Tragic events can happen as a result of accidents, misunderstandings, or specific situations, hence, they relate little to others. However, tragedy is rooted in the order of our universe because it reveals hypothetical situations that can occur at any time or place. This feeling of uncertainty arouses feelings of pity and fear because we can imagine ourselves having to face tragedy. In Aristotle's Poetics, Aristotle defines tragedy as, “a representation of an action of serious stature and complete, having magnitude, in language made pleasing in distinct forms in its separate parts, imitating people acting and not using narration, accomplishing by means of pity and fear the cleansing of these states of feeling” (Aristotle, 26). A dramatic composition that captures the true essence of suffering and awakens our senses is one that Aristotle would call a tragedy worthy of our praise. He notes, “It is clear first that decent men ought not to be shown changing from good to bad fortune (since this is neither frightening nor pitiable but repellent) and people of bad character ought not to be shown changing from bad to good fortune (since this is the most untragic thing of all, for it has none of the things a tragedy needs, since it neither arouses love for humanity nor is it pitiable or frightening)” (Aristotle, 36).
Tragedy can be seen as more philosophical than historical because while history tells us what has happened, tragedy presents us with hypothetical situations that could happen. History introduces us to the particular, while tragedy introduces us to the universal. Hecuba, the story of the reigning queen of Troy, turned into a grief-stricken and vengeful slave, just might fall into the realm of the universal because it is a re...
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...s scheme of morality allows. We are horrified, maybe even disgusted, with Hecuba blinding a man and killing his sons in order to avenge her own son, however, we still understand why she did it. Her grief overpowered her, driving her mad in the process. Hecuba sought to restore order in her life, therefore, regaining her dignity and finally taking a position of power again, a role she had not filled in a long time. We feel many powerful emotions towards Hecuba because we cannot see ourselves doing what she did, and yet, we understand her grief, allowing us to pity her and at the same time care and respect her. Does this make Hecuba less of a tragic hero? Is her inability to control the world around her make her story less of a tragedy? Absolutely not. Her actions do not undermine her heroism. She acted out pure anger and grief, feelings we know all too well.
Aristotle, Antigone and Billy Budd In Poetics, Aristotle explains tragedy as a kind of imitation of a certain magnitude, using direct action instead of narration to achieve its desired affect. It is of an extremely serious nature. Tragedy is also complete, with a structure that unifies all of its parts. It is meant to produce a catharsis of the audience, meant to produce the emotions of pity and fear and to purge them of these emotions and helping them better understand the ways of the gods and men. Tragedy is also in a language in both verse and song. Aristotle's definition is clearly applicable to both Herman Melville's Billy Budd and the famous Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophocles.
The defenition of a tragic hero a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy. This defenition is perpetuated most clearly by one of the major characters. This character is the noble roman Brutus. Brutus is the tragic hero because of the fact that he fulfills the requirements of a tragic hero. He is a person of noble bith. He does have a tragic flaw, he does come to some understanding, and he does finally meet his end due to his tragic flaw. The tragic flaw of Brutus is his idealistic view, which ultimately leads him directly and indirectly into his death.
The tragic hero is one of literatures most used (and sometimes abused) characters. The classical definition of a tragic hero is, “a person with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. The person is doomed by the Gods or some other supernatural force to destruction or suffering. The hero struggles against the fate, but due to a personal flaw, ultimately fails in the battle against fate. It is my personal opinion that Brutus,as he is portrayed in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, is a tragic hero by this definition. I came to this conclusion due to the fact that Brutus shares many similarities with other tragic heroes in literature such as Oedipus, Hamlet, and Ralph from Lord of the Flies. All four characters share the two critical traits that are needed to be tragic heroes: a tragic flaw that eventually leads to a tragic downfall. The tragic hero was defined by Aristotle, yet the “invention” of the tragic hero goes to Sophocles.
Aristotle’s Poetics is a “reservoir of the themes and schemes deployed in ancient Greek tragedy and poetry” (Poetics iii). Written around 330 B.C., it was the first work of literature to make a distinction amongst the various literary genres and provide a proper analysis of them. In Poetics, Aristotle places a big emphasis on the genre of tragedy. When one hears of the word tragedy, one already assumes that something bad has occurred to an individual and an immediate emotion of sorrow occurs, but how does Aristotle see tragedy? Aristotle gives us his formal definition of tragedy on page 10: “Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.” He goes on and explains all the components that make up tragedy. A tragedy must fall into two parts: complication and unraveling (also known as the denouement). Aristotle elaborates on that and speaks of four types of tragedy: “the Complex, depending entirely on Reversal of the Situation and Recognition; the Pathetic (where the motive is passion); the Ethical (where the motives are ethical). The fourth kind is the Simple.
