feature of epic poetry? (A) Unity of plot (B) A noble hero (C) Iambic meter (D) It is narrated Which of the following is NOT true of epic poetry? (A) Its longer than tragedy (B) It can portray more isolated incidents than tragedy (C) It can get away with presenting less probable events than those presented in tragedy (D) It is a more impressive spectacle than watching tragedy Which of the following is not an acceptable reason for including impossible or improbable events in a poem? (A) The poet is portraying things as the ought to be, not as they are (B) The poet is portraying things according to public opinion (C) They are necessary to make the plot work (D) They add to the astonishment and excitement of the story Which of the following is NOT a reason given by Aristotle to prefer tragedy over epic poetry? (A) Exaggerated gestures can add something in performance (B) Tragedy contains music and spectacle (C) There is more unity in tragedy (D) Tragedy is shorter and more compact About Aristotles Poetics Though the precise origins of Aristotles Poetics are not known, researchers believe that the work was composed around 330 BCE and was preserved primarily through Aristotles students notes. Despite its vague beginning, the Poetics has been a central document in the study of aesthetics and literature for centuries, proving especially influential during the Renaissance; it continues to have relevance in scholarly circles today. Over the years the Poetics has been both praised and disparaged. Some critics object to Aristotles theory of poetics and regret that the work has held such sway in the history of Western literature. One contemporary critic argues that Aristotle reduces drama to its language, and the language itself to its least poetic element, the story, and then encourages insensitive readers...to subject stories to crudely moralistic readings that reduce tragedies to the childish proportions of Aesop-fables (Sachs 1). Other critics have argued against such views and reclaimed the Poetics for their own times; often these critics emphasize the importance of reading the Poetics in its historical context - it was, after all, written an awfully long time ago - and stress that despite this historical barrier the insights contained in the work still hold true. Whichever side of the debate you end up on, it is important when studying the Poetics to take time to decode its dense text. The Poetics is widely considered one of Aristotles most demanding but rewarding texts, requiring commitment in its study, but offering profound returns to the diligent reader. The Poetics is Aristotles attempt to explain the basic problems of art. He both defines art and offers criteria for determining the quality of a given artwork. The Poetics stands in opposition to the theory of art propounded by Aristotles teacher, Plato. In his Republic, Plato argues that poetry is a representation of mere appearances and is thus misleading and morally suspect (Critical, 1). In the poetics, Aristotle, Platos student, attempts to refute his teacher by exploring what unites all poetry: its imitative nature and its ability to bring an audience into its specific plot while preserving a unity of purpose and theme. The tone of the Poetics reflects its argumentative spirit as Aristotle attempts both to explain the anatomy of poetry and to justify its value to human society. Despite its broad goals, however, Aristotles arguments are quite concrete. He is less interested in the abstract existence of art than he is in looking at specific artworks by specific playwrights. Aristotle wants to explain why effective poetry has stayed with audiences for so long. He tends to look for empirical evidence - i.e. sensory proof through past observation - that art is both good and useful, no matter how philosophers like Plato try to dismiss it. Character List Aeschylus Aeschylus is the author of the frequently-cited Oresteia, a play trilogy which includes Agamemnon. Aristotle attributes Aeschylus with a number of important innovations in the theater, including introducing a second actor, diminishing the importance of the chorus, and focusing on dialogue rather than music or dance (both of which were important elements in Ancient Greek theater). But Aristotle also faults Aeschylus, arguing that the playwright did not create a distinct poetic language. Euripides Aristotle refers to the tragedian Euripides - the author of Medea, The Bacchae, and over seventy other plays of which only nineteen have survived - as a master of plot. Aristotle comes to Euripides defense often in the Poetics, saying that though critics censured his work as morose, his plays were often the best because they were the most tragic. Aristotle conceives of the tragic effectin Euripedes plays as flowing from the inner logic of their plots, which always included a fall from good fortune to bad. Sophocles Sophocles is the author of Oedipus, and considered by Aristotle the master of the tragedy. He draws men as they ought to be, and creates a higher view of humans. Aristotle compares Sophocles to Homer for his tendency to idealize humanity. The playwright is also credited with raising the number of actors on the stage to three, and with adding scene-painting as a part of spectacle. Major Themes Cathartic Reversal Aristotle argues that the best tragedies - and thus the best plays, since Aristotle considers tragedy to be the highest dramatic form - use reversal and recognition to achieve catharsis. He writes that reversal works with a storys spine or center to ensure that the hero comes full circle. Oedipus is his