Tragedy in Classical Drama: Aristotle's Concept

Module II Classical Criticism 1) The Concept of Tragedy Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering & the terrible/sorrowful befall ( ) of main character. Concept of Tragedy - Aristotle says, Tragedy is an imitation [mimesis] of an action that is serious, complete & of a certain ( ) through pity & fear effecting proper magnitude purgation [catharsis] of these emotions. Tragedy depicts the downfall ( ) of a noble hero/heroine, usually through some combination of hubris ( / / ), fate ( )& the will of the gods. 1

Tragic hero's powerful wish to achieve some goal inevitably encounters limits. Aristotle says that tragic hero should have a flaw/make some mistake (hamartia). Hero need not die at the end, but he/she must undergo a change in fortune. There are 4 distinct kinds of tragedy - 1) Complex Tragedy 2) Tragedy of Suffering 3) Tragedy of Character 4) Tragedy of Spectacle Aristotle distinguished 6 elements of tragedy - plot, characters, verbal expression, thought, visual adornment & song-composition. Of these, PLOT is most important. 2

o Tragic hero achieve recognition about human fate, destiny & will of gods, Aristotle s definition of Tragedy from Poetics, Tragedy is a process of imitating an action with serious implications, is complete & possesses magnitude, by sensuously attractive language, with parts, enacted by persons themselves & not presented through narrative, through a course of pity & fear completing purification catharsis , sometimes translated purgation of such emotions. a) "imitation" (mimesis) : Contrary to Plato, Aristotle asserts that artist does not just copy the world, but imitates/represents Reality itself & gives form & meaning to that Reality. 3

In so doing, artist gives shape to the universal, not accidental. b) "an action with serious implications": serious because it raises & purifies pity & fear; serious in a moral, psychological & social sense. c) "complete & possesses magnitude": not just a series of episodes, but a whole with a beginning, a middle & an end. Idea of imitation is important as the artist does not just slavishly copy everything related to an action, but selects/represents only those aspects which give form to universal truths. d) "language sensuously attractive...in the parts": language must be appropriate for each part of the play: choruses are in a different 4

meter & rhythm & more melodious than spoken parts. e) tragedy relies on an enactment (dramatic performance), not on "narrative . f) "purification" (catharsis) : tragedy first raises (it does not create) the emotions of pity & fear, then purifies/purges them. Tragic hero is a great man who is neither a paragon ( / ) of virtue & justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness/wickedness but because of some mistake." A great man: one of those who stand in great repute & prosperity, like Oedipus & Thyestes: conspicuous ( ) men from families of that kind. 5

Hero is neither a villain nor a model of perfection but is good & decent. a) mistake (hamartia) : This Greek word, which Aristotle uses only once in the Poetics, has also been translated as flaw/error . b) Great man falls through--though not entirely because of some weakness of character, some moral blindness/error. Best tragic plot is single & complex, rather than double (with opposite endings for good & bad - a characteristic of comedy in which the good are rewarded & wicked punished). All plots have some pathos (suffering), but a complex plot includes reversal & recognition) "reversal" (peripeteia): occurs when a situation seems to developing in one direction, then suddenly XXX 00 XXX "reverses" to another. 6