ARISTOTLE― THE POETICS

Introduction

By Common consent, Aristotle the great philosopher of fourth c.entury B.C. is considered the father of literary criricism, even thqugh criticism of various kinds existed in fragments before him.In fdct, his most significant literary pronouncements as preserved in "Th6 Poetics" are replies to his own master's views on fine arts in ggneral and poetry in particular . Plato's objections to poetry are to be found in the second, third and tenth books of his celebrazted utopian work, "The

Republic". A'triart of his idealised vision of life, with emphasis o  political and moral protection; he fibds poetry more of a hindrance Ithan a help,.in the moulding of an ideal society. Using the word

. "mimqsii" whichis loosely translated as imitation, he attempts to prove.that poetry by which was meantthe whole of literature those days is an illusion. For this purpose he makes good use of his

lowridEory of ideas or Universals. Ideas, according to Plato, are the ultimate reality. Every object is a concentrated form of an idea ror it is an idea incarnate. Therefore, it is once removed from'

,r-eality or and is a copy. Slnce art deals with objects, including the living ones, it is twice rernoved from truth or it copies a copy. Plqto unfortunately does not find in art anything that can mould

charaiter or promote the welfare'of the state. So he denounces all art as initiative, and thereforl ur,.u", and as immoral since it breeds bad examples set before people in the form of narratives about crime and wicked acts. Aristotle's magnumopus, The Poetics, is a fitting reply to Plato's charges against art, especially the art of literature. Since it is in the form of loosely structured lecture notes which he used for his lectures ar Lyceum,. his own school, it lacks in clarity and comprehensiveness. It is an acrobatic book a book to be understood with the help of other books. Though Piato andl . istotle have basically the same approach to Poetry (for L;rerature) as something to be evaluated in terms of its relevance to the whole human living, Aristotle believes that poetry has to be admired and judged as a thing having its own unique character and

independent existence.

IMITATION

The concept of imitation or representation is the very foundation ofAristotle's theory of art. Though originally propounded by Plateo, his master, Aristotle gave it an entirely new meaning. According to Plato ideas are the ultimate reality. Things are conceived as ideas before they take shape as things. Atree is thus a concrete embodiment of its image in idea. The idea of everything, therefore, is its originl, and the thing itself is its copy. As the copy ever falls short of the original, it is once removed

-from reality. Now art reproduces things. SO it copies a copy; it is twice removed from reality. 

According to Plate, art takes man away from reality rather than towrds it. So the production or art helped neither to mould character not to promote the well being of the state the two things by which Plato judged all human activities. Plato admitted that arthad special charm of its ownand could

attract people very powerfully. According to him this made art all the more dangerous to society. Unfortunately he was not aware of its potentialities for good, for inspiring people to do noble things to  civilize and instruct individuals in their millions.

But, according to Aristotle, imitation is neither mechanical

nor degrading. It is a creative process owing to the use of imagination.

In fact art is n imaginative recreation of life with all objects,

beings, actions, thoughts and feelings within its purview.

Plato's view of poetry is part of his moral perceptions. But

Aritotle views poetry as an independent form of mental activity. I

has the purely aesthetic function resulting in the creation of beauty.

According to him a work of art is a thing of beauty and it affords

pleasure. To be beautiful is part of the essence of a work of art.

When we say that a poem is good we say that it is beautiful. Order,

proportion.and organic unity all go into the making of the

beautiful. The moral goodness or evil does not disturb Aristotle

much even though he has the well being of society at heart.

The process of imitation is such that it brings into existence a

new artifact which never existed earlier. All fine arts remain

distinguished from other human activities owing to the composite

application of experience, imagination, ideals and values with a

bearing upon life in general unlike routine acts of every day life.

According to Aristotle, the media or means of imitation are

rhythm, harmony and language with varying degrees of importance

according to the kind of work involved in the creation of art. The

object of imitatioq are men in action. Divine or semivivine

personages and even animals are included. Men in action would

mean men in mentaland physicalaction within theircharacteristics,

passions and experiences. Poetic imitation is an imitation of inner

human action, symbolozed by anger, gentleness, courage etc.

