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Theatre at Epidaurus

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Aristotle

Aristotle was the younger of the three great philosophers:

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.All three of these philosophers

of life, science, metaphysics and humanities had similar yet

different views.Each thought they were

improving on and cultivating the others’ ideologies into a more

refined and acceptable concept of how they saw life, with

Aristotle having the final word of the three.

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The great trilogy of philosophy began with Socrates. His pupil Plato further expanded the realm of thought and at his death passed the torch to his pupil, Aristotle.

Aristotle was the son of a physician. At the age of eighteen Aristotle came to Athens from Macedonia to study with Plato. Although he was an original thinker who made great contributions of his own, he remained a student in Plato's Academy for twenty years.

When Plato died, Aristotle may have felt disappointment in not being chosen to head the school which Plato had founded but at the time Philip, King of Macedonia, invited him to become the tutor of his son who came to known as Alexander the Great. Aristotle later returned to Athens where he founded his own school, The Lyceum.

Aristotle was not only an original and deep thinker but an observer, an organizer, a systematizer of knowledge. He laid the foundation of all sciences and philosophies by defining and classifying the various branches of knowledge: Psychology, Metaphysics, Politics, Rhetoric and Logic.

Biography

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Aristotle and Aristotle and TragedyTragedyAristotle and Aristotle and TragedyTragedy

from

The Poetics

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Basic Vocabulary• Anagnorisis: The critical moment of recognition or discovering ,

preceding peripeteia• Arete:Magnanimous Pride, Courage, Spine of a fish, Ridge of a

mountain, Ear of wheat• Catastrophe: Sudden disaster, Overturning, the event that switches the

plot from ascending to descending action• Catharsis:Discharge or cleansing of pent up emotions• Hamartia: Tragic Flaw• Hubris: Excessive and selfish pride, arrogance• Pathos: Pity and Fear• Peripeteia: A sudden turn of events, reversal in action, sudden change,

a falling• For more definitions see:

http://maven.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/terms/sophocles.html • Or http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/A-Robert.R.Lauer-1/ArisHorLong.html

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The Famous DefinitionThe Famous Definition

“A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.”

“A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.” Aristotle, Poetics

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The Parts of a Tragedy

• A Prologue• Episodes• An Exode

• Choral Portions– The Parode ends the

Prologue

– A Stasimon (choral ode) separates episodes

– A Commos ( a lamentation)

– paeans (prayers)

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Six Elements of Tragedy

• Plot (or Fable)

• Characters

• Diction

• Thought

• Spectacle

• Melody

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Plot Plot is the most important element.is the most important element.

“Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but ofaction and life, of happiness and misery.”

“Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but ofaction and life, of happiness and misery.”

“All human happiness or misery takes the form of action;the end for which we live is a certain kind of activity not a quality

“All human happiness or misery takes the form of action;the end for which we live is a certain kind of activity not a quality

“Character gives us qualities, but it is our actions - what we do - that we are happy or the reverse.”

“Character gives us qualities, but it is our actions - what we do - that we are happy or the reverse.”

Aristotle, The PoeticsImportant and clear excerpt: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/kupomse/poetics.html

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The Perfect Plot• must have a single and not a double issue

• the change in the hero’s fortunes must be not from misery to happiness, but happiness to misery;

• and the cause of it [the hero’s change] must lie not in any depravity but in some great error on his part.

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““Tragedy isTragedy is ... ... an imitation an an imitation an action…ofaction…of

incidents arousing incidents arousing pity and fear.”pity and fear.”

Pity and Fear = Pathos

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Ascending or Rising Action

• The Actions or Incidents of the plot become more suspenseful

• Empathy for the hero and his situation increases.

• Pathos and irony increase

asce

ndin

g ac

tion

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1st Decision

episode

episode

episode

catastrophe

Ascen

ding A

ction

and P

athos

Climax

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The catastrophe creates the

CLIMAX

The catastrophe creates the

CLIMAX

Ascen

ding A

ction

Denouement

catastrophe

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Catastrophe: scene of death or moral destruction of the protagonist

Anagnorisis or Recognition Scene by the Tragic Hero

Peripetieia or the change of fortune for the Tragic Hero

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Definition of CatastropheIt is a narrative that excites pity or terror by a succession of sorrowful events, miseries or misfortunes leading to a catastrophe. The hero or protagonist will have some sort of limitation but will be a person of a high status. His suffering will not be commensurate

with his weakness or mistake (hamartia) or pride (hubris). It is from this that pity will arise, as he will suffer far too much. The emotion of pity and fear experienced in the catastrophe bring about catharsis or

purgation. 

1.The plot may be either simple or complex, although complex is better. Simple plots have only a “change of fortune” (catastrophe). Complex plots have both “reversal of intention” (peripeteia) and “recognition” (anagnorisis) connected with the catastrophe. Both peripeteia and anagnorisis turn upon surprise. Aristotle explains that a peripeteia occurs when a character produces an effect opposite to that which he intended to produce, while an anagnorisis “is a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined for good or bad fortune.” He argues that the best plots combine these two as part of their cause-and-effect chain (i.e., the peripeteia leads directly to the anagnorisis); this in turns creates the catastrophe, leading to the final “scene of suffering” (context). Application to Oedipus the King.

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The Climax is the high

point of action and

emotion

The peripeteia, anagnorisis,

and catastrophe are parts

of this e

vent

A Catharsis occurs

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Ascen

ding A

ction

Denouement

catastrophe

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1st - The Hero makes a decision.

• We meet the hero/protagonist at his most successful; he has power, wealth, respect, and love. He has worked hard for his success.

• The protagonist makes a decision, based on his hamartia, and thereby sets forces in motion. He does not realize he has set off a chain reaction of incidents which will culminate in a catastrophe.

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In his book Technique of the Drama (1863), The German critic Gustav Freytag proposed a method of analyzing plots derived from Aristotle's concept of unity of action that came to be known as Freytag's Triangle or Freytag's Pyramid. In the illustration above, I have borrowed from both critics to present a graphic that can be employed to analyze the structure and unity of a narrative's plot.Tools for Analyzing Prose Fiction (Barbara F. McManus)

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Three Forms of Plot to be avoided:

• A good man must not be seen passing from happiness to misery;

• A bad man from misery to happiness

• An extremely bad man be seen falling from happiness to misery.

Aristotle, Poetics

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Characters

The Second Most Important Element of Tragedy

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“ There remains, then, the intermediate kind ofpersonage, a man not pre-eminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon himnot by vice and depravity but by some error of judgment, of the number of those in the enjoyment ofgreat reputation and prosperity….”

In the Characters, there are four points to aim at• good• appropriate• realistic• consistent