The classic tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, has six major parts. These parts include a plot, characters, theme, melody, spectacle, and language. All stories, according to Aristotle must have a beginning, middle, and end, and must follow a logical sequence according to these six elements.
The plot is the series of events, or sequence in which the action of the play occurs. Plot must follow a cause and effect relationship, which follows a logical pattern. Characters are the people in the play, who have certain qualities that can be determined by what they say, do and what others say about them. The theme of the play is the general feeling or statement made by the author that presents an observation or thought to the audience. Melody is the musical quality of the play, which includes a change of pitch by the voice, musical instruments , and also includes the high and low points of the play giving it an overall melodic quality. Spectacle includes the visual elements of the play, anything that is observed by sight. Often in modern movies and plays spectacle can be overdone, especially if a reason for the spectacle cannot be found. Language is the dialog or speech that makes up the story, and is used by characters to present the play to the audience.
Aristotle lays out a very specific definition of what a tragedy should include, and how each element should be presented. He tells us that the tragedy must include these six elements and that they must be laid out in a logical manner. Aristotle sets up the framework for a tragedy that is used with or without the playwright’s knowledge for innumerable classical and modern plays.
3. Along with giving us the six elements of a tragedy, Aristotle also gives us four parts that should be included in a tragic hero. Sophocles’ character Oedipus is considered to be the classic example of a tragic hero. This is attributed to the fact that Oedipus clearly demonstrates all four of the characteristics that make up the tragic hero as defined by Aristotle.
According to Aristotle, the tragic hero must be a good, as well as great person. What this means is that he must hold high moral goals and ideals for himself as well as being of high or noble stature in society. The tragic hero must have a character flaw, this could be some excess or...
... middle of paper ...
...ey” may not be the first comedy, nor is it the sole creation of Homer, however these things are attributed to it, because it was the first to be written down.
Odysseus is considered to be the “quintessential” comic hero. Even though he is of great stature, he represents “every man” or the common man. He is sent on a long journey by Poseidon where he must use his cunning and shrewdness to make his way home. Odysseus must come up with a scheme in order to regain his homeland. Mistaken identity and deliberate deception are often used together and are used throughout this epic. Mistaken identity is when a character believes they are seeing someone, but it is not really that person, adding an element of dramatic irony. Deliberate deception is very similar, but the character is intending to deceive others and often uses a disguise. These elements are used several times by Athena, who comes to mortals in the form of people around them. Odysseus also disguises himself as a beggar when he gets back to Ithaca. Several elements of the modern comedy can be found in the “Odyssey,” and because of its home coming, or happy ending it is considered the first comedy.
Odysseus is the main character in an epic poem called the Odyssey. In the poem Odysseus has had some bad luck getting home, with some of the gods helping him and some hindering him; his journey towards home is a constant struggle. In this poem we see a man being broke and rebuilt, through constant irony his faith was damaged and without the help of Athena he probably would have given up on his journey. Through his hard work and wise spirit he finally does achieve his goal.
Aristotle states that "For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Now character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the reverse. Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.
What makes a hero a tragic hero? According to the Greek play write Aristotle, a hero must possess certain character traits in order to be tragic. Aristotle’s rules are still used today when labeling a hero tragic or not tragic. Jack Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States is a tragic hero, because he possess four of the six traits a tragic hero must possess. This will be proven through the use of credible sources and explanation of these four traits.
Tragic heroes are composed of the following characteristics: nobleness/wisdom by birth, a tragic flaw, reversal of fortune by the tragic flaw, and anagnorisis. Being excessively honorable can be a person’s tragic flaw. In Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, Brutus is shown to be a tragic hero. Born a nobleman, Brutus was Caesar’s close friend. However, he betrayed and murdered Caesar, which eventually led to Brutus’s death. Ultimately, Brutus’s tragic flaw was his honor and his demise was his death.
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.
