Submitted to: Ma’am Tahira

Submitted by: Group # 01

Topic: Aristotle’s “The Poetics”

Short Questions of poetics

Question No# 1:
Aristotle’s concept of tragedy
Introduction:
Aristotle traces the possible origin of tragedy in his poetics. According to him, tragedy
developed from the heroic strain of poetry, which is turn, developed from the hymns sung
in praise of God and great man. Aeschylus an ancient Greek tragedian introduce dialogue
in it and diminish the soul of chair. Aristotle felt that Aeschylus had not developed a
poetic language for tragedy. According to Aristotle the greatest tragedy poet was
Sophocles because in his work he uses to unity of plot, character were Nobel.
Epic poetry and tragedy:
Epic poetry termed as tragedy because both have many similarities:
 Both imitate Nobel actions of a good men.
 Both maintain unity of plot (beginning, middle and ending).
 Object of nemesis is similar subject matter.
 Both of these can be either simple or completed.
 Both can deal with either and character or sufferings.
 All the six components are similar in both including the idea of peripteries and
anagnorisis.
 But Epic lacks music, Spectacle, reality of presentation and Unity of action which
the tragedy has.
 All the elements of an epic are present in tragedy but all the elements of tragedy are
not present in an epic.
The definition of tragedy:
Aristotle famous definition of tragedy says:
“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, and also as having
magnitude, complete in itself and appropriate and pleasurable language in a dramatic
rather than the narrative form, with incidents arousing pity and fear, where with to
accomplish a catharsis of those emotions”.
According to Aristotle tragedy is superior to the epic having all the epic elements with
more ever music and spectacular effect which the Epic does not have and being more
compact in draign.
Features of tragedy:
1. Tragedy is an imitation of action that is serious complete and of a certain magnitude.
2. It has a story of an appropriate length.
3. It must have rhythm and harmony.
4. It should be complete or self-contained with the beginning a middle and an end.
5. Artistic armament and form of external easily explained.
6. All the end it should arouses feelings of pity and fear and then do proper purgation of
these emotions through catharsis.
Question No# 2:
What is Catharsis According to Aristotle?
Catharsis is a Greek word which means ‘cleansing or purification’. Catharsis is a
purification or purgation of emotions (especially pity and fear) primarily through art. A
catharsis is an emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state or moral and
spiritual renewal.
In literature:
In literature it is used for cleansing of emotions of the characters. The catharsis theory
originated with Aristotle and his play Poetics. Basically it is an emotional discharge
through which one can achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress. Catharsis is a
controversial term. Word Catharsis used in Aristotle’s Poetics for the first time. But he
did not define this concept. There is no word in English literature which has been debated
so much as the word Catharsis has been debated. Catharsis in real meanings explains
importance of tragedy. In Aristotle’s eyes tragedy is the purgation of emotions such as
pity and fear that defines concept of Catharsis. Aristotle defines tragedy and says that
when protagonist, who is a mixture of good or bad qualities suffer from prosperity to
drawsity, it causes the Catharsis of pity and fear. Thus the word Catharsis is not a simple
noun instead it is a symbol of emotions.
 Catharsis is an element of tragedy
 In literature it is used for the cleansing of emotions of characters
  The emotional release that the character or audience experience during the
catharsis can lead to a sense of forgiveness and renewal
 Catharsis is purgation of emotions
 Purgation is purification
Functions of Catharsis:-
In dramatic use, the term catharsis explains the impact of tragedy, comedy or any other
form of the art on the audience and in some cases on the performer’s themselves.
Aristotle did not elaborate on the meaning of Catharsis and the way he used in a defining
tragedy in poetic. Lucas identifies that there is chance that Catharsis may have some
aspects of meaning like,
Purgation
Intellectual clarification
Purification
Aristotle’s Views: Aristotle used the concept of Catharsis both in medical and
psychological sense. In Aristotle’s Poetics it meant the emotional release and cleaning the
expectators experience during and after watching a tragedy which has corrective and
healing effect. Aristotle believed that catharsis helped to moderate passion and strong
emotions, therefore releasing the balance in one's heart l originally the term catharsis is
used in as a metaphor in poetics by Aristotle, to explain the impact of tragedy. He
believed that Catharsis was the ultimate end of tragic artistic work and it marked its
quality.
Conclusion:
Aristotle is a great critic and what he said centuries ago will continue to influence
thinking as it has done all this time. It is unfortunate that he has not explained some of the
terms which seem so very significant to his central thesis. The term catharsis for instance,
has been interrupted so variously that it is difficult to come on an agreement also what
Aristotle really meant of theories advanced to explain catharsis the clarification theory
spears to be most acceptable perhaps, for it tends to relate catharsis to the psychology of
audience.
Question No# 3:

