Aristotle

Part I: Aristotle and Tragedy

Aristotle was a philosopher from Greece. He moved to Plato‟s Academy
while he was 18. Aristotle‟s teacher was Plato, and Aristotle was the teacher of
Alexander the Great.
Aristotle made significant contributions in the form of treatise (i.e. a serious
book or article about a subject). His most important treatises include Physics,
Ethics, Politics, and Poetics. He wrote on aesthetics, ethics, politics, economics,
psychology, rhetoric (the art of speaking or writing to persuade or influence people)
and theology.
An Introduction to Aristotle’s Poetics
Poetics means the science of poetry. In Poetics, Aristotle here defines art and also
suggests the criteria for evaluating the quality of the given work of art. For Aristotle,
poetry is an act of imitation, but Poet is a creator, and he creates something new
through imitation that seeks to represent life through character, emotion, or action.
According to Aristotle, tragedy came from the efforts of poets to present men as
‘nobler,’ or ‘better’ than they are in real life. Comedy shows a „lower type‟ of
person, and reveals humans to be worse than they are in average. Epic poetry, on
the other hand, imitates „noble’ men like tragedy.
According to Aristotle, tragedy is an act of imitation. Aristotle observes six
components that constitute a successful tragedy and they are: plot, character,
thought, diction, song and spectacle.
Plot: Plot is the arrangement of incidents with effective link. It must have a
universal significance, definite structure, unity of theme and purpose
Character: Aristotle explains different qualities for the character of the tragic hero:
-The tragic hero should be good, renowned.
-He should be courageous and dear to everyone.
-He should be true to life that any one of the audience should be able to identify
himself or herself with the feelings or emotions undergone by the hero.
-The hero should be a consistent person in the sense whatever qualities or weakness
assigned to him should be consistently there with him throughout. His fall
doesn’t happen all on a sudden as a shock but it is due to a flaw in his character.
Thought: Everything that are supposed to be brought out through the effect of
speech or action are included under thought.
 Diction: Diction includes the verbal expression of the content of the tragic play.
The nature and quality of vocabulary used in a tragedy should be proper and
appropriate to the character, plot and objective of the tragedy. The character must be
able to differentiate between a command, request, advice, threat, and a prayer.
Song/Melody: (e.g. sound effects, songs etc.) Aristotle calls the musical elements of
the chorus as song or melody.
Spectacle: (visual elements: scenery, costumes, special effects) Spectacle is of
lowest importance because it has very little to do with literature. The poet who
creates an artistic work gives primary attention to the inner structure of the work.
Part II: Aristotle's defense of Plato's accusations against poetry
Plato rejected poetry on the philosophical and moral grounds as it is an
imitation of reality. On the contrary, Aristotle advocated poetry as poetry is an
imitation of an action and his tool of examination is neither philosophical nor
moral. Aristotle examines poetry as a piece of art and not as a book of preaching
or teaching.
Plato argues that to understand an object, one needs to know the reality. He
adds that the path to reality is in philosophy and reason, not in poetry and emotion. He
judges poetry from the philosophical, educational, and ethical perspectives. In his
theory of Mimesis (imitation), Plato believed that „idea‟ is the ultimate reality. Art
imitates idea and so it is imitation of reality. He gives an example of a carpenter and a
chair. The idea of „chair‟ first came in the mind of carpenter. He gave physical shape
to his idea out of wood and created a chair. The painter imitated the chair of the
carpenter in his picture of chair. Thus, painter‟s chair is twice removed from reality.
He gives first importance to philosophy as philosophy deals with the ideas whereas
poetry deals with illusion – things which are twice removed from reality. So to Plato,
philosophy is superior to poetry. On the other hand, Aristotle defends poetry. He
regards art as an imitation of action. Thus, the artist seeks to imitate the action of life.
Poetry is the representation of selected events and characters necessary in a coherent
action for the realization of the artist‟s purpose.
Also, Plato says that art is bad because it does not inspire virtue, does not
teach morality and ethics. However, Aristotle's view in reply to Plato's charge is that
everything should be judged in terms of its own aims and criteria. We cannot say that
music is bad because it does not paint, or that painting is bad because it does not sing.
Similarly, we cannot say that poetry is bad because it does not teach philosophy or
ethics. If poetry, philosophy and ethics had identical function, how could they be
different subjects? To denounce (condemn) poetry because it is not philosophy or
ideal is ridiculous. Aristotle states that the function of art is to provide aesthetic
delight (pleasure), communicate experience, express emotions and represent life.
Aristotle adds that “Tragedy (Art) gives new knowledge, yields (produces) aesthetic
satisfaction and produces a better state of mind.”

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Next lecture: Aristotle's qualities for the character of the tragic hero and Sophocles'
Oedipus the King