Comparative Character Analysis of Classical Vs. Modern Tragic Protagonists. A hero/ heroine is described as the principal male/ female character in a literary or dramatic work or the central figure in an event, period, or movement. The classic tragic hero was defined by Aristotle in the fourth century as, “someone who is highly renowned and prosperous” (LATWP, 639), suggesting that there is a “natural right ordering and proportion of traits within the human being that if violated, produces calamity” (LATWP, 639). The book goes on to define classical tragedy as one that “involves the inevitable destruction of a noble person by means of character flaw, usually a disproportionate measure of a specific human attribute such as pride, jealousy or indecision” (LATWP, 639).
Out of Aristotle’s apprehension of tragedy, four out of the six ideas are used in the tragic drama, “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles. These ideas are tragic hero, hamartia, peripeteia, and anagnorisis.
Neoclassical writers emphasized the importance of the Poetics of Aristotle, as well as the unities of place, time, and action that they extracted from his works. In Poetics, Aristotle laid out the six essential elements of tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song (McManus). Each of these components held certain value to what Aristotle believed to be a successful play, however, plot and character held to be the most important.
Aristotle analyzed drama to form a definition of tragedy. Aristotle considered “Oedipus the King” the perfect tragedy, so he modeled his definition after the play. He decided that there were some factors that made a tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, melody. The character had to have a tragic flaw that would ultimately lead to his downfall. The traits of tragedy's character defines Willy Loman as a tragic man. Also, a tragedy must have catharsis at the end, and the end of Death of a Salesman cleanses the audience.
In his classic work "Poetics" Aristotle provided a model of the tragic hero. According to Aristotle, the tragic hero is more admirable than the average person. This results in the tragic hero being admired by the audience. For the audience to accept a tragic ending as just, it is crucial that the tragic hero be responsible for their undoing. At the same time though, they must remain admired and respected. This is achieved by the tragic hero having a fatal flaw that leads to their undoing. One of literature's examples of the tragic hero is Achilles from Homer's The Iliad. However, Achilles is different from the classic tragic hero in one major way - his story does not end tragically. Unlike the usual tragic hero, Achilles is able to change, reverse his downfall, and actually prove himself as a true hero.
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.
In Aristotle’s book, Poetics, he defines tragedy as, “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and possessing magnitude; in embellished language, each kind of which is used separately in the different parts; in the mode of action and not narrated; and effecting through pity and fear” (Aristotle 1149). Tragedy creates a cause and effect chain of actions that clearly gives the audience ideas of possible events. The six parts to Aristotle’s elements of tragedy are: Plot, character, language, thought, spectacle, and melody. According to Aristotle, the most important element is the plot. Aristotle writes in Poetics that, “It is not for the purpose of presenting their characters that the agents engage in action, but rather it is for the sake of their actions that they take on the characters they have” (Aristotle 1150). Plots should have a beginning, middle, and end that have a unity of actions throughout the play making it complete. In addition, the plot should be complex making it an effective tragedy. The second most important element is character. Characters...
A tragic hero is a male figure who is high in society and one who always has a tragic flaw. Most of them are rich and intelligent men. In the story of Othello, Othello is the tragic hero. He was a character of nobility. He was a high in class and had high standards. He was also the focal point of society. People looked up to him. He was more of a good man than an evil man, until the end of the play.
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.
According to Aristotle, the importance of tragedy as a genre is to represent action. Thus unity of action purportedly has the strongest implications for the effectiveness of the work itself. Aristotle posits “a story, since it is the representation of action, should concern an action that is single and entire, with its several incidents so structured that the displacement or removal of any one of them would disturb and dislocate the whole.” (Aristotle 27) and deems this claim imperative. A good plot, and thereby an effective tragedy, does not include events, which are not connected to each other or specifically the main plot. In theory, these unconnected events are distracting from the main action and dissipate the tragic effect. With Aristotle’s definition, no sub-plot should exist in tragedy. For all events to be “necessary or [have] probable connection with each other.” (Aristotle 27) none should exist not directly related to the main action. Again, unity allows for the tragic effect to be concentrated, intending to allow for increased feelings of pity and