Peripeteia
.Peripeteia is a reversal of circumstances, or turning point. The term is primarily used
with reference to works of literature. Peripeteia is a sudden change in a story which results in
a negative reversal of circumstances. It is also known as the turning point of ,the place in which
the tragic protagonist’s fortune changes from good to bad. This literary device is meant to
surprise the audience, but is also meant to follow as a result of a character’s previous actions or
mistakes.
In other words, Peripeteia is the turning point in a drama after which the plot moves steadily to
its denouement. It is discussed by Aristotle in the poetics as the shift of the tragic protagonist’s
fortune from good to bad which is essential to the plot of a tragedy.
Aristotle, in his Poetics, defines peripeteia as "a change by which the action veers round
to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity." According
to Aristotle, peripeteia, along with discovery, is the most effective when it comes
to drama, particularly in a tragedy. He wrote that "The finest form of Discovery is one
attended by Peripeteia, like that which goes with the Discovery in Oedipus...".[1]
Aristotle says that peripeteia is the most powerful part of a plot in a tragedy along with
discovery. A peripety is the change of the kind described from one state of things within
the play to its opposite, and that too in the way we are saying, in the probable or
necessary sequence of events. There is often no element like Peripeteia; it can bring
forth or result in terror, mercy, or in comedies it can bring a smile or it can bring forth
tears (Rizo).
This is the best way to spark and maintain attention throughout the various form and
genres of drama "Tragedy imitates good actions and, thereby, measures and depicts
the well-being of its protagonist. But in his formal definition, as well as throughout the
Poetics, Aristotle emphasizes that" ... Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete
action, but also of events inspiring fear or pity" (1452a 1); in fact, at one
point Aristotle isolates the imitation of "actions that excite pity and fear" as "the
distinctive mark of tragic imitation" (1452b 30).
Pity and fear are effected through reversal and recognition; and these "most powerful
elements of emotional interest in Tragedy-Peripeteia or Reversal of the Situation, and
recognition scenes-are parts of the plot (1450a 32). has the shift of the tragic
protagonist's fortune from good to bad, which is essential to the plot of a tragedy. It is
often an ironic twist. Good uses of Peripeteia are those that especially are parts of a
complex plot, so that they are defined by their changes of fortune being accompanied
by reversal, recognition, or both" (Smithson).
Peripeteia includes changes of character, but also more external changes. A character
who becomes rich and famous from poverty and obscurity has undergone peripeteia,
even if his character remains the same.
When a character learns something he had been previously ignorant of, this is normally
distinguished from peripeteia as anagnorisis or discovery, a distinction derived from
Aristotle's work.
Aristotle considered anagnorisis, leading to peripeteia, the mark of a superior tragedy.
Two such plays are Oedipus Rex, where the oracle's information that Oedipus had
killed his father and married his mother brought about his mother's death and his own
blindness and exile, and Iphigenia in Tauris, where Iphigenia realizes that the strangers
she is to sacrifice are her brother and his friend, resulting in all three of them escaping
Tauris. These plots he considered complex and superior to simple plots without
anagnorisis or peripeteia, such as when Medea resolves to kill her children, knowing
they are her children, and does so. Aristotle identified Oedipus Rex as the principal
work demonstrating peripety. (See Aristotle's Poetics.)
The importance of using Peripeteia
According to Aristotle, peripeteia is the single most important and powerful
element of plot in a tragedy. Peripeteia is meant to cause fear and pity in the
audience upon witnessing the tragic twist of fate which abruptly ruins the life of
the protagonist. Peripeteia provides plays, poems, novels, movies, and
television shows with a dark moment when the plot twists and the protagonist’s
life changes forever. Whether the change is from wealth to poverty, safety to
danger, or good to evil, peripeteia leaves the audience feeling dismayed, sad,
and shocked. As such, peripeteia is the most necessary and striking element of
the tragic plot.
Examples of Peripeteia in Literature
Peripeteia provides literature with a shocking and abrupt point in the plot which
changes the entire course of the story.
Oedipus was raised by different parents, for his parents feared the prophecy
that he would kill his father and marry his mother. As an adult, Oedipus is told
by an oracle that the plague on his people will end when the murderer of Laius
is caught an exiled. Oedipus visits a prophet Tiresias who tells him he is the
murderer. Believing he is innocent, Oedipus is angered. His wife, trying to calm
him down, tells him of Laius’s murder. Oedipus, upon hearing the story,
suspects he may have been the murderer. A messenger arrives to tell Oedipus
his father Polybus has died. Oedipus rejoices that he has not murdered his
father, but still fears he may marry his mother. The messenger, hoping to ease
his fears, tells him Polybus and his wife were not his real parents. Rather than
easing his fears, the messenger reveals the dark truth to Oedipus: he has
fulfilled the prophecy.
