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ARISTOTLE’S
POETICS
THE THEORY OF TRAGEDY
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OBJECTIVES OF THE TOPIC

• To give students a solid understanding of Greek tragedy
based on the Aristotelian concept
• To use the discussion of tragedy as background
knowledge in the discussion and analysis of the plays by
Sophocles; namely – Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus,
and Antigone.
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"A man
doesn't become a hero
until he can see
the root of his own
downfall."
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a man should never

consider himself
fortunate unless he
can look back on his
life and remember
that life without pain
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OVERVIEW

• Poetics of Aristotle is the famous study of Greek dramatic art

• Compares tragedy to comedy and epic
• Determines tragedy as a kind of imitation(mimesis) of life
• Has a serious purpose
• Uses direct actions rather than narrative to achieve the ends
• Acted on stage, not read in books
• The theme of tragedy is more universal and ideals
• More philosophical and exalted ( held in high regard)
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THE GREEK PLAY

• Theatron- is an amphitheater where tragedies are performed
• Open area for artificial lighting
• Amphitheaters are built at the foot of a sloping mountain.
• Both actors and chorus wear costumes and masks
• Male actors wore female roles
• There could only be three actors on stage at one time
• Chorus – made up of 15 people
• Parts were usually sang and danced by the actors
• Actors would either sing or say their lines
• All main characters should be nobles

• Greek tragedies don’t always end sadly, contrary to popular beliefs, some would end
in happy ending, but after a horrible event happens.
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THE ROLE OF THE CHORUS

• Provides opinions and points of view about the action of the play
• Is the communal voice of the play, having only one opinion
• The leader of the chorus interacts with the actors
• Structures in strophic pairs – add movements and dance
• Strophe- dancers proceed across the stage while singing
• Antistrophe- dancers turn around and come back across during actions
• Provides lessons or learning experience about the play, usually found at the end.
• Narrates an event prior to a scene
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AIM OF TRAGEDY

• To bring about “ catharsis’ of the spectators or viewers

• To arouse in them the sensation of pity and fear
• To purge them of these emotions, the feeling is cleansed and
uplifted with a brighter understanding of the ways of gods and men.
• Catharsis- is the purification or purgation of the emotions of pity and
fear
• A metaphor used by Aristotle to describe the effects of true tragedy
• Has a healthful and humanizing effect on the viewers.
• Realization that what happened to the tragic character, may happen
to any one in real life.
• Through the tragic hero
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WHAT IS TRAGEDY?
• Is an imitation of an action that is serious and also having
magnitude, complete in itself.
• Action is single and complete
• One –act presentation of the plot
• Presents reversal of fortune
• peripeteia
• Involves persona renowned and of superior attainments ( Arete)
• Tragic hero
• Should be written in poetry, embellished with artistic expressions.
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WHAT IS TRAGEDY?

• A tragedy should have a single action

represented as occurring in a single place and
within the course of a day.
• These principles were called, respectively, unity
of action, unity of place, and unity of time.
• A play should be performed in a single day( during
the classical period of Greece)
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TRAGIC PLEASURE OF PITY AND FEAR

