THE FALLENAristotelian Tragedy

Mani Vairapandi

ARISTOTELIAN TRAGEDY

Components of Tragedy Plot Character Diction Song Spectacle Thought

Without these, the tragedy could be called incomplete.

ARISTOTELIAN TRAGEDY Aristotle begins analyzing

tragedy from the start of the Poetics on Tragedy.

He defines tragedy as imitation of action. An action is done by a character.

Usage of language to make the actions artistic.

The final actions of the character are meant to instill fear and pity.

CHARACTER The character must be:

–Good.–Fit for role. –Realistic.–Personality and character must remain consistent throughout. –Must be fitting to the text.–And although they are so realistic, there must be some part of them that makes them seem idealistic.

Even though they are set apart from the rest of us that makes us look up to them, there must be a flaw within their character to make them fall.

These must be present if the character is to be tragic.

CHARACTER “15. As in the structure of the plot, so too in the portraiture of

character, the poet should always aim either at the necessary or the probable. Thus a person of a given character should speak or act in a given way, by the rule either of necessity or of probability; just as this event should follow that by necessary or probable sequence. It is therefore evident that the unraveling of the plot, no less than the complication, must arise out of the plot itself.” (Aristotle XV)

CATHARSIS

Purging of emotion. Aristotle believes that fear and pity must arise from

the reader in order to for the tragedy to be a success.

There are those that debate against Aristotle’s length requirement for a good tragedy.

CATHARSIS

Emotional response of the reader: Actions must be

between friends or those who do not care much for each other.

If an enemy were to kill an enemy. (Isolated cases)

Within Family.

CATHARSIS

Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method: “What is experienced in such an excess of

tragic suffering is something truly common. The spectator recognizes himself [or herself] and his [or her] finiteness in the face of the power of fate. What happens to the great ones of the earth has exemplary significance. . . .To see that "this is how it is" is a kind of self-knowledge for the spectator, who emerges with new insight from the illusions in which he [or she], like everyone else, lives.” (132)

CATHARSIS IN EVERYDAY TRAGEDY

Macbeth (Shakespeare) Othello (Shakespeare) “Oedipus the King” (Sophocles)

WORKS CITED.

"Aristotle Poetics Overview." Hawaii English. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. <http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/index.html>.

Butcher, S. H. "Selections from the Poetics of Aristotle." MN State. N.p., 1895. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. <http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/AristotlePoeticsEdited.htm>.

  Friedman, Norman. "The Tragic Hero." JSTOR. National Council of Teachers of English, May 1958. Web.

3 Feb. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/pss/372038>.   Golden, Leon. "Epic, Tragedy, and Catharsis." JSTOR. The University of Chicago Press, Jan. 1976.

Web. 3 Feb. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/pss/268520>.   Kitano, Mashiro. "Tragic Catharsis in Poetics." GPWU. Bulletin of Gunma Prefectural Women's

University, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. <http://www.gpwu.ac.jp/~kitano/papers/comic.html>.   McManus, Barbara F. "Outline of Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy in the Poetics." CNR. College of New

Rochelle, Nov. 1999. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. <http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html>.   Simpson, David L. "Comedy and Tragedy." Condor Depaul. Depaul University, 1998. Web. 3 Feb. 2010.

<http://condor.depaul.edu/~dsimpson/tlove/comic-tragic.html>.   "Tragedy." Academic Brooklyn. Brooklyn College, Mar.-Apr. 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2010.

<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html>. 

PICTURES CITED http://www.stargatecinema.com/files/cache/39

3764ebc8b6d6dc81aed3fac31bc40b.jpg

http://fc.sad57.k12.me.us/~Abigail_Asciola/00598B79-00870BAD.0/bloodyeyes.jpg

http://medias.lemonde.fr/mmpub/edt/ill/2005/10/19/h_3_ill_701065_05102014_robot+x1d1_ori.jpg

http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/guardian/images/products/3/56783-large.jpg

http://www.millersville.edu/theatre/img/Web-Oedipus-The-King.jpg

http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/-/7/eye_of_god.jpg

http://www.docarzt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/lost_y5_adart_vert_noabc.jpg

http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/batman.jpg http://www.tcnj.edu/~graham/Wurtzel_files/im

age006.jpg