Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

• Greek philosopher
• Student of Plato, and
founder of the Lyceum
• The Poetics (c. 330)
• Wrote on a wide range
of field: rhetoric, logic,
politics, ethics, natural
sciences
 The Poetics
• One of the first books of literary criticism
• Formal expectations concerning tragedy (parts
on comedy are lost)
• Archetypal text: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King.
• Heavily influential on later drama, especially
French Baroque theater
• Further reading: Corneille, “Of the Three
Unities of Action, Time, and Place”
 Summary of The Poetics (I-II)
• Aristotle discusses differences among literary genres
(I).
• He distinguishes between epic poetry, lyric poetry,
tragedy, and comedy. (formalism)
• These genres are, according to him, an imitative or
mimetic art (II).
• Each differs from the others in how it reproduces life
(medium [type of language/song], objects [moral
dimension], and manner [words/actions]).
 Summary of The Poetics (III)
• Comedy represents persons as worse than they
typically are in life.
• Tragedy represents them as better.
• Drama is distinguished from other arts in that
it is the imitation of action (rather than being
merely narrative). (III)
 Summary of The Poetics (IV-V)
• Aristotle’s remarks about imitation are partly a
reaction to Plato’s idealism, which proposes that an
unchanging idea rules above and beyond the
corrupted vision of objects and relations that we have
in our experience of the world. (IV-V)
• For Aristotle, genres are dynamic; they develop
through the innovations of great poets; they are not
attempts to capture the essence of an unchanging
idea. (IV-V)
 Summary of The Poetics (VI)
• Aristotle defines tragedy as “an imitation of an
action that is serious, complete, and of a
certain magnitude; in language embellished
with every type of artistic ornament…; in the
form of action, not of narrative; through pity
and fear effecting the proper purgation of these
emotions” (51)—Aristotle’s last point is
termed catharsis. (VI)
Summary of The Poetics (VII-XIII)
• Good plots are judged by completeness, order, com
position, and magnitude (scope). These categories le
ad, in the following section, to the famous unities of t
ime, place, and action. Plots should not be overly par
ticular (a characteristic of history); they should hang t
ogether by necessity. The effectiveness of tragic plots
is founded upon reversal (peripeteia) and recognition
(anagnorisis)—both often related to hamartia in the
hero (in many cases, hubris). (VII-XIII)
 Generating Catharsis (XIII)
• “It follows plainly…that the change of fortune
presented must not be the spectacle of a
virtuous man brought from prosperity to
adversity: for this moves neither pity nor fear;
it merely shocks us. Nor, again, that of a bad
man passing from adversity to prosperity: for
nothing can be more alien to the spirit of
tragedy” (55).
 Generating Catharsis (XIII)
• “Nor, again, should the downfall of an 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 unmerited misfortune, fear by the
misfortune of a man like ourselves” (55).
 Generating Catharsis (XIII)
• “There remains…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.”
 Summary of The Poetics (XV)
• Tragic characters must satisfy four conditions:
– (a) they must be good;
– (b) they must perform actions suitable to their
positions;
– (c) they must be realistically portrayed;
– (d) they must be consistent. (XV)
 Generalizations
• Tragic heroes are flawed (Shakespeare) or commit
errors of judgment.
• Tragic heroes eventually understand this flaw.
• Tragic heroes stand on one side of an unsolvable
conflict.
• Tragic heroes suffer justly.
• Literary heroes are complex.
• Tragic heroes are greater than the common person
even though their abilities may be no greater than the
common person.
 Review of Antigone
• Who are the major characters?
• What types of abstract conflicts are possible?
• Differentiate between law and Law.
• What is the function of the chorus?
 Plot
• Oedipus’ sons Polynices and Eteocles battle ea
ch other for the kingship of Thebes.
• Both brothers die in combat. Polynices, howev
er, is denied burial because he was fighting ag
ainst the “legitimate” powers of
Thebes.
• Antigone determines to bury him; Ismene refu
ses to help.
 Plot
• Creon is now ruler (tyrant) of Thebes; he decla
res it illegal to bury Polynices.
• A sentry enters to reveal that someone has perf
ormed burial rites on the body.
• Creon is enraged; later the sentry returns to acc
use Antigone of the crime.
• She is brought in and does not deny her action.
She and Ismene are sentenced to death.
 Chorus
• What attitudes are expressed in the chorus?
• Are they admirable or reprehensible?
• Is it possible to treat the chorus as a neutral
body which is merely commenting on events?
• What distinguishes the chorus from any actor
on the stage?
 Creon’s Values
• Creon’s speech (lines 194-206) points towards
a value system.
• What is your understanding and reaction to his
values?
• Do Creon’s values deviate from modern expec
tations?
 Ancient Greek Political Forms
• monarchy
• tyranny
• dictatorship
• aristocracy
• oligarchy
• democracy
• republicanism
• thalossocracy
 Creon’s Impiety?
• Is Creon impious (lines 317-344)?
• If so, how does this impiety compare with that
of Oedipus?

