Main points from Aristotle’s Poetics

K S Sivakumaran

This week’s column goes back to Grecian times. It’s about Aristotle’s Ars Poetica. Why you may ask recollect at this particular time what a Greek thinker thought on the art of poetry several centuries ago when at present there is a fad for ’ deconstruction’ and post-post structuralism and so on--whole lot of complex theories in present day literary criticism.

Aristotle

The reason for this is that there are certain essentials that we, particularly the high school students, should know. Aristotle, disciple of Plato who in turn was a pupil of Socrates, has something to say about the art of poetry, its kinds, characteristic functions, types of plot-structure, number of its constituent parts and the like. These were helpful suggestions at the time of writing by Aristotle. But nothing is static and the organic pattern of literary criticism has evolved up to now. However, here are some gleanings from Aristotle’s wisdom:

* Imitation is natural. Critics say that this observation was the psychological origin of poetry.

* The historical origin of poetry lied on hymns, panegyrics, and lampoon.

* The highest form of poetry is really tragedy.

* According to Aristotle “tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of certain magnitude in language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts in the form of action and not narrated.

Aristotle elaborated that there should be a beginning, middle and an end (Coherent Unity). It should have a single theme, and central proposition. That would be the compete structure. This was known as Exposition. (There was no previous explanation on this). He identified the following aspects --- complication, climax, resolution and denouement.

* Elaborating on the concept of unity Aristotle was emphatic that if the presence of the part makes no difference to the drama it has no place in the work. In other words irrelevancies should be weeded out.

* Tragedy should have a very large and important human experience. The language should be enriched with artistic devices. Aristotle felt that tragedy should be readily comprehended as a whole and well proportioned for beauty to be seen depends on size and order.

* In Tragedy the action should be dramatized. It should generate Pity and Terror. Artistic unity lies in parts or incidents organically connected by cause and effects.

* Aristotle mentioned Poetic Truth as distinct from Historical Truth. He felt that a likely impossibility is better than an improbable possibility for poetry is an expression of the artist while history is concerned with the recording events of a particular movement of an age.

* It is interesting to note that the thinker felt that a good tragedy should not show worthy men passing from good fortune to bad nor bad men acquiring a fortune. Peripetia is the term he used. It means the irony of events or total reversal of fortune.

* A tragic hero is not a perfect human being but better than the average person. He should suffer fro a flaw which shows itself in some mistaken judgment or act resulting in his downfall. He arouses fear in all those who see resemblances between the hero’s situation and their own. The hero arouses pity because as a human being, he cannot be perfect like the Gods; his end is bound to be tragic. * The elements of the tragedy were plot, characterization, diction, thought, spectacle and song. Plot is most important. Character exists for the sake of action and not vice versa.

* Plot is really arrangement of the events which make up the play. Character is what determines the nature of the agents thought: what is expressed in the speeches of the agents. The manner of that expression is what the director determines.

* Aristotle speaks about revelation of a matter previously unknown as in Oedipus Rex. This is a reversal of good going bad.

* Another important feature of tragedy is Catharsis- which means purging of emotions or an emotional release. Aristotle mentioned about Catharsis. What he meant was that a purifying of the emotions that is brought about in the audience of a tragic drama through the evocation of intense fear and pity is ultimate end of an experience.

* Mythos (Theme and Plot), Ethos, Dionoya (Characters and Thought), Lexis (Diction, Language), Mikos (Song), and Opis (Spectacle) – the Greek words explain the formative elements of tragedy.

* Talking about Poetry, Aristotle said in an Epic, the hero will be an excellent person. Lyric means personal feeling expressed in tuneful songs.

* Harping on Fear and Pity, he said, that the theme itself should produce pity and terror. They should be the result of dramatic causation. But tragic events depend upon the combination of the inevitable and unexpected. There are several other things we could learn from Aristotle’s ideas on Tragedy, Poetry and the like although the con temporarily assimilated views through Shakespeare and 20th century dramatists and critics have naturally been updated.

And yet the basics of understanding western theatre, drama and literature are there. We shall know a little more next week. [email protected]