The manner or style of imitation varies as the objects are

portrayed as better than they are, or worse, or as they really are..In

tragedy the representation is as better and in comedy it is as worse.

The serious poets generaily irnitated noble actions while the more trivial

wrote about the meaner sort of people. While one type wrote humns

and panegyrics othets wrote satirical pieces. The subdivisions of

the three manners or styles mentioned above are such that they

speak ofmen as they ought to be or as they are thought to be or as

they are said to be. In some cases poetry offers images ofthe ideal,

better than that of nature, thus excelling nature. Things or persons

as they ought to be need be taken more inan aesthetic sense than in

the moral one.

The origins of imitation are many. For one thing, the instinct

for imitation is inherent in humaq nature. It is man's inalienable

right as it were. Secondly the process of imitaion brings man a lot

happiness. Thirdly, it satisfies the human craving for finding

likenesses or similarities. Aristotle's theory of mimesis treats of

the perceptive, intuitive imaginative faculty of man. Thus

imitation is ofthe essence of man. The act of imitation is beautifual,

and it results in beauty. It deals with and deals in beauty. It gives

pleasure to people at large. Being persuasive and convincing it q

presents as idealised treafinent oflife, takes us nearer to an ideal

vision of life. Though it deals with individuals, it aims at universal

truth. Since it appeals to our emotions, its appeal is strong.

I

Imitation, which meant for Plato removal from reality or?

distortion of reality, is manipulated by Aristotle to mearr'

something apparently better than reality. While imitating naturel

art gives a boost to nature in seeking her goal. Every art ort

educational discipline aims at filling "rr.;;;; ,;,r"i r""""..[

undone. Art finishes the job where and when nature fails, or.

supplies the missing parts. Art, in having aims, and working by a1

plan or idea, parallels the work of nature. When nature makes a)*

horse, an artist makes a poem, an artisan makes a chair, each one,;

complementing and supplementing the others. l

Aristotle's theory is based not on unrealized ideal but upon the

models before him Homer's epics, the dramas ofAeschylus, Sophocles

and Euripides. Though he has written only about Greek literature his

ideas are of immense signilicance to modern students of riterature.

ARISTOTLE'S DEFTNITION OF TRAGEDY

The Poetics of Aristotle constitutes mostly a study of the fundamentals of the art of tragedy leaving comedy out for a variety of

reasons of which the most important is that he wanted to take it up in

a separate work. The orientation of the Poetics towards tragedy is

such that F.L. Lucas's celehrated commentary on it is titled Tragedy.

"Tragedy has six constituents. They are plot, character, diction,

thought, song and spectacle. Of these, according to Aristotle, the most

important is plot. By plot is meant the sequential order or structure of

the incidents or the action that is imitated. He defines tragedy in the

special context of the overall significance of the plor Tragedy is an

imitation not of men, but of an action and of life which consists of

action. Action in Aristotle is not purely extemal act but an actldeed

that makes men what they are, but it is by reason of their actions that

they are happy or otherwise. Further more, he holds that,,there could

not be a tragedy without plot, but there could be one without charac-

!sr."

The plot is the first principle and the soul of tragedy, iust as the

outline of a portrait is more appealing than the flourish of corours.

Life consists in action and not qpalities.

Character is the sum toul of all the characteristics of dramatic

personal. Thecharacters in the play remain distinguished because of

this. Yet their qualities and marks of distinction are subordinate to

and less important than their actions which make up plot.

Diction is the expression ol'meaning through words or arrangements of verses, modes of utterance or art of delivery.

Thought comes out in what the characters say proving a point or

giving an opinion, pertaining to the given circumstimces. It is the

efl'ect produced by speech.

Song implies the musical presentation of the story.

Spectacle is the totality of whatever things presented on the stage

with a visual orientation.

Plot, character and thought make up the matter of a tragedy. Diction and song are the media. Spectacle implies the manner of the art

of dramaturgy. These elements demand integration for the unity and

reality of the play. A play like "Oedipus" not only presents a unified

and significant image or reality but in itself a form of reality.