Differences in the modes of imitation

Medium of imitation:
 All art, then, is a made of imitation yet there are difference between various mode
of imitation one difference lies in their medium of imitation.
 The painter's medium of imitation is colour and form.
 The poet’s medium of imitation is rhyme and harmony.
 Musician medium of imitation is harmony.
 Poetry and music have same medium of imitation but are different in manner of
object of imitation.
Object of imitation:
The object of poetic imitation are “men” in action. These man to be represented can be
better than real (Epic or tragedy) or worse than real (comedy) or same as real.
Manner of imitation:
 Another way in which different are differ in the manner of imitation. Poetry itself
is of different types because of manner of imitation. There is purely narrative
poetry, Epic poetry and dramatic poetry etc.
 Object to be imitated are represented in narrative, Epic, dramatic comedy and
tragedy.
 Poetry should be written according to law of probability and necessity and the
manner of the process of making particular to Universal.
Question No# 4:
What are Aristotle view of mimesis?
In his theory of Mimesis, Plato says that all art is mimetic by nature; art is an imitation of
life. He believed that ‘idea’ is the ultimate reality. Art imitates idea and so it is imitation
of reality. He gives an example of a carpenter and a chair. The idea of ‘chair’ first came
in the mind of carpenter. He gave physical shape to his idea out of wood and created a
chair. The painter imitated the chair of the carpenter in his picture of chair. Thus,
painter’s chair is twice removed from reality. Hence, he believed that art is twice
removed from reality. He gives first importance to philosophy as philosophy deals with
the ideas whereas poetry deals with illusion – things which are twice removed from
reality. So to Plato, philosophy is superior to poetry. Plato rejected poetry as it is mimetic
in nature on the moral and philosophical grounds.
On the contrary, Aristotle advocated poetry as it is mimetic in nature. According to him,
poetry is an imitation of an action and his tool of enquiry is neither philosophical nor
moral. He examines poetry as a piece of art and not as a book of preaching or teaching.
Question No# 5:
Compare and contrast the views of Plato and Aristotle on the nature and function of
poetry.
Aristotle was the disciple of Plato and was influenced by him a great deal. But he
differed from his guru in certain respects. Plato condemned poetry, Aristotle appreciated
it. Plato set out to reorganize human life; Aristotle to re-organise human knowledge.
Plato was a transcendentalist, who arrived at his principles through observation and
analysis. Plata was an idealist, too.
He believed that the phenomenal world is but an objectification of the ideal world.
The ideal world is real, the phenomenal world is but a shadow of this ideal reality. It is,
therefore, fleeting and unreal. Aristotle, on the other hand, believed in the reality of the
world of the senses. It is on the basis of the study and observation of particular realities
that general principles can be induced. Thus, Aristotle moves from the real, to the ideal,
from the particular to the general. His methods are inductive. In this respect, he stands at
the opposite pole from Plato.
Plato's language is poetic and charming, Aristotle's is dogmatic and telegraphic. There
was more originality in Plato than in Aristotle, but Aristotle is more comprehensive and
systematic than Plato. Plato used first the word 'imitation' in connection with poetry. But
Plato considered imitation merely as mimicry or a servile copy of nature. Aristotle's
interpretation of it has a far-deeper significance. For Aristotle, imitation was a
creative force.
Plato likened poetry to painting. Aristotle likened it to music. Plato believed that
