6. Aristotle (c. 384-322 B.C.E. )
• Founder of literary criticism
• Dante called him “the master of those who
know”
• Plato referred to Aristotle as “the mind’’
12. *Introductory remarks on poetry
and its classification.
*Tragedy.
*Poetic diction.
*Narrative poetry and Tragedy .
*Epic is compared with Tragedy.
*Objections are answered.
6 Parts of “Poetics”
13. Twenty-six
chapters.
a kind of covert
reply to his great
master.
a systematic
exposition of the
theory and
practice of
poetry.
18. Differences between Aristotle and Plato
— Poetry presents a copy of
nature as it is. Poetry is
twice removed from reality
and it’s a ‘shadow of
shadows’.
— Plato takes up the cudgel
on behalf of philosophy
and shows that philosophy
is superior to poetry.
— Poetry may imitate men as
they are, or better and
worse. Poetry gives us
idealized version of reality.
— He takes up the cudgels
on behalf of poetry and
effectively brings out its
superiority.
36. Lusis - Literally "untying," the
lusis is all the action in a tragedy
from the climax onward. All the
plot threads that have been woven
together in the desis are slowly
unraveled until the conclusion.
44. first kind of distinction is the
means or medium 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.
45. 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.
46. tragedy and epic poetry:
characters are better than us
comedy and parody:
characters are worse than us.
47. The third 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.
49. We are by nature imitative creatures
that learn and excel by imitating
others, and we naturally take delight
in works of imitation.
Evidence: fascinated by
representations of dead bodies or
disgusting animals even though the
things themselves would repel us.
52. Four innovations in the
development from improvised
dithyrambs toward the tragedies
of his day.
53. Dithyrambs were sung in honor of
Dionysus, god of wine, by a chorus
of around fifty men and boys,
often accompanied by a narrator.
54. 1st Innovation:
Aeschylus reduced the number of
the chorus and introduced a
second actor on stage, which made
dialogue the central focus of the
poem
56. 3rd Innovation:
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.
58. tragedy and epic poetry:
characters are better than us
comedy and parody:
characters are worse than us.
59. comedy deals with the ridiculous
which he defines as a kind of
ugliness that does no harm to
anybody else.
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.
60. Tragedy and epic poetry deal with
lofty subjects in a grand style of
verse
Three significant differences:
First, tragedy is told in a
dramatic, rather than narrative, form,
and employs several different kinds
of verse while epic poetry employs
only one.
61. 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.
62. 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.
63. 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
64. (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;
65. (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;
66. (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.
70. Unity of Action:(Probability and
Necessity)
There must be a
causal connection
between the
various events and
incidents.
They must follow
each other
naturally and
inevitably.
No incident or
character should be
superfluous.
The events
introduced must be
such as are probable
under the
circumstances.
Aristotle emphasizes Unity of Action ; he is against plurality of action
as it weakens the final effect of Tragedy.
73. Diction and Style
Diction is the choice and arrangement of words and
images in a literary composition.
Six types of words
• Current or ordinary words
• Foreign terms borrowed or dialects
• Metaphors
• Ornamental periphrasis
• Invented words
• Not invented, but made new lengthening
or shortening
74. Songs is the pleasurable addition to a
play. In a tragedy, song is provided by
the Chorus. The quantitative sections of
tragedy are ;
vPrologue
vChoric song
vEpisode
vExode
SONGS OR MELODY
75. About Catharsis:-
#In the Poetics, while defining tragedy,
Aristotle writes that the function of
tragedy is to arouse the emotions of pity
and fear, and in this way to affect the
Katharsis of these emotion.
#Further the Greek word Katharsis
has three meanings:-
Purgation purification clarification
All agree that Tragedy arouses fear and pity, but there are sharp differences
as to the process, the way, by which the rousing of these emotions gives
pleasure.
77. Two kinds of Plots: simple and complex
— Simple:
— Plot is simple when the
change in the fortunes of
the hero takes place
without peripety and
discovery.
