Aristotle
- The Poetics
Plot
Plot holds the first place in the six elements
into which Aristotle analyses a tragedy. The plot is the soul of tragedy and
the artistic arrangement of its incidents is of the prime importance. As per
the definition of Tragedy- an imitation of an action that is complete and whole
and of a certain magnitude for there may a whole that is wanting in magnitude.
A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end. A beginning is that
which does not itself follow anything but after which something naturally is or
comes to be. An end, on the contrary, is that which itself naturally follows
some other thing, either by necessity or as a rule, but has nothing following
it. A middle is that which follows something as some other thing follows it. A well-constructed
plot, therefore, must neither begin nor end at haphazard but conform to these
principles.
The
plot of a tragedy falls into two parts—complication and unraveling or
Dénouement. By complication Aristotle means all that extends from the beginning
of the action to the part which marks the turning point to good or bad fortune.
The unraveling is that which extends from the beginning of the change to the
end.
There
are four kinds of tragedy, the complex, depending entirely on reversal of the
situation and recognition; the pathetic- where the motive is passion; the
ethical – where the motives are ethical; the fourth kind is the simple.
The
Greater the Unity, the More Perfect the Plot
‘Unity
of plot does not’, as says Aristotle, ‘as some persons think, consist in the
unity of the hero. For infinitely various are the incidents in one man’s life
which cannot be reduced to unity and so too there are many actions of one man
out of which we cannot make one action’. By means of unity the plot becomes
individual and also intelligible. The greater the unity, the more perfect will
it be as a concrete and individual thing; at the same time it will gain in
universality and typical quality. As, therefore, in the other imitative arts,
the imitation is one when the object imitated is one, so the plot, being an
imitation of action, must imitate one action and that a whole the structural
union of the parts being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed
the whole will be disjoined and disturbed. For a thing whose presence or
absence makes no visible difference is not an organic part of the whole. A
perfect tragedy should be arranged not on simple but on the complex plan. It
should imitate actions which excite pity and fear. A bad man passing from
adversity to prosperity, possesses no single tragic quality, it neither
satisfies the moral sense nor calls forth pity or fear. Nor should the downfall
of the utter villain be exhibited. A plot of this kind would, doubtless,
satisfy the moral sense, but it would inspire neither pity nor fear, for pity
is aroused by misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves. Such
an event, therefore, will be neither pitiful nor terrible. There remains then
the character between these two extremes- that of a man who is not eminently
good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but
by some error or frailty. He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous-
a prosperous like Oedipus, Thyestes or other illustrious men of such families.
Simple
and Complex Plot
The
plot is divisible into two parts- complication and its unraveling or denouement.
The former ties the events into a tangled knot, the latter unties it. The
complication includes all the action from the beginning to the point where it takes
a turn for good or ill; the denouement extends from the turning point to the
end. The first is commonly called rising and the second falling action. Plots
are either Simple or Complex for the actions in real life of which the plots
are in an imitation. An action which is one and continuous is Simple, when the
change of fortune takes place without Reversal of the Situation. A Complex
action is one in which the change is accompanied by such Reversal or by
Recognition, or by both. Reversal of the Situation is a change by which the
action veers round to its opposite. In the Oedipus, the messenger comes to
cheer Oedipus and free him from his alarms about his mother, but by revealing
who he is, he produces the opposite effect.
Recognition
of Persons
Recognition
as the name indicates is a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love
or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune. The
best form of recognition is coincident with a Reversal of the Situation as in
the Oedipus. There are indeed other forms. Even inanimate things of the most
trivial kind may in a sense be objects of recognition. We may recognize or
discover whether a person has done a thing or not. But the recognition which is
most intimately connected with the plot and action is the recognition of
persons. This recognition, combined with Reversal, will produce either pity or
fear and actions producing these effects are those which by our definition,
Tragedy represents. It is upon such situations that the issues of good or bad
fortune will depend. Recognition, then, being between persons, it may happen
that one person only is recognized by the other-when the latter is already
known –or it may be necessary that the recognition should be on both sides.
Situation
In a
simple plot there are no puzzling situations that enter into a complex plot, in
particular peripeteia and anagnorisis. Peripeteia is generally explained as
‘reversal of the situation’ and anagnorisis as ‘recognition’ or ‘discovery’. By
a reversal of the situation is meant very neatly ‘a reversal of intention, a
deed done in blindness defeating its own purpose: a move to kill an enemy
recoiling on one’s own head, the effect to save turning into just its opposite,
killing an enemy and discovering him to be a kinsman. The discovery of these
false moves, taken in ignorance, in anagnorisis- a change from ignorance to
knowledge. Both Peripeteia and anagnorisis please because there is the element
of surprise in them. A plot that makes use of them is complex and a perfect
tragedy should be arranged not on the simple but on the complex plot.
A
Reasonable Length
A
beautiful object whether it be a living organism or any whole composed of
parts, must not only have an orderly arrangement of parts but also be of a certain
magnitude, for beauty depends on magnitude and order. Hence a very small animal
organism cannot be beautiful for the view of it is confused, the object being
seen in an almost imperceptible moment of time. Nor again can one of vast size
be beautiful, for as the eye cannot take it all in at once, the unity and sense
of the whole is lost for the spectator, as for instance if there were one a thousand
miles long. As, therefore, in the case of animal bodies and organism a certain
magnitude is necessary and a magnitude which may be easily embraced in one
view, so in the plot a certain length is necessary and a length which can be
easily embraced by the memory. The limit of length in relation to dramatic
competition and sensuous presentation is no part of artistic theory. For had it
been the rule for a hundred tragedies to compete together, the performance
would have been regulated by the water-clock, as we are told was formerly done.
But the limit as fixed by the nature of drama itself is this- the greater the
length, the more beautiful will the piece be by reason of its size, provided
that the whole be perspicuous. The plot should have a certain magnitude or a
reasonable length, such as the mind may comprehend fully in one view or within
the required time. A reasonable length or size is an essential condition of beauty.
It is of the right proportion in itself and in all its parts. If it is too
short, the mind will miss many things in it to comprehend it fully and if too
long the mind cannot take in all the events within the time required by the
story. In Aristotle’s own words, it should be one of ‘a length which can be
easily embraced by the memory’. But it should have length enough to unfold its
sequence of events- the beginning, the middle and the end- naturally and fully.
0 Comments