THEIMPORTANCEOFPLOT

Plot is the whole situation and a good plot is a significant situation, so arranged that its significance is wrung out of it to the uttermost.... a situation in which characters are caught, tried, perplexed,

harassed and put to the test by circumstances. This is whatAeschylus

and Sophocles did. Hardy and George Eliot did it. For Shakespeare

character is an instrument for creating situations.

The characters are thrown up stark against the human skyline under the urge of circumstances. Elemenls of Aristotlean plot have to

be chosen and put together as the elements of a picture are composed. It should be accompanied hy constructive imagiiration which

pounces upon something significaurt and interesting in life.

The plot should have unity-a beginning, a middle and an end. The

beginning must have something to fbllow, the middle naturally follows, precedes something else, the end is that something else. In spite

of diversions and details the piecc should unfoki the author's conception of an individual reacting to certain social tbrces. Mere realism

does not meet fuistotle's deniand. He is not concerned with historian,s

truth or the analyst's truth. It should be aesthetically revealing. The

poet is not concelxed with whal has happehed but. what may happen.

So it is universal and philosophic.

The poet must have the capacily to discern what is universal, see

truth poetically and communicate it. A thing is true Ior the poet if it is

true for the milieu in which his characters are placed. The poet should

prel'er probahle impossibilities to improbable possibilities.

The tragic action must be ol'a certain magnitude or size. "Beauty

depends'on nragnirucie ind oidei.'i:fhe'ibiioii oi the tragedy may be

limited to one day or slightly more, according to Aristotle. The action

must be large enough to admit a change from evil to good or from

good to evil, large enough to display good and evil adequately. A

complex action is better than a simple action. A complex action is

one which includes a perpetual or a sudden unexpected turn ofevenls

or reversal of the fortunes of the hero. This is accompanied by an

anagnorisis or recognition of this turn.

A simple plot is to be avoided. Because in it the change of fortune

comes about withoutperipeteia or anagnorisis. Peripeteia or reversal

of fortune occurs when a course of action intended to produce a particular result, produces the reverse of it. Thirs the messenger from

Corinth tries to cheer up Oedipus and dispel his fear of marrying his

mother, but by revealing who he is, he produces exactly the opposite

result. [n the peripeteia, rightly understood, is implied a whole tragic

philosophy of life. For the deepest tragedy is not when men are struck

down by the flow of change or fate like Job in the Bible, but when

their destruction is the work of their own umvitting hands. For it is

the perpetual tragic irony of lif'e that again and again men do thus

laboriously contrive their ou,n annihilation, or kill the thing they love.

Thus Oedipus runs headlong into the jaws of the very destiny from

which he flies; or Shylock is caught in his own trap; when Othello at

last sees himself as one who has flung away like an ignorant savage,

the priceless iewel of his own happiness; when King Lear delivers

himself into the hands ol'two daughters that despise him and foolishly rejects the only one that loves. All these are peripeteia in the

true sense ol'Aristotle. The most poignant tragedy o1'humm life is

the rvork of'human blindnecs--thc tragcdy of crrors.

Pcripcteia, in short, is thc rvorking in blindness tt) one's dcl'eat.

Anagnorisis (recognition) is the rcalization o1'tlie truth, tlie opcning

o1 the eyes, the sudden lighting flaslr in the darkness. The llasir-o1

revelation may appear, as Aristotle poinrs out, either befbre it is too

latc or aftcr... { tcr the catastrophe, scrving only to reveal it, as when

I

Oedipus disc/' :rs his guilt, or Rustom recognizes the dying son he

has himself sll".n.

Peripeteia or reversal is a change from one state of afTairs to its

opposite, from good fortune to bad. Anagnorisis is a change from

ignorance to knowledge. It is best when coincident with peripetia.

Both combined will produce pity and fear which are the typical tragic

f'eelings.

Reversal and recognition are inevitably followed by a scene of

sufl'ering or calamity. It involves a destructive or painful action as

death on the stage, bodily agony, wounds and the like.

Recognition or discovery is of 5 kinds. The first type is by means

of signs. The signs are of dillerent kinds. (a) congenital marks like

warts and moles (b) marks acquired after birth, namely, scars (as in

the case of Odysseus) (c) token or necklaces. To use them for express

proof is not artistic.

