Summary: Aristotle "Poetics"
A Brief Summary of Aristotle’s “Poetics”Aristotle opens the Poetics by defining poetry as Mimesis or imitation. Imitation is the common principle of all arts. Some arts imitate by means of colour and shape; while some imitate by means of voice.
Aristotle never gives an explicit analysis of the term ‘imitation.’ He has taken the term from Plato, who believes that art is the copy of the copy, twice removed from truth. Aristotle’s conception of imitation is a corrective to Plato. Art imitates the world of man’s mind. Art is not mere imitation. It is a re-creation. “Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statement are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.”
Poetry, according to Aristotle, is imitation of men in action. They may be even as they are. In Tragedy, men are better than they are, while in Comedy men are worse than they are. In Tragedy, the characters are good, but if they are almost deified they cannot rouse our sympathy. Similarly in Comedy, the men are worse than they are. They are worse than common men not as regards any and every sort of fault, but only as regards one particular kind, the ridiculous which is a species of the ugly.
Aristotle divides the poetry into the narrative and dramatic. The narrative poetry is known as the Epic, while dramatic poetry is Tragedy or Comedy. He believes that poetry owes its origin to the primitive instincts to imitate. Whenever there was the imitation of the good and noble, there was the birth of Tragedy and Epic; when the poets imitated the ignoble and the mean, they produced Comedy and Satire.
Epic poetry and Tragedy have been contrasted by Aristotle. They have three similarities; 1) they are metrical, 2) they are imitations of serious subjects in a grand style, and 3) the poets try to idealize the characters. Meanwhile, the differences between them are; 1) the Epic is in narrative form, written in one single kind of verse or metre, while Tragedy is written in a number of metres. 2) an Epic does not observe the unity of time, it may cover many days, while Tragedy observes the unity of time and endeavours to keep within a single circuit of the sun, i.e. one day.
Tragedy is an imitation of an action; the language will have pleasant accessories, which means language, rhythm and tune. The action of the Tragedy should be complete. It must have a beginning, middle and end. If there is an abrupt beginning, it will not be intelligible to the readers or the audience. The length of the play must also be appropriate, neither too short nor too long. If it is too short or too long, the unity and wholeness of it will be lost sight of. The end must also be emotionally and intellectually satisfying. He said that the end of Tragedy is Catharsis or Purgation or emotional relief. The direct object of Tragedy is to arouse pity and fear – the pity of the audience is for the hero, while the fear is for themselves.
A Tragedy, according to Aristotle, has six parts of elements; Plot, Character, Thought, Diction or Language, Melody or Music, and Spectacle. Plot is the soul of Tragedy. It must be a complete whole and should have logical coherence. The plot of Tragedy should deal with ideal or universal truth. Plot are generally divided into two types – simple and complex. A simple plot is a plot without peripeteia and anagnorisis, while a complex is one having peripeteia or anagnorisis both. Peripeteia means the change of fortune; and anagnorisis means discovery, recognition or revelation. The third element in plot, beside peripeteia and anagnorisis, is tragic suffering, i.e. murder or persecution displayed on stage.
Aristotle is in favour of avoiding three types of plot. A good man must not be seen passing from happiness to misery, or a bad man from misery to happiness. If it happens, it may be morally satisfying, but nevertheless it will not move us to pity or fear.
As regards the characters in a Tragedy, Aristotle likes the playwright to aim at four things. First, the character should be good. Secondly, the portrayal should be appropriate. Thirdly, the characters should be life-like, i.e. true to type and equally true to human nature. Last, the characters should have consistency.
In general, the ideal tragic hero should be neither too good nor too bad. He should be the intermediate kind of personage, one not pre-eminently virtuous and just whose misfortune is brought about by hamartia, i.e. an error of judgment.
In Tragedy, according to Aristotle, has six types of discovery. First, the discovery by means of signs or tokens. These signs may be congenital, or they may be acquired, for example, in Ulysses, the nurse could identify Ulysses through his scar. Second, the self revelation of a person. For example, in Iphigenia in Tauris, Orestes reveals himself to his sister. Third, the discovery through the effect of associations. For example, in the Tale of Alcinous, Ulysses weeps when the minstrel’s harp reawakens the past for him. Fourth, The discovery as the result of reasoning. For example, in the Chouphori, there is a statement “Someone who is like me has come; no one is like me except Orestes; therefore it is Orestes who has come.” Fifth, It arises from the fallacious reasoning. For example, In Odysseus the False Messenger, the speaker said that he would know the bow, which he had not seen. It is obviously absurd that a person should recognize a thing hither to unknown. Sixth, the discovery which is brought about by the incidents themselves.
Every Tragedy must have its complication and its denouement. Complication means that part of the story from the beginning to the stage immediately before the significant change to good or bad fortune. And by denouement is meant the part from this change to the end of the Tragedy. The deepening of the plot is ‘complication’, and the unravelling of complication is ‘denouement’. A master artist should know them well. There are four types of Tragedy – Complex Tragedy which depends exclusively on peripeteia and anagnorisis, Tragedy of Character which emphasizes the moral character of the hero, Tragedy of Suffering which deals with the suffering of the hero as in the play of Ajax, and Spectacular Tragedy which offers excellent spectacles as in Peleus.
Aristotle also defines a letter, a vowel, a semi-vowel, a syllable, a connecting-word, an article, a noun, a verb, case, inflexion, and a phrase. He also dwells at length on metaphors. The language abounding in an unfamiliar usages has some dignity, for it is lofty. There are two main extremes – meanness and extravagance, which are to be avoided. The best language must be that lying in the middle of them.
Aristotle’s discussion of Epic poetry is rather fragmentary. This is partly because much of what he has written on Tragedy applies to Epic also. Like a Tragedy, an Epic should also deal with single event. The action should be single, whole and complete, having a beginning, middle and end. As Tragedy, it also can be divided into two groups – simple and complex. The simple Epic turns on the moral character of the hero while the complex Epic turns on suffering and passion. Heroic hexameter is the right metre for an Epic. An Epic poet should speak as little as possible in his own person. In an Epic, the element of the marvellous should be introduced. Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
About Criticism, he says that the poet should aim at the representation of life: and there are ways of representation – either as they are, or as they are said to be or seem to be, or as they ought to be. In poetry, improbabilities may be justified as long as the art attains its true end. It also may be justified on the ground that they idealize the reality. They may also be poetically true, though not actually true.
In the last section of the Poetics, Aristotle discusses the relative merits of Epic and Tragedy. In Epic, it free from the vulgarity of acting; while in Tragedy, the vulgarity is the fault of the actors. Aristotle insists that Tragedy is the better form of art as it has all element of Epic, besides, it also has music and spectacle to which Epic can lay on claims. Its effect is more compact and concentrated, and also more unity than Epic. That’s why he said that Tragedy is the better form of art.
posted by Yunita Ramadhana @ 6:21 AM
3 Comments:
hi mam, really a good blog. google says it doesn't provide ads to those sites which post student notes. but it isn't so with you? anyway, i am a student of eng. lit. and run a blog on honing communicative skills. thanks for your blog. with a million wishes for your success, Shadab Husain
Very nice post.
Thank You so much🙏
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