We Sehapter 3 A BRIEF SUMMARY OF ARISTOTLE'S ‘POETICS’ the Poctica by defining poctey 2s Mimesis or ‘tation. Imitation, in fact, is the common principle of all, arts. The ation mower, differs. Some arts imitate by means of colour and shape; while some imitate by means of voice. Dancing, for ample, has the medium of rhythm; choral lyric has the medium of rhythm, melody and language; music has the medium of rhythm Tid melody; and poetry has the medium ‘of rhythm and language. alysis of the term ‘imitation.’ Aristotle opens ii ever gives an explicit ani He a een the ferm from Plato, who believes that art is the copy of the copy, an illusion of the jilusion, twice removed from fruth. Tn other words, it is a copy at a lower level of reality. That is why Plato has codemned art. Aristotle’s conception of imitation is why Pctive to Plato. Art does not imitate the sensible world, but the world of man’s mind. Art is not mere imitation. It is some- thing more. Jt isa re-creation. for it embodies the ‘universal truth. Theeain lies the superiority, of poetry to history “Poetry is somes thing more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.”” Poetry, according to Aristotle, is imitation of men in action. These men may be above or below the average run of pople. They may be even as they are. ‘The poetic géneres are determined by the types of men. In Tragedy men are better than they are, while in Comedy men are worse than they are. Aristotle remains silent about men as they are. In a Tragedy the characters are good, but if they fare almost deified they cannot rouse our sympathy. Similarly ina Comedy, the men are worse than they are. This does not mean that the charecters have any moral depravity. They are worse than common men not as regards any and every sort of fault, but only as regards one particular kind, the ridiculous which is a species of the ugly. Aristotle divides poetry into the narrative and the dramatic. ‘The narrative poetry is known as the Epic, while dramatic poetry is Tragedy or Comedy Poetry, Aristotle believes, owes its origin to the primitive instincts to imitate. There is another instinct—the instinct for rhythm and melody —the instinct to derive pleasure in imitationsEE | &8&8& *» Poetics | 7 A Brief Summary of Aristotle's Poetics | made by others. Wh: a rhe ssl 7 lenever th the imitation 0! g imganatle there was the birth of Tragedy and Epic; when the poets Satire. © ignoble and the mean, they produced Come ya Tracing the origi " 7 rigin of Tragedy and Comedy Aristotle says | aera Out of dithyrambs and Phallic songs respectively. Dithy- or Bac vere the Greek choric hymns, sung in honour of Dionysus the acchus. “Phallic’ is derived from Phallus, which is an image of Sites wp generative Organ, symbolising the generative power in in ancien cally that carried in procession in the Dionysian festivals Epic poetry and Tra; , imilariti gedy have been contrasted by Aristotle. phe Similarities between ‘an Epic and a Tragedy are that both are aad ipo ate imitations of serious subjects in a grand style; May mete the poets try to idealize the characters. The differences nay also be noted. The Epic is in narrative form, written in one single kind of verse or metre. Tragedy, on the other hand, is written Te aghumber of metres. An Epic does not observe the unity of time. may cover many days. Tragedy, on the otherhand, observes the unity of time and endeavours to keep within a single circuit of the sun, i. e. one day. Unity of time, Aristotle believes, leads to the unity of action. Aristotle discusses Tragedy at greater length. He define Tragedy as the “imitation of an action that is good and also complete in itself and of some magnitude; in language with pleasut- able accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arous- ing pity and fear wherewith to accomplish its purgation ofsuch emo- tions.” Tragedy is an imitation of an action; the language will have pleasant accessories, which means language, rhythm and tune. The action of the Tragedy should be complete. It must have a beginning middle and end. If there is an abrupt beginning, it will not be intelli- gible to the readers or the audience. The end must also be emotion- ally and intellectually satisfying. Let not the audience ask after the performance of the play is over, “What happens then ?” The length of the play must also te appropriate—neither too short nor too long. If a work of art is too small, we cannot size it up; is too large, the same difficulty will arise. For in that case the unity and wholeness of it willbe lost sight of. Aristotle as the father of classical criticism insists on order and frugality or economy of art. The end of a Tragedy according to Aristotle, is catharsis