The second type is recognition invented by the poet at will, purposively. It lacks eut. An example is Orestes revealing himself to

Iphigenia. In eff'ect il is like giving a token.

The third type depends on memory when the sight of some obiecs awakens a feeling. For example Odysseus hearing the minstrel

play the lyre.

The lburth type is by process of reasoning. "Somsone resembling

me has come, no onc resembles me but Orcstes; thercfbi'e, Orestr:s

has come. Thc last is that which arisc-s li'om the incidents thcmselves

rvhr-rc discovcry is ,nadc by nittural Incans. Such are Oedipus arl,l

Iplrirrcnia l'hc scr:oltl ircst is hrr t'ciisoning.

\

PLOT VERSUS CHARACTER

Aristotle holds the plot to be the most important constituent

while character'maintains the second place. By plot be means the

structure of incidents or the action that is imitated. He defines

tragedy highlighting the significance of the plot. Tragedy is an

imitation not of men but of an action of life. Action in Aristotle is

not purely external act, but an inward process, a man's rational

personality. He agrees that "it is their characters indeed that make

men what they are, but it is by reason of their action that they are

huppy or otherwise". "Happiness or unhappiness is boud up with

action not with character". There could not be tragedy without

action but there could be one withour character".

In the drama the characters are not described, they enact their

own story and so reveal themelves. To be deamatic action'is thus

an absolute must. The plot, then, is the life blood of the sction. [t

emb.races not only ihe deeds, the incidents and situations but also

the mental processes€nd motives which underlie the outward events

which result from thiiii

.. ._

Characterconsists of two elements;-Ethos is the moral

element in character. It reveals a certain state or direction of will.

It is an expression of moral purpose, of the permanent disposition

an dtendencies, the tore and sentiment of the individual. Dianoeia

is the intellectual element which is implied in all rational conduct

through which alone ethos can find outward expression. It is

separable from ethos only by a process of arbitration.

The most important of all the elements of tragedy is the plot

or the arrangement of incidents. "Tragedy is an imitation not of

men. But of an action and of life, and life consists in action. aristotle

says: "Without action there cannot be atragedy; there may be without character". The plot is the first principle and as it were, the

soul of tragedy. A character by himself cannot produce atragedy.

Dramatic action is not aimed at the representation of character.

Character comes in asa subsidiary to the action. The plot contains

the Kernel or the nucleus of that action which is the chief end of

tragedy to represent.

Plot and character grow harder to separate as the plot takes

place more and more inside the character, pnd the crisis of the

drama withdraws into the theatre of the soull

PLOT CONSTRUCTION

In constructing the plot the poet should place the scene

before his eyes. Thus more vividness is achieved. Inconsistencies

should be avoided. The poet should work out the play with

appropriate gestures. He must emotionalize the incidents and his

impgination, must identify himself with the characters. So it

becomes more convincing as life-like reality. Poetry implies a

frenry or madness, lifting himself out of his self.

The story, whether his or not, should be sketched in outline

first and then episodes filled in and details amplified. Episodes

must be relevant to the action. In drama episodes are short. But

these give extension to epic. The story of Odysiiy'is brief; the rest

is episode. Epic poetry should have as its subject a single action;

whole and completb, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It will

thus resemble a living'organism. History presents not a single

action but a single period and all that happened within that period

without any connection. Here lies the excellence of Homer who

never attempted to make the whole war of Troy the subject of his

poem. He detaches a single portion and admits episodes. For this

reason the Illiad and the Odyssey furnish the subject of one

tragedy or two.

Tragedy depends on h istrionics, demands gesture.Therefore,

it appeals to an inferior audience. It is lower than the epic. But it

produces its effect without action even in reading. Tragedy has all

epic qualities. Even the epic metre. It attains its end within

narrower limits for its concentrated effect is more pleasurable than

the diluted and watery effect of epic'

Tragedy produces pleasure proper to it, it is the higher art'

attaining its end more PerfectlY'

CATHARSIS

"The immense controversy carried on in books, pamphlets

and articles, mostly Getman, as to what is that Aristotle really

meant by the famous words in the sixth chapter of the Poetics,about

tragedy accomplishing the purification of our moods of pity and

sympathetic fear is one of the disgraces of the human intelligence,

a grostesque monument of sterility". John Morley, quoted in F'L'

Lucas, Tragedy

CATHARSIS IS A MEDICAL METAPHOR, IT MEANS:

l. Purgation in the older sense means removal of impure blood

from the system by means of bloodletting

2.ltmeansalsoapartialrernovalofexcess"humours"based

on the theory ofthe old school ofhippocrates that on a dye

balance of these humours depended the health of the body

and the mind alike.