poetry imitates only the external superficial appearances, and that it is, therefore, twice
removed from reality. On the other hand, Aristotle believed that poetry imitates not only
the externals, but also internal emotions and experiences. Plato regards that poetry
imitates objects as usual, or better or worse than they are. Poetry gives or traces
possibility. It explores what ought to be.
Plato was critical of poetry on moral intellectual and emotional grounds. Aristotle has
justified all the claims of superiority of poetry on moral, intellectual and emotional
grounds. Aristotle used the word 'katharsis' for the first time.
Plato regarded philosophy to be superior to poetry. Aristotle regarded poetry to be
superior to philosophy. Plato was of the view that poetry being a false imitation does not
have power or scope to deal with high philosophical matters. Aristotle, quite contrary to
it, believed that poetry is the more philosophical. It has immense power to deal with even
philosophical matters.
Plato regarded emotions as useless for poetry. He advocated their repression.
Aristotle, on the other hand, regarded the emotion as of vital importance to
poetic creation. For Aristotle, poetry was but a mere emotional outlet.
As mentioned by Lasceles Abercrombie, "Aristotle had been Plato's pupil; but as his
mind matured, he became conscious of a deep cleavage between his conviction and his
master's, and felt himself called upon to protest against some of the characteristic
conclusions and methods of the
Platonic philosophy Aristotle's mind liked to proceed from things to ideas, Plato's
from ideas to things. Aristotle had the scientific, Plato the metaphysical mind. Aristotle
could never have stood beside Plato as a literary artist. But it was Plato, the philosopher,
who condemned poetry; and the mere fact that he did so is typical of the way his
philosophy regarded things. Things only important as the representatives of ideas, he was
quite prepared to say that a thing which was unnecessary or unworthy as a representative
of ideas ought not to exist. Poetry was a thing of this nature; Plato, therefore, proposed
that it should be abolished. But it was with a biologist's respect for the existence of thing
that Aristotle looked on poetry; for him, ideas were only important as the interpretation of
things. It never occurred to Aristotle to ask whether poetry ought or ought not to exist. It
does exist, the questions his philosophy asks are:
In what manner and to what result does it exist? One might perhaps say, Aristotle
would no more think of asking whether poetry ought to exist or not, than whether a
species of animals ought to exist or not. At any rate, the conclusion he comes to is the
exact opposite of Plato's opinion, it is, that the function of poetry can be supremely
beneficient. It may very well be that he started with this opinion, and that to prove it
against the great authority of Plato was his chief motive in composing the “Poetics."
Yet there are some resemblances between the two. These are on following points:
1. That poetry is an'imitative art'.
2. That poetry arouses emotions.
3. That poetry gives pleasure, both as an imitation and as arousing the emotions through
imitative means.
4. That arousing of the emotions by poetry has an effect upon the whole personality of
the spectator or reader and on his emotional behavior in real life.
5. That both considered poetry from a practical and utilitarian point of view.
6. Nevertheless, poetry got its right place through the hands of Aristotle, while it could
not get the same through the hands of Plato.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
 1. the guru and guide 1. the disciple of Plato
2. set out to reorganize 2. set out disciple of Plato
human life Knowledge.
3. an idealist an transcendentalist 3. a realist
4. condemns poetry 4. appreciates poetry

