Carrie and Aristotle

What makes a good play or musical? Ask this question to five people and it is likely to yield five very different answers. Different people resonate with different accepts of dramatic expression. The first person to create clear-cut guidelines for analyzing a work was the Greek philosopher Aristotle. He defined what a good drama entails and wrote an outline that clearly delineates which elements good playwright should pay more attention to and which elements should be secondary thoughts. Aristotle’s Poetics put each of these elements into 6 categories; Plot, Characterization, Theme, Diction, Melody, and Spectacle. No matter when a piece was written one should be able to determine how successful or not these elements were executed and included in the work.

Aristotle’s model can also be used to analyze more modern works. Carrie the musical is an adaptation of the Stephen King novel with the same name. It is about school outcast and late bloomer Carrie White, who develops Telekinesis with the onset of her first period. Carrie lives with her religious extremist mother. Thinking she is finally being accepted she agrees to go to senior prom with a popular boy. Unbeknownst to both Carrie and her date they are voted prom king and queen as part of a ruse. While getting their celebratory pictures taken they are doused with a bucket of pig’s blood. In a fit of rage, Carrie uses her powers to take the lives of her fellow prom goers. She then goes home, where her mother, realizing Carrie is dammed, stabs her. With the last of her energy, Carrie kills her mother then she dies. According to Aristotle’s outline to having a successful plot, Carrie’s plot is episodic meaning the events of the musical are spread out over several days’ time. It was ...

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...any the movement of objects when she used her telekinesis, and the crème de la crème a bucket of “pigs’ blood” that soaked two of the characters. The visual and auditory embellishments used in Carrie were well done and added to the dramatic effect of each scene.

Even though this outline has been in existence for thousands of years, one can see it still being put to good use with modern playwrights. One can see what happens when emphasis is misplaced, spending time perfecting Aristotle’s minor elements, like spectacle, and under developing more important ones like characterization. Such is the case with Carrie the musical. It was executed to the best of each actor’s ability, the show simply fell flat. One can conclude there is a direct correlation between the terrible implementation of Aristotle’s guidelines and the lackluster quality of the show and its characters.