into both categories.The classic definition of tragedy is Aristotle’s, that the tragic hero must be noble and have a tragic flaw. He must also experience a reversal of fortune and recognize the
The great philosopher Aristotle was born in 384 BC and he was well known for formalizing the model of what he believed to be the perfect tragedy. Plato was his teacher and he was the tutor of Alexander the Great. He managed to produce almost a thousand books and pamphlets, from which only a few have survived. He was also well known as a peripatetic philosopher, from the verb peripateo, that is, to walk around since he really liked giving lectures while he was walking. An important subject in his thought is that happiness is the real goal of life. The Greeks used to believe that tragedy was actually the uppermost form of drama and Aristotle’s ideas were based on this belief. He pointed out that tragedy should
Tragedy is very sad event. An event in life that evokes feelings of sorrow or grief; according to Bing Dictionary. Tragedy to me is something catastrophic that is sad that happens in your life doesn’t matter where it happens it could happen at school at home or even at the grocery store. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy because they both die at the end and one of three things that causes a tragedy is fate and Romeo challenges fate though out the story. Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that the entire world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun. In this quote Juliet says that she wishes she could make Romeo the sky so people would fall in love and be happy. Aristotle pertains to tragedy because he wrote a lot of tragedy in his time. The difference between tragic happening and a dramatic tragedy is, dramatic tragedy is when you have a story that has some drama and tragedy in the same story. It was unforeseeable that Romeo would see Juliet dead. The irony of the story ...
Aristotle (c. 384 B.C. to 322 B.C.) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist. He is considered one of the greatest minds in politics, psychology, and ethics. Poetics is a scientific study of writing and poetry where Aristotle observes, analyzes and defines mostly tragedy and epic poetry. In Aristotle's' Poetics, Aristotle defines tragedy as "imitation of an action that is serious and as having magnitude, complete in itself (Grub, 1958)." He continues, "Tragedy is a form of drama exciting the emotions of pity and fear". The tragic hero is a character whose downfall and or destruction is consummated by their error in judgment (hamartia). He has a reversal in fortune because of their error in judgment (peripeteia). The tragic hero recognizing the truth, that his reversal in fortune is his fault because of his actions (anagnorisis). The tragic hero is excessively prideful (hubris), yet his fate is greater than deserved (Grube, 1958). The hero must be identifiable, believable, not good or bad with some type of superiority, and overpowering individuality (a nobleman, prince, or person of high estate). The tragic hero is the protagonist of a tragedy in drama, most famous of these
Aristotle’s De Poetica defines tragedy as mimetic, serious and contains rhythm. A tragedy also contains six elements; plot, thought characters, song, diction, and spectacle. Tragedy arouses feelings of pity and fear and then turns these feelings with catharsis. According to the ideas laid out by Aristotle, for a tragedy to arouse pity and fear, a tragic hero’s life makes a wrong turn. As quoted by Aristotle he describes the perfect plot of a tragedy “A well-constructed plot should, therefore, be single in its issue, rather than double as some maintain. The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.” (17). The plot in M...
According to Aristotle, a tragedy must be an imitation of life in the form of a serious story that is complete in itself among many other things. Oedipus is often portrayed as the perfect example of what a tragedy should be in terms of Aristotle’s Poetics. Reason being that Oedipus seems to include correctly all of the concepts that Aristotle describes as inherent to dramatic tragedy. These elements include: the importance of plot, reversal and recognition, unity of time, the cathartic purging and evocation of pity and fear, the presence of a fatal flaw in the “hero”, and the use of law of probability.
...hough the two demonstrate the elements in different ways, they both achieve an effective tragedy. Now after learning about Aristotle’s philosophy on tragedy, one can examine any type of tragic poetry, play, movie and analysis if the elements are portrayed. Its interesting to see how much of Aristotle’s philosophy has effected poetry in the art of the Greek tragedy, Medea, and the modern movie, No Country for Old Men.
In 350 B.C.E., a great philosopher wrote out what he thought was the definition of a tragedy. As translated by S.H. Butcher, Aristotle wrote; “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Thought, Diction, Spectacle, Melody. (http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html)” Later in history, William Shakespeare wrote tragedies that epitomized Aristotle’s outline of a tragedy. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one such tragedy.
...n Aristotle’s view of characters. Aristotle also suggests that a tragedy should have the power to provoke audience’s emotion of pity and fear. The suffering and behavior of each character in Hamlet possess that power. The author agrees with the Aristotelian analysis of Hamlet, the story of Hamlet was perfectly based on Aristotle’s tragedy theory. However, the author thinks that the tragedy doesn’t always have to end up in misery. A tragic story can also have some hidden happiness in the suffering, misery of tragic hero(s), in which way can audience realize that there is still hopeful when your life is tragic and encourage people to strive hard to create a better life.
There is no doubt that tragedy has changed considerably since Aristotle first wrote the definition of tragedy in his Poetics in Ancient Greece, but these changes raise the question of whether modern tragedy still fits the classical definition of tragedy. Tragedy has evolved greatly since the times of the classical tragedies, including Oedipus Rex and Hamlet, to the more modern forms of tragedy, as seen in The Hairy Ape and Death of a Salesman. Despite its evolution and deviation from Aristotle’s definition, modern tragedy holds by the same principles, and retains the same power and message expressed by Aristotelian tragedy.
Brutus fits the definition of a tragic hero because he did a great thing for Rome. If Caesar was crowned and given the power to rule, the destruction that he may have cause is unknown. However, Brutus' tragic flaw was his gullibility and hubris. Brutus was easily convince by Cassius to kill Caeser when Cassius emphasizes how honorable it would be. Brutus' overwhelming pride clouded his judgement making unable to see and realize the harm in his actions. Only til the end of the plot does Brutus realize that what he did may not have been the best or most righteous action.