3. In the modern sense purgation means complete evacuation

of waste products, a clearing of the bowelsystem'

4. Purification in the religious sense'

5. In Creek medicine any organism could be purged of any

undesirableproductbyadministration,injudiciousdoses,

ofsomethingsimilar."similiasimilibuscurantur"or"like

cures like" as in HomeoPathY'

6. Itroculation as a method of preventing illnesses'

7. Excess of anything is unwholesome' The excess has to be

tevelled down. Catharsis is a means for it' In this sense

Catharsi is a dilution of the tragic feelings'

I

g. catharsis is rnltaphor in the religious sense also. In that sense

it means purifiction. Emotions aroused by the spectacle of

evil in ife, moral evil, evil og destruction, wastp and

misfortune are deprived of their evil effect and even made

beneficial. Themagnitude of evil witnesses prompts us to

give up our own, evil tendincies.

g. In the purificatory role catharsis creates a situation in which

' the spectators and readers forget themselves and become

other centered in relation to the tragic characters'

10'Psychologicallyitprovidesasafetyvalvefordisturbing

feeling accumulated in the mind'

11. Catharsis means correctio.n of our crude feelings,

refinem6nt of passions and sublimation of our psyche'

Tragedy effects purgation of prty and fear by its administration

of these very emotions, either because they are unwholesome or

tend to be excess. This is confirmed by Aristotle's remark

elsewhere. ..Exciting music calms those who are already excited".

The process is accompanied by feelings of pleasure'

Milton supports the ideas in his preface to Samson Agonistes'

"To purge the mind of these and similar emotions, to temper and

reducethemtojustmeasurewithakindofdelight,stirredupby

reading or seeing those passions well imitated; for in physic' things

of melancholic quality are used against melansholia". Pity and fear

are the doses by which the tragedian homeopathically purges his

audience into emotional health'

Catharsisisthefunctionoftragedyresrrlting.fromthe

essential nature of tragedy. This is his answer to Plaio's charge

that poetry hhd a radically vicious efect. The idea of catharsis was

so familiar to hirn and his pupils that he never stopped t' explain it'

Let us see how pU is aroused' A virtuous rnan brought fircm

prosperity to adversity does not excite pity' tt merely shocks'A bad man

hecorning prosperous is ,ot tragic, does not satisfy lhe morar sense,

does not excite pity or I'ear. The lall ol'the villain, on [he other hand.

merely satisfies our moral sense.

Pity is aroused by seeing unmerited or undeserved misfbrtune;

f'ear, seeing the misfbrtune of a man rike us. The tragic hero arouses

our emotions by making us admire him when he endures mislbrtune

witliout compraining. "The whole effect of tragedy tends to the de_

bility of its spirit, reason releases its hold on conduct, emotion takes

charge." Aristotle agrees that it is characteristic of tragedy to arouse

emotions which in themserves are dangerous and unwholesome. yet

we know that tragedy produces rove and admiration which ue as

important as pity and fbar in tragedy. Aristotre answers plato by saying that tragedy not onry rouses these emotions but by the way it

rouses them, effects a catharsis of them a purgation of them.

At one level ofperception the medical anarogy fails. For, tragedy,

in order to be curative, must f*st produce the disease ,o ,urr. irugedy produces emotions which in rear life wourd be unpleasant and

perhaps dangerously disturbing.

According to some scholars, "catharsis of such passions does not

mean that they are purified and ennobled or that men are purged of

their passions; it means that the passions themselves ur, ,.Ju..d to u

healthy, balanced proportion. pythagoreans practised catharsis of the

body by medicine, of the soul by music.

The pity that tragedy produces is of3 kinds; useful pity, useless

pity and rc11'-piry.