ARISTOTLE’S ‘POETICS’
CONCEPTS OF TRAGEDY, COMEDY, PLOT AND CATHARISIS
(Criticism
3)
Aristotle was born in 384 BC at Stagira. He came to Athens at the age of Seventeen and
became a disciple of Plato and stayed with Plato till his death in 347 BC. In 342 BC he became the tutor of Prince
Alexander of Macedon. In 335 BC he
founded the Peripatetic school.
Aristotle was a voluminous writer and wrote 400 volumes. Dialogues, Rhetoric, Logic, Physics,
Metaphysics, Politics and Poetics were the important works of him. He died in 322 BC.
Aristotle is considered as the first scientific literary
critic and his literary criticism is largely embodied in the ‘Poetics’. The Poetics is a short treatise of twenty six
chapters in 45 pages. It seems that the
poetics is not complete as it has only the discussion of tragedy. There must be a second part, that’s lost, in
which the discussion of comedy and satire should be included.
The poetics is an important land mark in the literary
criticism. It is an attempt to arrive at
the truth, rather than ascertaining of some preconceived notions. As Aristotle’s methods are exploratory and
tentative it contains so much that is of permanent and universal interest in
it. According to Aristotle imitation
(mimesis) is the common basis of all the fine arts. But they differ from each other in their
medium, manner and objects of imitation.
Thus, poetry differs from painting and music in its medium of
imitation. Poetry itself is divisible
into epic and dramatic on the basis of its manner of imitation. Here the epics narrate while the dramatic
represents through action. The dramatic
poetry itself is distinguished as tragic or comic on the basis of its objects
of imitation. Tragedy imitates a noble
character whereas a comedy imitates a mean character. Tragedy imitates men as better and the comedy
as worse than they really are. Thus,
Aristotle differentiates tragedy from other kinds of poetry.
Aristotle considers tragedy superior to epic, as all the
parts of an epic are included in tragedy.
But, at the same time he argues that all that of tragedy are not found
in epics. Aristotle defines tragedy as
“The imitation of an action, serious, complete and of a certain magnitude, in a
language beautified in different parts, with different kinds of embellishments,
through actions and not narrations and through scenes of pity and fear bringing
about the catharsis of emotions.
According to Aristotle tragedy has six parts namely plot,
characters, diction, reasoning, spectacles and song. As tragedy imitates action, the action that
imitates is plot. So, the plot should
consist of logical and inevitable sequence of events. The action must have a beginning, middle and
an end. It must be long enough to permit
an orderly development of an action to a catastrophe. Aristotle divides the plots of tragedy mainly
into two kinds, simple and complex. In a
tragedy with a simple plot, the change in the fortunes of the hero takes place without
any Perepeteia and Anagnorisis. An ideal
tragic plot, according to Aristotle, must not be simple. It must be complex, that is, it must have
Perepeteia which means ‘reversal of intention, the opposite that are intended
or ignorance of truth’, and Anagnorisis which means “recognition of truth or
realization of truth”.
The ideal tragedy is a story where an unexpected
catastrophe or a calamity happens due to a false move blindly made by a friend,
kinsman, or by the hero himself. It is a
tragedy brought about, not by the deliberate purpose of some evil agent, not by
mere chance but by human error.
‘Hamartia’ is the tragic error of the hero. He may err innocently, unknowingly, without
any evil intention at all. The
miscalculation of the hero causes a chain of incidents that result in the
change from good fortune to bad fortune.
Thus, ‘Hamartia’ becomes an inevitable one to the tragic plot. Similarly both Peripeteia and Anagnorisis are
incidents and so they too become parts of the plot. They are actually bringing a change from
friendship to hostility and vice versa.
The ignorance and the recognition of some truth can be caused by
separate incidents. They may be easily
combined in some incidents. Aristotle
considers this combined form to be the most effective. Here, Aristotle cites Oedipus as the best
example of this combined ‘Reversal-recognition’ one. (Sophecles's Oedipus Rex (430 BC)-Oedipus
killed his father Laius and became the king of Thebes and married his mother
Jocasta. Having realized the truth
gorged out his eyes and banished himself).
He also talks about a third kind of plot, that depends on the incidents
of suffering and depicts murder, torture and death. He rates it very low and says that it
indicates a deficiency in the art of the poet.
Aristotle does not consider poetic Justice, the rewards and
punishments to the good and evil as necessary for the tragedy as the suffering
is far in excess of the fault or error of the hero..But, he regards it more
keeping with the spirit of comedy. He
rules out plots with a double end, that is, the plots in which there is
happiness for some of the characters and misery for others. Such double ending
weakens the tragic effect and hence it must be avoided. Thus, Aristotle declares that he is against
Tragic-Comedy.
Aristotle also opines that perfectly good as well as
utterly wicked persons are not suitable to be heroes of tragedies. So, an ideal tragic hero is a man who stands
midway between the two extremes. His
misfortune is brough upon him by some fault of his own. The Greek word ‘Hamartia’ means ‘missing the
mark’ or ‘miscalculation’. This error
may arise from any of the three ways: ignorance, hasty or careless view of
anything, by mistake. In our sympathy
for this sufferer on the stage, we forget our own troubles and worries. Fear is the impulse to withdraw and pity is
the impulse to approach. Both these
impulses are harmonized and blended in tragedy and this balance brings relief
and repose.
The function of a tragedy is to arouse the emotion of pity
and fear in the minds of the viewers and in this way affecting the chatharsis
of the emotions. The Greek word
‘Catharsis’ has actually three meanings.
It means purgation, purification and clarification. In the tragedy the spectator sees that it is
the tragic error or Hamartia of the hero which results in suffering, and so he
learns something about the universal relation between character and
destiny. So, there is some ‘purgation
and purification’. As it leads to an
enhanced understanding of the universal law it is intellectual. So, there is some clarifications too.
‘The Poetics’ is a comprehensive treatise on the art of
writing plays. It is a text book of
practical instruction and guidance immediately useful for would be poets and
dramatists. It tells us clearly the real
aim of drama and the ways and means by which the aim of drama can be
achieved. Aristotle’s theory regarding
the nature of poetic imitation and the peculiar pleasure of Tragedy has been
the basis of all subsequent discussions of these topics up to date. As Aristotle was a man of universal
intelligence, in whatever sphere he worked, he looked solely and steadfastly at
the object. That is why even today ‘The
Poetics’ continues to be studied and prescribed as text book in schools and
colleges all over the world.
-----Thulasidharan V
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