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Aristotle & The Poetics. Aristotle. Lived from 384-322 BC. (B. about 20 years after Sophocles’ death.) Made major contributions to physics, metaphysics, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, zoology, and, of course, poetry & theater.
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Aristotle • Lived from 384-322 BC. (B. about 20 years after Sophocles’ death.) • Made major contributions to physics, metaphysics, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, zoology, and, of course, poetry & theater. • His methodology was to break down knowledge into fields which could categorize and classify existing facts and objects. • Was a student of Plato in Athens, and became the tutor of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy.
The Poetics: from Chapter 1 • “Our topic is poetry in itself and its kinds, and what potential each has; how plots should be constructed if the composition is to turn out well; also from how many parts it is constituted, and of what sort they are; and likewise all other aspects of the same enquiry.” • “Tragedy too is distinguished from comedy by precisely this difference; comedy prefers to represent people who are worse than those who exist, tragedy people who are better.” • Drama is the type of literature that represents “everyone as in action and activity,” and comes from “drontas,” or “doing,” as opposed to literature in which the author “narrates or becomes another person, as Homer does, or remains the same person and doesn’t change.”
The Poetics: From Our Excerpt • “Tragedy, then, is a representation of an action that is serious, complete, and of some magnitude; in language that is pleasurably embellished, the different forms of embellishment occurring in separate parts; presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the catharsis of such emotions” (64). • Unity of plot: “The plot of a play, being the representation of an action, must present it as a unified whole; and its various incidents must be so arranged that if any one of them is differently placed or taken away the effect of wholeness will be seriously damaged” (68).
The Poetics: From Our Excerpt cont. • “Reversals” and “recognitions” are the most important elements of the plot (65). • “A reversal is a change from one state of affairs to its opposite, one which conforms, as I have said, to probability or necessity” (70). • “A recognition is a change from ignorance to knowledge, and it leads either to love or to hatred between persons destined for good or ill fortune” (71). • The tragic hero should be “the sort of man who is not conspicuous for virtue and justice, and whose fall into misery is not due to vice and depravity, but rather to some error; a man who enjoys prosperity and a high reputation” (73).
The Poetics: From Our Excerpt cont. • “Now if a man injures his enemy, there is nothing pitiable either in his act or in his intention, except in so far as suffering itself is concerned; nor is there if they are indifferent to each other. But when sufferings involve those who are near and dear to one another, when for example brother kills brother, son father, mother son, or son mother, or if such a deed is contemplated, or something else of the kind is actually done, then we have a situation of the kind to be aimed at” (74-75).