or Purgation or emotional relief. The direct object of Tragedy is to arouse pity and fear—the pity of the audience is for the hero, while the fear is for themselves, for they may be the victims of a similar fate or misfortune. If our pity and fear are roused, Plato fears that we Will be too impulsive and become Weak and effeminate. Aristotle does not see eye to eye with his master. For he believes, that the| 8/ The Poetics supreme end of a Tragedy is not to make us emotional, but to bring about mental serenity after the purgation of emctions. A Tragedy, according to Aristotle, has six parts of elements. They are Plot, Character, Thought, Diction or Language, Melody or Music and’ Spectacle. Plot, Aristotle insists, is the soul of the Tragedy. The plot must be a complete whole, i- . it must have a beginning. middle and end. It should also have logical coherence. The playwright should be careful about the choice of plot, for the subject has to be elevating. The poet’s function is to describe not what has actually happened, but what may happen. Poetry naturally becomes more philosophical than history. The plot of a Tragedy, therefore, should deal with ideal or universal truths- Plots are gencrally divided into two types—simple and com- plex. A simple plot is one without peripeteia and anagnorisis. Peripeteia means the change of fortune; and anagnorisis means dis- covery, recognition or revelation. A complex plot is one having peripe-eia or anagnorisis both. In Oedipus by Sophocles, for example, the messenger came to cheer Oedipus and relieve him ot his misgivings about his mother. But the result was just the reverse. Oedipus discovered the truth about himself. Here both peripeteia and anagnorisis are involved. The third element in a plot, beside peripcteia and anagnorisis, is tragic suffering, 1. e murder or persecution displayed on the stage. Aristotle is in favour of avoiding three types of plot. A good map must not be seen passing from happiness to misery, or a bad jman from misery to happiness. [f a good man is seen passing from happiness to misery, it will be neither piteous nor awe-inspring; it gull be rather shocking. If a bad man is seen passing from misery to happiness, it will be morally revolting, It will have no appeal whatever to our feelings. A bad man should not be seen falling from happiness into misery. For it may be morally satisfying, but nevertheles: it will not move us to pity or fear. ‘As regards the characters in a Tragedy, Aristotle likes the playwrights to-aim at four things. First, the characters should be pood. Secondly, the portrayal should be appropriate. If a charac- ter isto be represented heroic, he must possess manly qualities. Tf, on the other hand, manly qualities are attributed to a woman, it will be a. mere travesty of truth. Thirdly, the characters should be life-like, i. e., true to type and equally true to human nature. And lastly, the characters should have consistency. This is with regard to the characters in general. The ideal tragic hero should be neither too good nor too bad. He should be the intermediate kind of personage, one not pre-eminently virtuous and just whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or morgal depravity, but by hamartia, i.e. an error of judgment. Aristotle then proceeds to discuss the different types of disco- very in a Tragedy. The first is the discovery by means of siggs orA Brief Summary of Aristotle's Poetics | 9 tokens. These sign i + one Tis Signs may be congenital, for example, birth marks; like telage 7 ‘uequired, for cxample, the scars or external objects lace. The nurse could indentify Ulysses through his scar. Ore. ate feu ‘spe of discovery is the self revelation of a person. Tanurie, Te ganp le reveals: himself to his sister in Iphigenia in asaneisitoas i nein is the discovery through the effect of oe ans: the, Tale of Alcinvus, for example, Ulysses weeps Kind isthe insite 's harp reawakens the past for him. The fourth for example Aone a8 the result of reasoning, In the Choephori, ae aa ie 48 a statement, “Someone who is like me has bese gne is ike me except Orestes; therefore it is Orestes who has come.” The fiscovery is almost syllogistic. The fifth kind of iscovery arises from the fallacious reasoning. In Odysseus the False The pengers for example, the speaker said that “he would know ie bow, which he had not scen. It is palpably absurd that a person should recognise a thing hither to unknown. The last kind, which is at the same time the best kind of discovery is that which is brought about by the incidents themselves. It is the natural and logical culmination of the situation. Aristotle has laid down certain rules for the tragic poct. The Poet must visualise the