5. deductive method 5. Inductive method

6. more of a philosopher 6. more of a scientist
7. poetic and charming language 7. dogmatic and telegraphic language
8. imitation mere mimicry 8. imitation recreation
9. likened poetry to painting 9. likened poetry superior
10. Philosophy superior to poetry 10. Poetry superior to philosophy
11. Emotions useless for poetry 11. Emotions useful and of vital importance
for literary or poetic creation.
12. metaphysical mind 12. scientific mind  

B. points of similarity

1.Poetry is an imitative art.       

2.Poetry arouses emotion.
3.Poetry gives pleasure.
4.Poetry influences the spectator or reader.
5.Poetry could be considered from a practical and utilitarian point of view besides
the aesthetic view-point.
Question No# 6:

An ideal tragic Hero according to Aristotle

Introduction:
Aristotle is great Greek philosopher, according to him tragedy involves the imitation of
men better than they are actual life. Hence tragedy present in a character in idealized
form the character are good in strictly moral sense it mainly means that characters in a
more complete and intense life than the real men and women dare to the real world.
Main feature of tragic character
In the chapter of “Poetics” Aristotle laid stress on the qualities of the tragic character:
1. Goodness
2. Appropriateness
3. Likeness/ true of life
4. Consistency
Goodness:
 A character is assume good if his work and action reveal a good purpose behind
them.
 This is irrespective of class how to which he belong.
 Sympathy is necessary as it is the very basic of the whole tragic pleasure.
 The bad man does not arouse pity in us if he falls from happiness to misery.
Place of wicked persons in tragedy
Entirely wicked persons have no place of tragedy according to Aristotle but, by
implication, we can see that Aristotle allows the “bad” and “wicked” in tragedy if he is
indispensable to the plot and the action of the play as whole should be good one.
Hero is good but not perfect
Aristotle ask for a good man, not far a perfect man in Greek sense goodness involves any
virtues of courage ,temperance, magnificence, truthfulness, liberty etc.
According to Humphrey house:
“The term “good” and “goodness” is Greek meant something different from what it has
come to mean in terms of Christian ethics. The insistence on goodness is not colored with
the direct didacticism.
Place of women and slave in tragedy:
Aristotle held woman to be inferior (classified them then slaves) but even women, if
introduced in tragedy, should be a shown to have a good in them.
Appropriateness:
 The next and sensual quality for tragic hero is appropriateness it mean the
character should be true to their particular age, profession, class, sex or status.
 But they are individuals at the same time, for they are “men” in action as
represented in tragedy. In other sense the character should be appropriate in
historical and traditional portrait of him.
 So each character should be given the character of appropriate to his status and
situation.
  The character’s actions are words should be appropriate to what he is represented
to be as well as situation in which he is placed.
Likeness /true to life
 The character must be true to life.
 We can identify ourselves with the characters. If we don't see the character in
ourselves, the tragic emotions of pity and fear become irrelevant.
 Thus the tragic character has to be a normal person or of an intermediate sort only
then he will be conuincicing.
Consistency:
 The character must be consistent. This is valid point which can’t be disputed.
 The character must be seen as the whole consistent to what he is presented as from
beginning to end.
 There has to be probability and necessity in the character actions.
 If the character is to be shown as being an inconsistent one, he should be
consistently, inconsistent.
 The character should act and seem to think in a manner which we can logically
expect from that individual.

Question No# 7:

Tragedy constituent parts According to Aristotle?

Aristotle finds six constituent parts in tragedy:
1. Plot
2. Character
3. Thought
4. Diction
5. Song
6. Spectacle
1. Plot:
The plot or the arrangement of the incident is the chief part of tragedy. It is a soul part of
tragedy there can be tragedy without character or music or dance but not without plot.
 The structure of the plot:
A successful plot of the tragedy should have completeness, magnitude, unity and
determinate structure along with the universality.
 Completeness:
It should have a beginning, middle and end. Appropriate Sequencing of incidents giving
the feel of completeness.
 Magnitude:
Length of plot should be appropriate. It should be what the viewers can wind up in their
memory. It should not be too complex. Aristotle recommend not Complex plot that have
many incidents should revolve around one theme. Plot should be complex compact and
comprehensive. Unity:
Unity in the plot referred to Unity in action. Aristotle only talks to w unity of action by
which it means that the action must be organic and uniform.
 Determine structure:
The various events and incidents in the plot should be linked with the remarkable
coherence. The whole body of the play must be able to stand up as a units.
 Universality:
Whatever in shown in the tragedy should be closer to real life.
2. Characters:
Character second important component of tragedy. “Character” Aristotle says determines
men’s qualities but it is by the actions that they are happy or reverse. The tragic hero’s
actions being about reversal recognition and catharsis.
 Aristotle explain the qualities of character:

1. Good, renowned and prosperous.

2. Courageous and dear to everyone.
3. Closer to real life, true the life.
4. He should be a consistent person in the sense whatever qualities assigned to him
should be consistent from the beginning to end.
3. Thought:
Actions spring out from thoughts. It is third important component. Both action and
speech are the co-existing components of thought. Arousing of pity and fear is also the
product of thought.
4. Diction:
It is the material arrangement of words. It includes the verbal expression the subject
matter of the plot. According to Aristotle, it is embellished with each kind of artistic
ornament.
5. Song:
Aristotle calls the musical elements of the chorus as song on melody. Aristotle
strongly insists that chorus should be the integral part of play. It takes important role
in contributing to the unity of plot.
6. Spectacles:
It constitutes the manner in which tragedy is presented by the public. Beauty of
spectacles arose when the play is brought out with the artistic value. So it is a
byproduct of good play.
Conclusion:
Aristotle’s conception of tragedy is based on a Greek tragedy that he view lend
themselves to the remarkable universalization .Yet at any role Aristotle theory of
tragedy is the foundation for literary discussion. His views on tragedy are the history
of the tragedy.