Aristotle - Poetics

– Summary of material that has a bearing on tragedy

1. Differentiating art forms – metrical distinctions are redundant

2. Things better, the same, and worse: (e.g. tragedy, life, comedy)

3. Strategies of imitation: a) narrative and imitation together [like Homer]
b) to remain the same throughout [???]
c) realistic imitation [???]

4. The Development of Drama – i. natural instinct (especially in children) to learn by imitation
ii. natural instinct toward rhythm & melody
iii. serious people tend towards serious art (e.g. Pindar’s Odes / Homer’s epics); less-serious minded people to satire and comedy (e.g. Homer’s Margites [lost])
iv. progress through experimentation to natural state of drama (improvisation > dithyrambs / phallic-songs > tragedy / comedy > Aeschylus [adding an actor] > Sophocles [adding another & skenographia]

5. Difficulty of tracing the development of Comedy (i.e. early forms? > Epicharmos & Phormis > Krates > ?) & the difference between Epic and Tragedy (i.e. tragedy uses a variety of verse forms & takes place in 24hrs)

6. The ‘definition’ – “tragedy is the imitation of an action which is serious, complete and substantial. It uses language enriched in different ways, each appropriate to its part [of the action]. It is drama [that is, it shows people performing actions] and not narration. By evoking pity and terror it brings about the purgation (catharsis) of those emotions.”
The 6/7 elements of tragedy – plot / mythos [how the story is arranged], character [plot arrangement and character action and re-action to this should reveal a ‘good’ character], thought [reasoning out loud], language [how that is conveyed], lyricism, the visual [important, but not essential], and music.

7. Wholeness – beginnings do not follow from other events, other events do not follow from endings, a middle follows an event and is followed by and event. Each part must be substantial, and we must see the whole for it to be beautiful. Length is determined by substance and quality. “ a length which allows the hero to move, in an inevitable or plausible sequence of events, from bad fortune to good or from good to bad, is the right length for the substance of the story.”

8. Wholeness 2 – A single hero does not provide unity (e.g. The Adventures of Herakles & The Adventures of Theseus are bad because they have too many ununified events). Homer, “far above all others…in every respect”, leaves some things about Odysseus out because they are not relevant to the whole of his story. “If something can be added or taken away without any obvious effect, it is not intrinsic to the whole.

9. Differences between history and drama – “The real difference is that the historian describes reality (past events) and the other possibility…” general truths not particular truths. Character should dictate what is probable in drama. Even accidents / surprises in drama should afterwards seem logical.

10. Simple action (no reversal or discovery) – complex action (with both).

11. Reversal (peripeteia) – should also be logical or probable. [The example is the messenger in Oedipus Tyrannos who brings good news that turns out to be very bad].
Discovery (anagnorisis) – change from ignorance to knowledge [again the example of the best sort (i.e. mixed with reversal) is Oedipus Tyrannos.
Good Mythos should have both, and involve pity and fear.
Dramatic structure: Parados; Episodes; Stasimon chorus; [Kommos]; Exodus.
Types of mythos to avoid - i. good men moving from good to bad fortune
ii. bad men moving from bad to good fortune
iii. bad men moving from good to bad fortune
All that is left is hamartia ‘error’ – inevitable and catastrophic mistake
Heroes should be nobility (e.g. Oedipus & Thyestes)
They should move from good to bad fortune
Euripides plays even though they end happily are tragedies
Homer wrongly appeals to ‘audiences sentimentality’ in punishing the wicked

14. Pity and terror – mythos should be arranged so that you don’t need performance to feel them [e.g. Oedipus]; spectacle is dispensable
The violent / painful actions should be done by people who are intimates [family members] otherwise there is no pity, just pain.
The deed must either be done or not done [just planned]; the doer must either know the truth [i.e. have planned it] or not know. [e.g.s Euripides’ Medea & Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos] To plan in full knowledge and not do is terrible. [e.g. when Haimon draws his sword but doesn’t kill Creon; Agave intentionally killing Pentheus and then finding out what she did is slightly better] [Best example is Iphigeneia finding out who Orestes is just in time]. Myths should not be substantially altered.
Character – i. characters should be good
ii. characters should be appropriate (women should not have manly attributes)
iii. characters should fit their reality
iv. characters should be consistent
(In Euripides’ Orestes, Meneleus is uncharacteristically bad; in his Melanippe, the heroine is intellectual; in Iphigeneia at Aulis, Iphigeneia is inconsistent [pleading for mercy and then courageous])
The outcome should of the plot should be consistent [i.e. should follow logic]
(Euripides’ Medea relies on a stage-trick to end; In the Iliad the intervention of Athene to stop Agamemnon and his deceived men from sailing home is bad)
Gods should appear only to reveal things no mortal can know. Irrational things should be kept outside the play [positive e.g. Sophocles never mentions that Oedipus does not think to connect himself with the murder of Laius]

16. Six Types of Discovery – i. by tokens or physical marks [e.g. Odyssey, hunting scar.] accidental discovery is good; contrived is bad
ii. by contrivance of the author [these are bad; i.e. Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Taurus]
iii. by memory [as in Odyssey weeping at Alcinuous’ court]
iv. by deduction [in Aeschylus’ Choephoroe Electra deduces that the only other person who is like her is Orestes]
v. by false deduction by the audience [bad]
vi. from events themselves [like Oedipus Tyrranos] “this is the best kind of discovery, though discovery by deduction comes second”

17. Three things that authors should keep in mind about mythos
i. “Only by imagining events as clearly as if they were present in person can they follow the logic of what is happening and avoid incongruity.”
ii. Act out what you write – “Writers need to have sympathetic natures or be slightly mad.”
iii. Outline first, then fill out [short outlines of Iphigeneia & Odysseus]

18. Plots have complications / knots [desis] and resolutions / untyings [lusis]
Everything before a reversal [peripeteia] is desis everything after it is lusis
There are 4 types of tragedy: i. Complex tragedy – [w/ reversal and discovery]
ii. Tragedy of suffering – [Ajax or Ixion plays]
iii. Character tragedy – [lost examples from Sophocles and Euripides]
iv. Tragedy of spectacle – underworld plays [lost examples from Sophocles and Euripides]
“The chorus should be treated as one of the actors and incorporated in the plot” [like Sophocles, not like Euripides; Interludes are abominable]

….Rhetoric and language stuff….

21. Among the examples of metaphor [most from Homer] he notes that Euripides improved a line that he repeated from Aeschylus, writing “This ulcer feasts on my foot,” rather than “This ulcer eats my foot”. [Both from lost Philoctetes plays]

…more rhetoric and language stuff…

25. …how poets respond to criticism….
Near the end of the section he details 2 legitimate defences & 2 unforgivables
i. the impossible must be justified by artistic requirements
ii. popular tradition may justify the improbable
iii. contradicting yourself [this in not allowed]
iv. bad improbabilities [Aegisthus’ appearance in Euripides’ Medea is unnecessary & Menelaus is unnecessarily bad in his Orestes]

Differences between epic and tragedy [repeating earlier material]

26. …the notes about actors overacting in this section are quite amusing.