scenes, as he himself is one of the dramatis personage. He should also carry out the appropriate gestures as he writes the play. In other words, the poet himself should pass through the emotional involvements of the characters. A man who is agi- tated or angry can reproduce similar passions in a play. Hence poetry is produced by one who must. have sufficient responsiveness or one who is possessed. The poet is not to be bound by any rules as regards the choice of stories. He may have something ready made or he may even invent the stories. And in either case he must have a general outline of the story to be amplified into a series of episodes. After this, the poet has to supply the proper names and fill in the details. must have its complication and its denoue- ment. Complication means that part of the story from the beg- inning to the stage immediately before the significant change to good or bad fortune. And by denouement is meant the part from this change to the end of the Tragedy. It is like weaving a then tnravelling it. The deepening of the plot is ‘complication’, and the unravelling of complication is ‘denouement’. ‘A master artist is one who knows both the techniques thoroughly ‘ell. Aristotle now proceeds to classify Tragedies along different lines. There are four types of Tragedy—Complex Tragedy, Tragedy of Character, Tragedy of Suffering and Spectacular Tragedy. Complex Tragedy depends exclusively on peripeteia and anagnorsis, Tragedy of Suffering deals with the suffering of the hero as in the plays of Ajax; Tragedy of Character emphasises Every Tragedy texture aniON 10 / The Poetics . ectacul the moral character of the hero; ade Spectacular Tragedy offers excellent spectacles, a5 #9 the i i yout ‘Thought’ in his work oq - Al said much about 2 y on Rhett ae fore in the Poetics he is rather laconic, About Language or Diction his views are quite Claborate, Aristotle defines a letter, a vowel, 2 somivowcl, © Syllable, a connecting-word, an article, a noun, 2 Ver ee eth het phrase. He also dwells at length on metaphors tt he pro. ceeds to_ analyse the characteristics of a good st bade ig Steatest Virtue of style is to be lucid without, being commonpare of mean, The language abounding in unfamiliar usages has some dignity, fot it is lofty. There are two extremes—meanness and extrava. | gance, both of which are to be avoided. The best language must — be that lying in the middle between these two extremes. Aristotle | thinks metapohrs to be merely an ornament, which, therefore, should be used sparingly. | Aristotle’s discussion of Epic poetry is rather fragmentary. | This is partly because much of what he has written on Tragedy — applies to Epic also. An Epic must not be like history, which is | actually jumbled up events. Like a Tragedy an Epic should also deal with a single event. The action should be single, whole and | complete, having a beginning, middle and an end. In respect of the unity of action, Homer’s Epic stands unrivalled. Epic poetry \ ikea Tragedy can be divided into two groups—simple and | complex. The simple Epic turns on the moral character of the | hero while the complex Epic turns on suffering and passion. | Heroic hexameter is the right metre for an Epic. An Epic pot | should speak as little as possible in his own person. Inother | words, he should be impersonal. Homer is refreshingly impersonal, ) and hence his superiority over other Epic poets. In an Epic the element of the marvellous should be introduced. Probable imposs- ibilities ore to be preferred to improbable possibilities. Aristotle then proceeds to give a synoptic survey of his theory | of criticism. He says that the poet should aim at the representa- | tion of life: and there are ways of representation—either as they are, or as they are said to be or seem to be, or as they ought {0 be. Improbabilities in poetry can be justified as long as the art attaing its trusend. The appeal may he \ Here it may not be the truth, but” also be made to tradition. a it i | Melo be impcbiice my "o be fed che that they idealise the reality. Th t though not actually true. ey may ‘also be poetically true, In the last section of the Poets : : tive merits of Epic and Tragedy. “Epis oe ee better form of art in as much as it free from the vulgarity rel” the ae ee eeanswer it can, however, be said that in Tragedy be is the fault of the actors. aes Spat ee ee s the better form of art. It has all the elements c Moreover. it has music and spectacle, to which Epic can lay ae claims. The effect of Tragedy is as vivid .when it is read or acs - Tt is more compact and concentrated. It has also more ae ry. than an Epic. From this the conclusion is irresistible that Tragedy is the better form of art.