Aristotle: On Tragic Character (384-322 BC)
Structure should be complex, not simple
Representation of terrible and piteous events
Good men should not pass from happiness to misfortune (inspires neither pity nor fear, only revulsion)
Evil men should not pass from ill fortune to prosperity (most untragic plot of all – neither evokes sympathy nor stirs pity
or fear)
A wicked man should also not fall from prosperity into misfortune (would evoke sympathy)
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Wouldn’t evoke pity (only felt for someone whose misfortune is undeserved)
Wouldn’t inspire fear (only felt for someone relatable, like ourselves)
Left with the person who is between these extremes:
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Not preeminent in virtue and justice
But does not fall into misfortune through vice or depravity, but because of some mistake
Someone from a prosperous family (like Oedipus)
Plot will be single in outcome, will consist of a change in fortune from prosperity to misfortune
Evolution of tragedy: poets initially accepted whatever myths came to hand, but at the time of Aristotle, the finest
tragedies were founded on the stories of a few (prominent) houses
So stop ripping on Euripides because his plays have unhappy endings, because that’s tragedy, folks. Even if everything
else he does is crap, he is the most tragic of all the poets.
The Odyssey is not a tragedy and shouldn’t be viewed as one since the main characters do not die and those who were
thought to be enemies leave the stage as friends
4 things to aim at in tragic character:
1. They have to be good (in terms of moral choices)
a. Can be any class and still be good (even though women are inferior and slaves are base)
2. They have to be appropriate (a woman shouldn’t be overly masculine and vice versa)
3. They have to be life-like (which is different from good and appropriate)
4. They have to be consistent (even if the person being portrayed is supposed to be inconsistent – he should be
consistently inconsistent)
The plot should be probable and the characters should say and act however is necessary and probable (consistent with
their characters)
The denouement should arise from the plot itself and not from the machine (deus ex machina)
The machine is reserved for consequences of an action that a human can’t know or in the case of prophecies, etc. But
nothing unreasonable or unrealistic should occur within the created framework of the play.
Follow the practice of portrait-painters who make their subjects realistic, but slightly better looking than they are. A
playwright should depict flaws and virtues at the same time.