• cf. lines 870-874

 Choric Interludes
• The chorus (lines 376-415)
• What is the purpose of this section?
• What picture of the human being does it offer
us?
• Note the sentry’s attitudes (lines 435, 486ff.)
• terms: strophe and antistrophe
 State, Freedom, Duty
• Antigone (lines 499-524) raises the question of
responsibility to the state, and the notion, for u
s, of rights and responsibilities living in the sta
te.
• Discuss the terms freedom, responsibility, and
duty in a general way first; then reflect on thes
e terms in light of the passage.
 Duty
• Creon’s speech to Haemon (lines 713-722)
• What parallels are suggested between the famil
y and the state?
• Do these make sense in the modern world?

• term: stichomythia (lines 813-849)

 Haemon’s Appeal
• What motivates Haemon’s criticisms?
• How does the chorus react to Haemon?
• What does their reaction (and Haemon’s reaso
ning) reveal about these men?

• lines: 773-776
 Antigone and Motive
• What motivates Antigone’s actions?
• How might we construe her motive so that she
remains a tragic hero instead of being unjustly
punished?

• Note her additional remarks on law, lines 995-

1005.
 Political Aspects (Knox)
• Knox remarks that the conflict is more than overtly p
olitical:
• “Now, in the face of death, oblivious to the presence
of Creon and the chorus, with no public case to make,
no arguments to counter, she can at last identify the d
riving force behind her action, the private, irrational i
mperative which was at the root of her championship
of the rights of family and the dead against the deman
ds of the state” (48-9).
 Another Passage from Knox
• “Why did the gods not save her, since they
approved her action? Was it because her
motives, even those she openly proclaimed,
were too narrow—her total indifference to the
city and its rights an offense to heaven?” (53).
 Role of Tiresias
• Does Tiresias transcend the purely human dim
ension of drama?
• Could his function be performed otherwise (th
at is, in an non-supernatural way)?
• Does his report strengthen Antigone’s case? (p
. 111)?
 Representation of Violence
• Why isn’t the violence acted out in Greek dra
ma (off-stage violence)?
• How can violence be depicted?
• What seems to be the relation between modern
violence and that in Antigone?
 Defining Justice
• What does the word justice mean in the
context of a play?
• Can the events of the play in any sense be
construed as illustrating justice or involving
justice?
• What blocks the representation of justice?
• Does the concept of justice as it appears in this
work differ substantially from how we
understand this concept in modern life?
 Antigone as Hero
• Having completed the play, why is Antigone t
he heroine?
• What is her tragic dimension?
• Is this based upon an error or flaw?
 Creon’s Status
• Why is the play not called the Creon?
• What blocks him from being the hero of the w
ork?
• Argue, by providing evidence, that Creon is in
fact the tragic hero. What needs to be operativ
e for this update to work?
• To consider: lines 1218ff. and 1441ff.
 Attitudes towards the State
• Knox: “the particular action that Creon tries to justify
by this general appeal, the exposure of Polynice’s cor
pse, may have caused the audience some uneasiness,
but on his main point, that loyalty to the city takes pre
cedence over any private loyalty, to friend or family, t
hey would have agreed with him” (37).
• Discuss the problems of duty to authority in our mode
rn context—think about similarities and differences.
Jean Anouilh/Bert Brecht
 Updating Antigone
• Why is the play still relevant to modern
conflicts?
• If you were producing this play, how might
you make it “contemporary”?
• What problems arise from “updating” this or
any old play?
 Closing Ideas
• “Antigone, as a heroine of the resistance to tyr
annical power, has deservedly become one of t
he Western world’s great symbolic figures; she
is clearly presented, in her famous speech, as a
champion of a higher morality against the over
riding claims of state necessity” (Mack, et al 6
50).
• Note that this morality need not be in support
of left-wing or liberal causes.
 For next time
• Read: The Misanthrope (Molière), Acts I-II