Some Afterthoughts on Monday Night's Discussion

Left: Aristotle (384 B.C. to 322 B.C.), computer generated graphic by Kolja Mendler.

Kudos to the twelve participants in Monday night's discussion of Aristotle's "On Tragedy," a selection from his "Poetics."

We talked about Aristotle's prescription for tragedy: it must contain (a) a peripety, or turning point, (b) a discovery, or revelation, and (c) "suffering." He also says tragedy must elicit fear and pity in the audience.

Aristotle's tragic hero is what he calls an "intermediate type," i.e., neither a very good person nor a very bad one, and the hero's change in fortune "must be due not to any depravity, but to some grave mistake on the part of a man ..."

In looking back at Sophocles's Oedipus the King (the subject of our Aug. 2010 meeting), we talked about how the play fits the bill for an Aristotelian tragedy. When I asked the group what was Oedipus's "grave error", the response was his slaying of his father Laius in an ancient act of "road rage."

Further questions: What if Oedipus had never discovered that he had killed his birth father and married his birth mother? Does the tragedy lie solely in finding out that he has commited parricide and engaged in incest? Or does it lie in the actions that ensue (Joscasta killing herself, Oedipus poking his eyes out and fleeing Thebes)?

If he had never found out, would his ignorance be at the expense of Thebes, which would still suffer pestilence because of Oedipus's actions years earlier? Oedipus must take the hit so that his city can heal itself.

Questions on "On Tragedy," by Aristotle

Interpretive Questions

Aristotle says (p.227) the six elements of tragedy are (a) Spectacle, (b) Melody, (c) Diction, (d) Character, (e) Thought, and (f) Plot. He then says that of these, the most important is plot. Why?

"Peripety" is defined by Aristotle as the change from one state of things to its opposite. "Discovery" is defined as moving from ignorance to knowledge. The third part of tragedy, he says, is "Suffering" (p. 234). Does knowledge help to lessen suffering?

He says the aim of tragedy should be to arouse "pity and fear," and that the plot must be "not simple but complex" in order to arouse pity and fear. Do you agree with these stated aims of tragedy? What about the mechanism to achieve it?

According to Aristotle, these "incidents arousing pity and fear provide an outlet for such emotions." The Greek word for "outlet" is "catharsis." What does a "catharsis" feel like?

Do you agree with what Aristotle says in the section on "Delineation of Character" (p. 238) to the effect that all characters in a tragedy should be good?

In the section on "the Proper Length of a Tragic Play," Aristotle discusses the importance of magnitude of a plot. A tragic play must not only have a beginning, middle, and end, it must also have the proper magnitude, which he defines as "sufficient if the period allows the hero to pass by a series of probable or necessary stages from happiness to misfortune, or vice versa (p. 231)." How do you know when the proper magnitude has been achieved?

On p. 235 it is stated that a character's tragic fate must be the result not of any moral failing ("depravity") but of an "error of judgement." Can a depraved person have a tragic end? If there's no error in judgement but only an accidental circumstance, can there still be a tragedy?

Does Sophocles Oedipus Rex (cf. volume 1, Fifth Series, Great Books Reading and Discussion Program) fit Aristotle's criteria for a well-wrought tragedy?

Evaluative Questions

Why do we enjoy tragedy? Is it because we take solace in viewing the misfortunes of others? A voyeuristic thrill? Or to cultivate, as Unamuno put it, philosophical tragic sense of life? Why do we need art to do this, isn't there enough tragedy in real life?

What is this text for? To make tragedians better at what they do? To make us appreciate tragedy as an art form better? To show us how tragedy works?

Is there still a market for tragedy in America? If so, is it tragedy of a different nature than it was in Aristotle's time? Can you give examples?

For Textual Analysis

pages 227 to 228, from the beginning of the selection to "... admit of Spectacle, Melody, Diction, Character, Thought, and Plot."

pages 231 to 232, beginning, "It is clear from what has been said ... " to "...and they are a delight none the less to all."

pages 235 to 236 beginning "After what has been said above ..." to "... no one is slain by anyone."