Six Parts of Tragedy

Topic: Aristotle’s Poetics: Six Parts of Tragedy

Paper-3: Literary Theory and Criticism

Name: Yashpalsinh Baldevsinh Gohil

Class: M.A. Sem-1

Roll no.: 24

                 Submitted To: Prof. Dilip Barad

                               (Head of English Department,

                               Maharaja Krushnakumarsinhji

                                      Bhavnagar University)

Aristotle’s Poetics:

Six Parts of Tragedy

Aristotle asserts that any tragedy can be divided into six component parts, and that every tragedy is made up of these six parts with nothing else besides. There is (a) the spectacle (opsis), which is the overall visual appearance of the stage and the actors. The means of imitation can be divided into (b) melody/songs (Melos) and (c) diction (lexis), which has to do with the composition of the verses/ versification of dialogues. The agents of the action can be understood in terms of (d) character and (e) thought. Thought (dianoia) seems to denote the intellectual qualities of an agent while character seems to denote the moral qualities (ethics) of an agent. Finally, there is (f) the plot, or mythos, which is the harmonious combination/ arrangements of incidents and actions in the story. Aristotle argues that, among these six, the plot is the most important. To the question whether plot makes a tragedy or character. Aristotle argues that without action there cannot be tragedy at the same time characters are required to do action. The characters serve to advance the action of the story, not vice versa. The ends we pursue in life, our happiness and our misery, all take the form of action tragedy is written not eerily to imitate man but to imitate man in action. That is, according to Aristotle, happiness consists in a certain kind of activity rather than in a certain quality of character.

Plot:-

Plots Will Have the Following Qualities

(1) The plot must be “a whole”, with a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning, called by modern critics the incentive moment, must start the cause and effect chain but not be dependent on anything outside the compass of the play. The end, or resolution, must be caused by the preceding events but not lead to other incidents outside the compass of the play, the end should therefore solve or resolve the problem created during the incentive moment. Aristotle calls the cause and effect chain leading from the incentive moment to the climax “the tying up” (desis), in modern terminology the complication. He therefore terms the more rapid cause and effect chain from the climax to the resolution the “unraveling”, in modern terminology the denouement.

(2) The plot must be “complete”, having “unity of action”. By this Aristotle means that the plot must be structurally self-contained, with the incidents bound together by internal necessity, each action leading inevitably to the next with no outside intervention, no dues ex machina.

(3) The plot must be “of a certain magnitude”, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Aristotle argues that plots should not be too brief; the more incidents and themes that the playwright can bring together in an organic unity, the greater the artistic value and richness of the play.

(4) The plot may be either simple or complex, although complex is better.

(5) Aristotle goes to the extent of saying that ‘without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character.’

(6) Aristotle argues that if you put together group of speeches will not make a tragedy though the reading and performing may be entertaining.

(7) Greek plays- man doomed before his birth- character is not destiny.

(8) Play without good plot is a play without action- nothing happens- there would be no drama at all.

Character:-

Character has the second place in importance. In a perfect tragedy, character will support plot, i.e., personal motivations will be intricately connected parts of the cause- and –effect chain of action producing pity and fear in the audience. Characters in tragedy should have the following qualities.

(1)  “good or fine”. Aristotle relates this quality to moral purpose and says it is relative to class: “Even a woman may be god, and also a slave, though the woman may be said to be an inferior being, and the slave quite worthless.”

(2) “fitness of character”- appropriate- e.g. valor is appropriate for a warrior but not for a woman. 

(3) “true to life”- true to human nature(realistic).

(4) “consistency”. Once a character’s personality and motivations are established, these should continue throughout the play.

(5) “necessary or probable.” Characters must be logically constructed according to “the law of probability or necessity” that governs the actions of the play.

(6) “true to life and yet more beautiful.”(idealized, ennobled)

Thought:-

Thought is third in importance, and is found “where something is proved to be or not to be, or a general maxim is enunciated”. Aristotle says little about thought and most of what he has to say is associated with how speeches should reveal character. However, we may assume that this category would also include what we call the themes of a play.

Diction:-

Diction is fourth, and is the expression of the meaning in words which are proper and appropriate to the plot, characters, and end of the tragedy. It is also the choice of words to embellish language with beautiful ornaments.

Song or Melody:-

Song, or melody, is fifth, and is the musical element of the chorus.

Aristotle argues that the chorus should be fully integrated into the play like an actor; choral odes/songs/ melodious lyrical dialogues should not be “mere interludes”, but should contribute to the unity of the plot. It is, in a sense, a part of diction itself because its purpose is also that of evoking and sometimes intensifying the emotional pitch of the spectators.

Choral odes/songs/melodious lyrical dialogues were singular feature of the Greek tragedy. In fact, they were a necessity too in the Greek technique of presentation and in the Greek open air theatre. The Greeks did not have painted scenery, or any other means of developing and maintaining the grip of interest over the spectators.

Spectacle:-

Spectacle is last, for it is least connected with literature; “the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet.”

It is the technique of presentation in drama. It means that the medium of tragedy is dramatic action; it is not narration. Tragedy is a matter of stage performance not of mere closet reading

Although Aristotle recognizes the emotional attraction of spectacle, he argues that superior poets rely on the inner structure of the play rather than spectacle to arouse pity and fear; those who rely heavily on spectacle “create a sense, not of the terrible, but only of the monstrous”.

Thank You.