exemplar of a hero who undergoes such a reversal and thus has cathartic self-recognition. Aristotle considers catharsis to be a form of redemption. For instance, even though Oedipus recognition is tragic it still redeems him: he is no longer living in ignorance of his tragedy but instead has accepted fate. And redemption is not the only result of catharsis; the audience too undergoes a catharsis of sorts in a good drama. The heros catharsis induces both pity and fear in the audience: pity for the hero, and fear that his fate could happen to us. Complication and Denouement There are only two parts to a good drama, says Aristotle - the rising action leading to the climax, which is known as the complication, and the denouement, or the unraveling that follows the climax. This twofold movement follows Aristotles theory of poetic unity. The complication leads up to the revelation of the unity at the heart of the work. After this revelation, a play naturally turns to the denouement, in which the significance and ramifications of the unity are explored and resolved. The Imitative Nature of Art There are two common ways to think of art: some consider it to be an expression of what is original and unusual in human thinking; Aristotle, on the other hand, argues that that art is imitative, that is to say, representative of life. This imitative quality fascinates Aristotle. He devotes much of the Poetics to exploring the methods, significance, and consequences of this imitation of life. Aristotle concludes that arts imitative tendencies are expressed in one of three ways: a poet attempts to portray our world as it is, as we think it is, or as it ought to be. The Standard of Poetic Judgment Aristotle thinks that this tendency to criticize a work of art for factual errors - such as lack of historical accuracy - is misguided. He believes that instead we should a judge work according to its success at imitating the world. If the imitation is carried out with integrity and if the artworks unity is intact at its conclusion, a simple error in accuracy will do little to blemish this greater success. Art, in other words, should be judged aesthetically, not scientifically. Tragedy vs. Epic Poetry In Aristotles time, the critics considered epic poetry to be the supreme art form, but to Aristotle, tragedy is the better of the two forms. Aristotle believes that tragedy, like the epic, can entertain and edify in its written form, but also has the added dimension of being able to translate onstage into a drama of spectacle and music, capable of being digested in one sitting. Tragic Hero The tragic hero, in Aristotles view of drama, is not an eminently good man; nor is he necessarily a paragon of virtue that is felled by adversity. Instead, the hero has some frailty or flaw that is evident from the outset of a play that eventually ensures his doom. The audience, moreover, must be able to identify with this tragic flaw. The Unity of Poetry Aristotle often speaks of the unity of poetry in the Poetics; what he means by unity, however, is sometimes misunderstood. Unity refers to the ability of the best dramatic plots to revolve around a central axis that unites all the action. Aristotle believes that a unified drama will have a spine: a central idea which motivates all the action, character, thoughts, diction and spectacle in the play. Chapters 1-5 Summary Aristotle begins with a loose outline of what he will address in The Poetics: a. the different kinds of poetry and the essential quality of each b. the structure necessary for a good poem c. the method in which a poem is divided into parts d. anything else that might tangentially comes up in his address of the above topics. But before he begins tackling these topics, Aristotle first seeks to define poetry. Poetry, as Aristotle defines it, is first and foremost a medium of imitation, meaning a form of art that seeks to duplicate or represent life. Poetry can imitate life in a number of ways, by representing character, emotion, action, or even everyday objects. Poetry, as Aristotle defines it, includes epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, and music (specifically of flute, and lyre). What differentiates these kinds of poetry is the nature of their imitation. He notes three differences. 1. Medium of Imitation In general, poetry imitates life through rhythm, language, and harmony. This is more pronounced in music or dance, but even verse poetry can accomplish imitation through language alone 2. Object of Imitation Art seeks to imitate men in action - hence the term drama (dramitas, in Greek). In order to imitate men, art must either present man as better than they are in life (i.e. of higher morals), as true to life, or as worse than they are in life (i.e. of lower morals). Each author has his own tendencies - Homer makes men better than they are, Cleophon as they are, Nichochares worse than they are. But more important is a general distinction that Aristotle makes between forms of drama: comedy represents men as worse then they are, tragedy as better than they are in actual life. 3. Mode of Imitation A poet can imitate either through: a. narration, in which he takes another personality (an omniscient I watching the events like an observer) b. speak in his own person, unchanged (the first-person I) c. presents all his characters as living and moving before us (third-person narrator) Continuing on from imitation, Aristotle turns to the anthropology and history of poetry. As Aristotle sees it, poetry emerged for two reasons -- 1) mans instinct to imitate things and 2) the instinct for harmony