• The feeling evoked by the tragic hero, after viewers watched a tragic play
• How to achieve :
• The tragic hero cannot be all good or all evil, but must be someone the audience can
identify with
• The disastrous end of the tragic hero results from a mistaken action or error of judgment
(hamartia)
• This error in judgment would rise to tragic flaw or his hubris ( excessive pride or
arrogance)
• The hubris causes the tragic hero to ignore a divine warning or to break a moral law.
• The suffering of the tragic hero is greater than his offense
• Audience feel pity and fear
• Identify themselves to the tragic hero’s fate.
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ARISTOTLE’S PERFECT
TRAGEDY
• He believed that a good tragedy must
evoke feelings of fear and pity in the
audience, Sophocles’ Oedipus
• since he saw these two emotions as Rex (Oedipus the King),
being fundamental to the experience
of catharsis (the process of releasing he considered it as
strong or pent-up emotions through the best example of the
art).
• ,"pity is aroused by unmerited perfect tragedy
misfortune, fear by the misfortune of
a man like ourselves."
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CHARACTERISTICS OF A
TRAGIC HERO
Be virtuous :
In Aristotle's time, this meant that the character should be a
noble in nature,
 It also meant that the character should be both capable and
powerful (i.e. "heroic"), and also feel responsible to the rules of
honor and morality that guided Greek culture.
These traits make the hero attractive and compelling, and gain
the audience's sympathy.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF A
TRAGIC HERO
Be flawed:
However noble, he must also be imperfect so that the audience can see
themselves in him
the character must also have a tragic flaw (also called hamartia) or more
generally be subject to human error, and the flaw must lead to the
character's downfall
Makes the character more relatable- someone whom the audience can identify
with
the source of the tragedy is internal to the character, not merely some outside
force
It emerges from their heroic qualities—hubris (the arrogance that often
accompanies greatness)
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CHARACTERISTICS OF A
TRAGIC HERO
Must suffer a reversal of fortune:
must have discovered his fate thru his own actions, not by things
happening to him.
the character should suffer a terrible reversal of fortune, from
good to bad.
Such a reversal does not merely mean a loss of money or status.
It means that the work should end with the character dead or in
immense suffering, and to a degree that outweighs what it seems like
the character deserved.
 Catastrophe
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THE TRAGIC VISION

• These are interrelated elements that help establish the tragic vision
• The ending is catastrophic
• The catastrophic ending is inevitable
• The presence of human limitations as seen in the main character ( protagonist)
• The protagonist suffers terribly
• The suffering is disproportionate to his culpability
• Yet, the suffering is redemptive, bringing out the noblest of human capabilities for
learning
• The suffering brigs out the capacity for accepting moral responsibility
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The five stages of the downfall of a Sophoclean tragic hero

The tragic
Pre-eminent flaw stage
is one who where he Gaining
The
surpasses all shows a insight Rising from
downfall of
the others or blemish, about his the fall
should be the hero
weakness, action
looked up to or
imperfection
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TRAGEDY IN A NUTSHELL
• Tragic hero
• Of noble family
• Tragic flaw - excessive pride
• the role of justice and/or revenge in the judgments.
• Peripeteia - A reversal of fortune
• brought about because of the hero's error in judgment.
• 3) Anagnorisis
• The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions
• 5) Catastrophe
• The character's fate must be greater than deserved.
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FOUR CONCEPTS IN GREEK

TRAGEDY
• Arete- excellence, goodness, moral virtue
• “be all what you can be”
• Hubris – excessive pride, arrogance, too much self-confidence
• It parallels the Hebrew word pasha, meaning transgression.
• It represents a sense of false pride that makes a man defy God, sometimes to the degree
that he considers himself an equal.
• Ate- also refers to an action performed by a hero that leads to his death or downfall.
• Nemesis - is divine retribution sought against the people guilty of hubris.
• In a general sense, nemesis refers to an indomitable rival, or an inescapable situation that
causes misery and death.
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ELEMENTS OF TRAGEDY

PLOT- the arrangement of incidents divided into five acts, with

several scenes

CHARACTER – men and women who act – tragic heroes

DICTION- is the medium of language or expression thru which

the character reveals his actions and feelings

THOUGHT- what the character feels and thinks in the

development of the plot

SPECTACLE –the stage scenery to evoke atmosphere

SONG- the musical element of the Chorus made up of Choral

odes

Is the introductory the main action of a play, in
part of a play which the trials and
tribulations of the main
character increase and build
toward a climax and
dénouement
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is the final resolution in a poem
or narrative plot, which unravels
the intrigue and brings the piece
to a close or end
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REFERENCES
• Aristotle, Poetics (translated by S. H. Butcher, Internet Classics Archive)
• Defining Tragedy (Virginia Community College System Litonline
• Lecture Notes on Aristotle's Poetics (Malcolm Heath, University of Leeds)
• Graham Ley, A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater (University of
Chicago Press, 1991