From the Poetics
Aristotle’s Ideas About Tragedy
Aristotle wa s one of the greatest philos ophers of A ncient Gre ece. A philo sopher loo ks for ideal form s, and tries to
explain the nature of reality. The search for ideal forms led Aristotle to explore many subjects. His analysis of the
ideal form of tragic plays became a guideline for later playwrights in Western civilization. For centuries, European
playwrights like William Shakespeare tried to write plays that would match the ideals of Aristotle’s model.
Drama was not invented by Aristotle. In fact, he used examples from the works of famous Greek playwrights such as
Sophocles to illustrate his main ideas. The Greeks believed that tragedy was the highest form of drama, and
Aristotle’s ideas about tragedy we re based on this belief.
Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy.
“A tragedy is the imita tion of a n action that is ser ious an d also, a s having
magnitude, complete in itself; in approp riate and pleasurable language;...
in a dramatic rather than narrative form; w ith incidents arousing pity and fear,
wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”
1. “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself;”
This means that a good tragedy deals with one issue that is very “serious.” You can’t have a tragedy about something
trivial like breaking a fingernail. “Magnitude” here means great importance. The issue has to be serious and very,
very important. That’s wh y a lot of tragedies deal with someo ne’s death. “Complete in itself” means that the play
must stick to the o ne issue; oth erwise, the audience will get lost in the p lot.
2. “in appropriate and pleasurable language:”
Ancient Greek tragedy had a chorus whose role was to comment on the action of the play. The chorus sometimes
sang their part. Aristotle said that the language should be easy to listen to. It should have rhythm and also good
harmony for th e lines th at were sung.
3. “in a dramatic rather than narrative form;”
To narrate a story is simply to tell the story, like telling a friend wh at happened over the w eekend. In a play, the story
must be dra matized or a cted out.
4. “with incidents arousing pity and fear,”
In a tragedy, the events or episodes in the play should lead the audience to feel very sorry for the main character--the
tragic hero. The audience should also feel afraid for the he ro as he moves toward a destructive end.
5. “wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”
As the play moves along, the events should build up the emotions of pity and fear. A catharsis is a purging, or
cleansing of th e emotions --a release o f tension. In a trage dy, this is often a moment o f revelation w hen the tragic
hero “falls flat on his face,” and the audience can finally “explode.”
Aristotle’s Elements of Tragedy
Aristotle said that tragedy has six main eleme nts:
1. Plot; 2. Character; 3. Thought;
4. Diction; 5. Melody; 6. Spectacle.
These will be described from least important to most important.
The last four elements (Thought, Diction, Melody, and Spectacle) are the least important, but Aristotle felt they must
be done well for the play to succeed.
Thought is the power of saying w hatever can be sa id and should be said at each moment of the plot. Do the lines
spoken by the actors make sense? Are they saying what should be s aid at each particular moment in the play?
Diction is the actual composition of the lines that are recited. Thought deals with what is said, and d iction deals w ith
how it is said. There are many ways to say something. A good playwright composes lines that say something
extremely well. In a good play, some lines are so well constructed that the audience can leave the play quoting the
lines exactly.
Melody and Spectacle are accesso ries. The G reeks sometime s used mus ical accomp animent. Aris totle said the m usic
(melody) h as to blend in with the p lay approp riately. Spectac le refers to the staging of the play . Again, as with
melody, the spectacle should be appropriate to the theme of the play.
Character
Characte r is the secon d most impo rtant elemen t of tragedy. Ea ch charac ter has an es sential quality or nature tha t is
revealed in the plo t. The m oral pu rpose o f each c haracte r must be clear to th e audie nce. Th e chara cters sh ould ha ve
four main qualities.
A. No matter who they are (hero or slave), the characters must be good in some way.
B. The characters should act appropriately for their gender and station in life.
C. The characters have to have believable personalities.
D. Each character must act consistently throughout the play. In other words, nothing should be done or said
that could be seen as “acting out of cha racter.”
Plot
Aristotle felt that the action of the play (its plot) was the most important of the six elements.
He said, “All human hap piness or mis ery takes the fo rm of action... .Characte r gives us qualities, but it is in our
actions--what we do--that we are happy or miserable.”
1. There must be Unity of Plot. This has a lready bee n described in the definitio n which talks about “one complete
action.” Any events or episodes must be necessary to the main issue and must also be probable or believable.
2. A good plot has Peripety or Discovery--sometimes both.
Peripety is the change from one state of things at the beginning of the play to the exact opposite
state by the end of the play. This could be something like the change from being rich to being poor, or from
being powerful to being powerless, or from being a ruler to being a beggar. The change that takes place in a
tragedy should take the main ch aracter (and possibly othe r characters) from a state of happ iness to a state of
misery.
Discovery is a change fro m ignorance to knowled ge. This often happens to the tragic hero who starts out
“clueless” and slowly learns how he himself created the mess he ends up in at the end of the play.
3. Change by itself is not enough. The character involved in the change must have specific characteristics to arouse
the tragic emotions of pity and fear. Therefore, Aristotle said that there are three forms of plot that should be
avoided.
A. A totally good man must not pa ss from happiness to misery.
This will make the audience angry that bad things happened to him. They won’t pity him so much as be
angry for him.
B. A bad man mu st not pass from misery to hap piness.
This won’t appeal to the audience at all because they won’t want to see evil rewarded.
C. A bad man can not pass from happin ess to misery.
The audience won’t feel sorry for him because they will believe he got what he deserved.
The true tragic hero cannot be too good or too bad, but he must end up in misery.
Aristotle concluded that the be st tragedy centers on a basically good man who cha nges from happiness to misery
because of some great error. For example, he might have a good quality, like pride, that gets out of hand.
4. The plo t of a tragedy als o involves som e horrible o r evil deed. Th e tragic hero eith er does it consciou sly, does it out
of ignorance, or mediates it (makes it easy for the deed to happen). For the audience to be horrified by the evil deed,
the evil has to be done to someone important to the tragic hero. If the hero kills his enemy, the deed won’t seem so
bad. On the other hand, if the hero kills someone he doesn’t care about, the audience won’t care much either. To
make it really horrible for the audience, Aristotle suggested that the evil deed should be done to a family member.
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