CHAPTER 10-12

1. CHAPTER 10-12

2. SIMPLE & COMPLEX PLOT • All plots move from beginning to end in probable or necessary sequence of events. • A simple plot does so without peripeteia whereas a complex plot involves anyone or both. • The best kind of peripeteia is followed by Anagnorisis or vice versa. • Peripeteia & Anagnorisis should be necessary or probable consequence of what came before so that they are part of plot.

3. PERIPETEIA • Reversal from one state of affair to the opposite. • Some elements in the plot effect a reversal.

4. ANAGNORISIS • A change from ignorance to knowledge. • It will bring happiness & love to those who learn of good fortune and hatred and misery to those who discover unhappy truths. • Aristotle suggests that “anagnorisis” is possible by a number of other means as well. • The two together will help to arouse pity and fear and will also help to show the play to its conclusion.

5. SUFFERING • In addition to peripeteia and anagnorisis.Aristotle defines a third part of the plot suffering as actions of destructive or painful nature,such as murders,torture and wounding.

6. QUANTITATIVE ELEMENTS OF TRAGEDY • These are : Prologue. Episode. Exode. Choral portion involving parode and stasimone. • In addition some tragedies have songs from the stage and a “commus”(a lamentation sung by both actor and chorus) • Parode:is the first full statement of the chorus. • Prologue:everything that preceed parode is prologue. • Stasimon:A choral song sung in a certain meter,while action takes place between choral songs is Episode. • Exode:everything that follows the last choral song is Exode.

7. CHAPTER 13-14BEST KINDS OF PLOTS • Best plot would arouse pity and fear. • Three kinds of plots should be avoided A good man going from happiness to misery. A bad man from misery to happiness. A bad man going from happiness and misery. • We feel pity for undeserved misfortune and we feel fear of that person is something like ourselves. • The best kind of plot involves the misfortune of someone who is neither good nor bad and the downfall is caused not from some unpleasantness or vice versa but rather from”hamartia”

8. ELEMENTS OF A GOOD PLOT • It must focus around one single issue. • The hero must go from fortune to misfortune rather than vice versa. • The misfortune results from hamartia. • The hero should be of intermediate worth. • Second rate plots would focus on a double issue where good fare well and the bad fare poorly.

9. PLEASURES OF TRAGEDY • Pity and fear are pleasures of tragedy. • They should be aroused by the plot and not the spectacle. • The poet who relies on spectacle is relying on outside help,whereas the poet who relies only on his plot is fully responsible for his creation.

10. PITY • We feel pity most when family or friends harm each other rather when enemies are in this situation or people who are indifferent to each other. • The deed may be done unknowingly or knowingly. • A third situation is when one character plans to kill another character but then discover the family connection and refrain from doing so.

11. The best kind of plot is the 3rd alternative.the second best case is when the deed is done in ignorance and so on. • The worst case is where there is full knowledge and the deed is only refrained from at the moment of action.

12. CHAPTER 15CHARACTER OF THE TRAGIC HERO • There are four requirements 1-The characters of the hero denotes the moral purpose of the play so good character will have good moral purpose. 2-The good qualities of the hero must be appropriate to the character. 3-The hero must be realistic. 4-The hero should be consistent. In order to reconcile (1) with (3) the distinctive characteristics should be touched up

13. LUSIS • Should arise out of the plot and not depend on stage artifice. • Both the characters and plot ought to follow a probable or necessary sequence so that lusis should be a part of that sequence. • Improbable events,intervention of Gods should be reserved. • The actual incidents should not rely on miracles but as probability and necessity.

14. CHAPTER 16-18ANAGNORISIS • Aristotle distinguish b/w six different kind of Anagnorisis. • Recognition by signs or marks. • Recognition contrived by the author. • Recognition prompted by memory. • Recognition through deductive reasoning. • Recognition through faculty reasoning on part of a disguised character. • Recognition that is naturally a part of logical sequence of events.

15. SEVEN STEPS • The poet should be sure to visualize the action of his drama vividly. • The poet should try acting out the events as he writes them. • The poet should first write an outline and then fill it up. • Every play has Desis & Lusis.

16. There are four kinds of tragedy and whatever kind the poet is attempting all its components should be complete.These tragedies are (i) complex tragedies. (ii) tragedy of character. (iii) tragedy of suffering (iv) tragedy of spectacle. • The poet should focus on episodes. • The chorus should be treated as an actor and the choral song should have a significance.

17. CHAPTER 19-22 • These are the least interesting chapters of poetics. • Many scholars suspect they are not by Aristotle at all.

18. THOUGHT • Thought of an agent is something that they express verbally.This includes reasoning,arousing emotion persuading. • It is the impression that the agent is trying to make on others. • Agents may arouse emotion in one another by means of language.

19. METAPHOR • He treats it like extra spice sprinkled on top.It is used to raise poetry above the hundrum of everyday speech e.g “Juliet is the sun”.

20. STYLE • A poet should express himself with clarity but without meanness, • Use of ordinary language is prosaic.