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Tragedy by Aristotle

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34 views13 pages

Tragedy by Aristotle

Uploaded by

Muhammad Ashiq
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Tragedy

BY ARISTOTLE
Tragedy

 As usual he begins with the definition of tragedy. Then he distinguishes it from other acts
and other kinds of poetry.
 “Tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, complete in itself and always has a
magnitude, in language with pleasurable accessories, each brought out separately on the
separate parts of drama, in dramatic form, not in a narrative form, with incidents arousing
pity and fear, wherewith to effect the catharsis of these emotions”.
 This definition includes some words which need explanation.
 By complete is meant the action must have a proper beginning, middle and a convincing
end and What Aristotle means by the beginning is that the action has something after
and nothing before. The end has something before and nothing after.
 The beginning inevitably leads to the middle and the middle inevitably leads to the end.
 For instance, this we see in Hamlet.
 The action begins with the appearance of the ghost. What happened before the appearance
of the ghost is not important.
 The ghost just informs Hamlet about the murder of his father.
 The second word is ‘magnitude’. The action must have a magnitude.
 He explains this word as neither too long nor too short.
 It is the made of many incidents but it is one in many and many in one.
 It is necessary for us to observe each part of the whole and how one part leads to the
other. It is necessary to see the relationship of parts. So this is magnitude.
 With incidents arousing pity and fear.
 Aristotle consider pity and fear as the most important emotions of tragedy.
 What happens in the play or what happens to a person in whom we are interested arouses
pity and fear.
 For instance, this is true of all the heroes of Shakespeare.
 Hamlet does not wholly deserve the disaster. There is a flaw in him but does not wholly
deserve the catastrophe.
 For example, Fear.
 We feel fear for ourselves why? Because that man is like us and what happens to him can
happen to us.
 There are a number of situation and actions which Aristotle rules out.
 The first case in case of a bad man who meets a tragic end. If such a person falls from high
position to a lower position and meets a tragic end et cetera. We will not feel pity. In such
case, we would feel satisfied.
 We would say justice is done. He himself had sown the seed of disaster and tragedy and has
reaped what he has sown.
 The ideal case is that of a man who is neither absolutely good nor bad.
 A man who is impressive, has strength of character and does great actions but has a flaw or
error of judgment which Aristotle calls Hamartia.
 If such a man falls from high position and meets a tragic end, it will arouse our pity and fear,
 This tragic end is because of his flaw.
 Aristotle examines this question from many sides:
 Firstly, a man who plans to do something which would have tragic consequences and he
performs the deed and the tragedy takes place.
 Aristotle does not consider the situation to be a good one.
 Although there is an example which we find in Media of Euripides.
 Media consciously decides to kill her children.
 She not only plans the deed but actually does what she has planned.
 This is the only one play written on this pattern, yet this is a great play, why?
 Because Media is not a particular woman and her husband is not a particular man
 He has deserted her and is marrying another woman.
 This is not the case of an individual woman, taking revenge as an individual woman.
 Media is the symbol of all oppressed woman folk.
 Another case which Aristotle totally dismisses is that in which a man plans a deed
consciously but does not do it.
 This has nothing tragic about it.
 We have been prepared to expect horrible because some horrible deed is planned but is
not being complimented.
 The third case is that in which a man consciously does something.
 He does not know that something which is doing will have tragic consequences and would bring
about the fall of others and himself.
 He does that unknowingly but the discovery is made afterwards and this leads to tragedy.
 For instance, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.
 Aristotle considers this formula to be the second best.
 The best formula is, when deed is about to be done unknowingly, which would bring
about tragic consequences but the discovery is made in time.
 The best example in found in Iphigenia of Euripides
 Tragedy has incidents which arouse pity and fear and thus bring about the catharsis of
these emotions.
 Catharsis is a Greek word and has no equivalent in English.
 Unfortunately, Aristotle has not explained it. He has only mentioned it in his definition of
tragedy.
 The word ‘catharsis’ is also found in his book Poetics.
 This is one of the controversial words in the book.
 For a very long time after Aristotle, especially during middle Ages and till 17 th century and 18th
century, this word was given a moral interpretation.
 This word meant purification and purging of emotions.
 How does it – tragedy – purge the human feelings of undesirable qualities?
 It was said that mother of all evils exists in pride and tragedy humbles pride.
 It deals with a great man, woman who enjoys great power and respect and tragedy shows the fall
of that man from higher position to the depth of disgrace.
 It makes us feel uncertainty of pride.
 So it was the interpretation that tragedy humbles pride and makes people morally good.
 This was medieval interpretation of the word Catharsis.
 General critics especially Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) gives a slightly different
interpretation through a moral one.
 All these interpretations are misinterpretations because Aristotle does not consider moral
improvement and purification to be the end of Art.
 Medical Interpretation:
 There appeared other critics who gave this word. They said that it is a medical term.
 We eat many things which spread in our body and makes our system unhealthy.
 So as medicine purges out poison from our body and mind, the same function is done by tragedy.
 The word ‘catharsis’ literally means purgation. So, these critics said that tragedy has the same
function on the mind, on the mental system which purgatives have on our system.
 Freud’s Interpretation of this word is much closer to Aristotle’s.
 Art universalizes the experiences of man.
 To some extent, all the different interpretations of the word ‘catharsis’ are right – even the
moral interpretation.
 After all, Plato had said:
 That poetry brings about the moral degradation of man and Poetics in an answer to Plato’s
argument.

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