and rhythm. Once poetry emerged, it evolved in two directions. One group of poems imitated noble actions, or the actions of good men. A second group of poets imitated the actions of meaner persons in the form of satire. The former evolved into tragedy, the latter into epic poetry, then tragic drama. Tragedy began as improvisation and evolved over time, through the contribution of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and others into its natural form of dramatic plot, dialogue, and iambic verse. Comedy began as an imitation of characters of a lower type, meaning a representation of a defect or ugliness in character, which is not painful or destructive. Comedy was at first not taken seriously, but once plot was introduced in Sicily comedic theater, it soon grew into a respected form. Epic poetry, finally, imitates men of noble action, like tragedy. But epic poetry only allows one kind of meter and is narrative in form. Moreover, tragedy usually confines itself to a single day, whereas epic poetry has no limits of time. Ultimately, all the elements of an epic poem are found in tragedy, but not all the elements of tragedy are found in an epic poem. Analysis The Poetics begins quickly and efficiently, unlike a number of Aristotles other works. Instead of laying out an argument for why the subjects merits such a discussion or an overall thesis for his investigation, he immediately lays out an outline for his work - types of poetry, structure, and division - and begins his systematic analysis. As one critic notes, The preliminaries are over in ten lines... Nothing is said about the purpose of the discussion, what Aristotle hopes to accomplish by it; next to nothing about method, or the views of others on poetry. But above all we miss something that stands as preface to every major work of Aristotles [best work], namely some general statement by way of orientation... (Else, 2). In other words, Aristotle usually presents a notion of the forest, before he begins to look at the trees. But not in the Poetics. The first three chapters of the Poetics are action-packed - nearly every line needs to be carefully dealt with, since Aristotle presents a myriad of definitions, concepts, and categories. But the first major issue is to understand involves the term Poetics - what does Aristotle mean by it? Simply put, poetry to Aristotle is not the final product, but the art of creating poetry. To understand this art, we must first grasp a number of important concepts. The first is imitation, which is a word used often in the Poetics. Imitation, as a concept, refers to an artists primary motivation to duplicate or capture life in some form. Imitation, furthermore, is an innate instinct, says Aristotle, that is implanted in man from childhood. We use imitation not only for entertainment, but also for learning - by seeing the fortunes or misfortunes of another, they can internalize experience through vicarious living. Aristotle also uses imitation to differentiate between tragedy and comedy. In the former, poets reveal men as better than they are - hence the tragic hero. It is in this representation of man as better or of higher morality that we ultimately find catharsis, the release at the end of a tragedy. In comedy, however, a poet presents man as worse than he is - plagued by some defect or ugliness which ultimately takes the reader into a satiric worldview. Comedy ultimately works in a similar way to tragedy, but with opposite effect: in a tragedy, we grieve over the fate of a man who must suffer for his flaw, perhaps touched by the possibility that we too might possess this flaw. But in a comedy, we laugh at the heros flaw, comforted by the fact that it is not ours. Indeed, comedy and tragedy both have a moralizing effect on the audience. This is less evident in comedy, perhaps, since comedies tend to be about bad behavior and people doing ugly, immoral, or ridiculous things. The critic Goucher explains how Aristotle solves this problem: [Aristotle] accepted that the primary object of comedy as imitation: imitation of low characters - not morally bad, but ludicrous, ugly but not painful or destructive. He defended comedies mimetic representation of ludicrous behavior because it would incite audiences to avoid its imitation (Goucher 1). Aristotles definition of epic poetry may confuse the reader, so it is worth illuminating precisely what he means. Epic poetry is like tragedy in that it reveals man to be better than he is - but it is narrative in form, depending either on an omniscient first-person narrator, a third-person narrator, or a first-person narrating hero. A tragedy, meanwhile, involves the dialogue of two or more characters. Additionally, tragedy and epic poetry differ in length -- tragedy is confined usually to a single day, in the efforts to reveal a quick devolution of the hero. Epic poetry, meanwhile, often continues for a mans full lifetime. Ultimately it seems that tragedy grew from epic poetry, so we find all the qualities of the latter in the former, but an epic poem need not contain all the elements of a tragedy. Chapters 6-9 Summary Tragedy is an imitation of action with the following characteristics: it is serious, complete, of significant magnitude, depicted with rhythmic language and/or song, in the form of action (not narrative), and produces a purgation of pity and fear in the audience (also known as catharsis). Since tragedy is the imitation of action, it is chiefly concerned with the lives of men, and thus presents a stage for character and thought. Character - the qualities ascribed to a certain man - and