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Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Poetics, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Tragedy vs. Epic Poetry
Imitation
Fear, Pity, and Catharsis
Component Parts and Balance
Summary
Analysis
7.1 First Introduction. Next, Aristotle will discuss what poets should do and avoid when constructing plot, and he will also discuss the effect of tragedy.
As Aristotle does not claim to discuss tragic plots specifically, as he did with the effect (catharsis) that this type of plot has on an audience, the reader can assume that his critique of plot is applicable to both tragedy and epic poetry.
Themes
7.2 First Deduction. The best tragedy is complex, not simple, and it imitates events that provoke fear and pity in the audience. This process is called catharsis, and it is a distinct feature of tragedy. A tragedy should not depict overly moral characters with a change in fortune from good to bad, because this does not produce fear or pity—it produces “disgust.” Similarly, immoral characters should not undergo a change from bad fortune to good. Such a change is not tragic, and it does not produce fear or pity.
For Aristotle, a tragedy must elicit feelings of fear and pity to be considered a tragedy, and he again alludes here to the balance needed in poetry. A good character left with bad fortune is upsetting to audiences, and a bad character left with good fortune doesn’t induce feelings of fear and pity at all. Thus, a poet must find balance between a character that is too good or too bad.
Themes
The best tragedy finds balance between good and evil character. A character shouldn’t be too moral, but the change a character undergoes should be due to an error, not immorality. A good plot does not involve a change from bad fortune to good, but from good to bad, and the best tragedies follow this structure. This is why, Aristotle says, people are wrong to criticize Euripides for writing tragedies that always end in bad fortune.
The second best structure of a tragedy is the “double structure,” like Homer’s Odyssey, which ends with Odysseus’s triumph and the deaths of wicked characters. However, Aristotle points out, this structure does not produce the pleasure that should come from tragedy (that is, fear and pity). This structure is more like comedy, Aristotle argues, in which enemies resolve their differences (even bitter enemies like Orestes and Aegisthus make up) and no one is killed.
Themes
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7.3 Second Introduction. It is possible for fear and pity (which create catharsis) to result from either spectacle or the events of a plot. It is preferable for catharsis to come from plot, and better poets observe this general rule. The plot of a tragedy should be constructed in such a way as to bring about catharsis by mere mention of the events, as it does to those who are told the plot of Oedipus Rex. Producing catharsis via spectacle is “less artistic,” Aristotle argues, and doing so relies on production. Poets should not seek every emotion from tragedy, but only those emotions associated with it—fear and pity—and they should do so through plot.
7.4 Second Deduction. Next, Aristotle considers those events which appear “terrible or pitiable.” Tragedy is generally concerned with interactions among people who are closely connected, who are enemies, or who are neutral to one another. If enemies act on enemies, there is no pity, just as there is no pity if neutrals act on neutrals. The most pitiable events are those that occur between characters who are closely connected, such as brother killing brother, or son killing mother or father, and so on.
Themes
Such a “pitiable action” can come about with a character acting in full knowledge, such as Euripides’s portrayal of Medea killing her children. However, pitiable actions can also be performed in ignorance, as in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. Pitiable actions can also be imitated by characters who almost perform a terrible act before being stopped by some recognition. These three possibilities are all there is, as a terrible and pitiable act is either performed or not, and that act is either performed in ignorance or in awareness.
Themes
A character who is on the verge of knowingly performing a “terrible and pitiable” act but then stops is the worst kind of plot. Such a plot is not tragic, and there is no suffering; thus, it is rarely used, except for Creon in Antigone. How the pitiable action is performed is less important, but it is better if the action is performed unknowingly and followed by recognition. There is no “disgust” to be found in an act committed in ignorance, Aristotle argues, and it has a strong “emotional impact.” The best plots, Aristotle claims, are those like Merope’s actions in Cresphontes: she nearly kills her son without knowing who he is, but she stops when she recognizes him.
Themes