— Complex:
— The plot is complex
when it involves one or
the other or both. The
Peripety is the change in
the fortunes of the hero
and the Discovery is a
change from ignorance
to knowledge.
Aristotle prefers complex plot, for it startles and
captures attention.
78. Complex plots are those which have Peripety
and Anagnorisis or Discovery or Recognition
— Peripeteia :
— Peripeteia means that
human actions produce
results exactly opposite
to what was intended: it
is working in blindness
to one’s own defeat.
— It is a false step taken in
the dark.(e.g., Macbeth)
— Anagnorisis:
— Anagnorisis or
recognition is the
realization of truth, the
opening of the eyes, the
sudden lightning-flash
in the darkness.
79. Characterization:-
Showing a perfectly
good man passing
from happiness to
misery
Such kind of plot
will not inspire pity
and fear it will be
simply odious or
horrible
Showing a bad
man rising
from misery to
happiness
It is not
tragic at all
Showing an
extremely bad
man falling from
happiness to
misery
It will move us
neither to pity nor
fear.
“A man who is not eminently good and just yet whose misfortune is not
brought by vice or depravity but by some error of frailty”.
80. Further Traits of Characters:-
The
characters
must be good
They must be
appropriate
They must
have likeness
They must
have
consistency
Aristotle means that they must be true to type, slave
should behave as slaves are generally known to behave.
There must be no sudden and unaccountable change in
character.
81. The Ideal Tragic Hero:-
He should neither be
perfectly good not
utterly bad .
He should be a man
neither of a blameless
character nor a
depraved villain.
He is a man of ordinary
weaknesses and virtues,
like our selves, leaning
more to the side of
good than of evil.
Suffering, not because of some deliberate villainy but
because of some error of judgment.
82. “Hamartia”
Ignorance Hasty or careless
view
Decision taken
voluntarily
Oedipus Othello Hamlet
It may be accompanied by normal imperfection, but it is not itself a moral
imperfection, and in the purest tragic situation the suffering hero is not morally to
blame.
83. The Dramatic Unities
Unity of Time
#Comparing the Epic and the
Tragedy:-
“Tragedy tries as far as
possible, to live within a
single revolution of the
sun, or only slightly to
exceed it, whereas the epic
observes no limits in its
time of action”.
About the Unity of Time he merely says in the Poetics that tragedy
should confine itself, “as far as possible”, to a single revolution of the
sun.
84. Unity of Place
Aristotle only mentions
when comparing the epic
and the tragedy, that the
epic can narrate a number
of actions going on
simultaneously in different
parts, while in drama such
simultaneous actions
cannot be represented, for
the stage is one part and not
several parts, or places.
86. * Unity of plot in epic.
* Contrast between epic and tragedy.
* Superiority of tragedy over epic.
* Tragedy is possible without character but not
without plot.
* Epic is of four types : simple and complex, epic
of character, epic of suffering.
* Tragedy is of four types : The complex tragedy,
the tragedy of suffering, the tragedy of
character, the tragedy of spectacle.
EPIC AND TRAGEDY
87. Types of Tragedy
• Complex tragedy
It consists of reversal and recognition of truth.
• Tragedy of suffering
Tragedy depicts suffering.
• Tragedy of character
Character more involved than plot.
• Tragedy of spectacle
It depends upon the sensational effects
produced by the actors, the costume designers and
other mechanical and artificial devices.
88. Types of Recognition
Anagnorisis (discovery or recognition of truth)
• Signs or objects, symbols
• Author tells himself
• Discovery from memory
• Process of reasoning
• Discovery arising from the false reasoning
89. Superiority of Tragedy over Epic
• It has all the elements of an epic and has also
spectacle and song which the epic lacks.
• Unity of action only in a tragedy not in an epic.
• Simply reading the play without performing it is
already very potent.
• Tragedy is shorter that is more compact concentrated
effect.