thought, according to Aristotle, are the two causes from which actions spring. These elements also determine the success of a given action. Plot, then, is arrangements of incidents (successes or failures) that result from character and thought giving way to action. With the above in mind, Aristotle lays out the six parts that define a tragedy: a. plot b. character c. diction (rhythmic language) d. thought e. spectacle f. song Plot is the most important part of a tragedy for a number of reasons. First, the result of a mans actions determines his success or failure, and hence his happiness, so it is action which is paramount - not character, which doesnt necessarily affect every action. Second, without action, there cannot be a tragedy - but there can be a tragedy without character. Thirdly, diction, song, and thought - even elegantly combined - cannot replicate the action of life without plot. Plot, then, is the soul of a tragedy, and character comes second. Rounding out his rankings: thought, meaning what a character says in a given circumstance, followed by diction, song, and spectacle. Aristotle goes on to describe the elements of plot, which include completeness, magnitude, unity, determinate structure, and universality. Completeness refers to the necessity of a tragedy to have a beginning, middle, and end. A beginning is defined as an origin, by which something naturally comes to be. An end, meanwhile, follows another incident by necessity, but has nothing necessarily following it. The middle follows something just as something must follow it. Magnitude refers simply to length -- the tragedy must be of a length which can be easily embraced by the memory. That said, Aristotle believes that the longer a tragedy, the more beautiful it can be, provided it maintains its beginning, middle, and end. And in the sequence of these three acts, the tragedy will present a change from bad fortune to good, or from good fortune to bad. Unity refers to the centering of all the plots action around a common theme or idea. Determinate structure refers to the fact that the plot all hinges on a sequence of causal, imitative events, so if one were to remove even one part of the plot, the entire tragedy will be disjointed and disturbed. More simply, every part of a good plot is necessary. Universality refers to the necessity of a given character to speak or act according to how all or most humans would react in a given situation, according to the law of probability or necessity. Aristotle ends this discussion of plot elements by pointing his out his particular disdain for episodic plots - plots in which episodes succeed one another without probably or necessary sequence (like a weekly sitcom, for instance). These episodic dramas stretch plot beyond their capacity, and hence are inorganic. Analysis Aristotle highlights the primacy of action in this section as the key to an artists imitation. Indeed, because action initiates a chain of causal events, it is the single most important driver of plot. Though an astute reader might ask But what causes action?, Aristotle quickly responds by arguing that ultimately the things that drive action - character and thought - arent nearly as important as the action itself. For plot is the simple arrangement of incidents in causal chains, and in this plot alone we can find satisfaction, even if it is not clearly motivated with character or thought. That said, the best of tragedies maintain the primacy of plot while also inlaying the drama with character, diction (rhythmic language), thought, spectacle, and song. Character here refers to the attributes either ascribed or clearly evident in a given man - virtues which ultimately define a tragic heros flaw and the source of his redemption. Thought, meanwhile, refers to the ideas of a given character, conveyed by speech. Though thought illuminates character, it is not necessary for it - indeed, a silent hero still would have a clearly delineated character, and perhaps an even clearer one than a loquacious character. Again, Aristotles thesis is proved - that it is action that is paramount, regardless of motivation or underlying cause. Unity is another concept which may confuse the reader, since Aristotle does not spend much time explicating it. Unity refers to the ability of the best plots to revolve around an axis, a theme which unites all the action. A unified drama will have a spine - a central idea which motivates all the action, characters, thoughts, diction, and spectacle. Determinate structure follows from unity -- if the action revolves around a central spine, it creates a full skeleton of plot. But remove one bone, and the entire body of action becomes unstable, since every bone radiates from the central spine and is thus fully necessary. The test, Aristotle says, is to see if there is any part of the plot which can be removed without missing it. If this is true, then it must be excised. A true drama never wanders from its central spine for fear of losing its unity. Universality, meanwhile, is slightly more vague, but appeals to our common sense. Aristotle simply states that a character must act in accordance with human nature - either through probability, i.e. what most of us would do, or through necessity, i.e. what we are forced to do. An action cannot seem arbitrary - otherwise not only will it violate the determinate structure and break unity, but it will also irritate an audience that sees no basis for the action in human behavior.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:58:47 +0000
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