Aristotle comes to a consideration of the nature and function of tragedy.

He defines tragedy as:

“the imitation of an action, serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude, in a language

beautified in different parts with different kinds of embellishment, through actions and not
narration, and through scenes of pity and fear bringing about the ‘Catharsis’ of these emotions.”
Aristotle lists six formative or constituent parts of Tragedy; Plot, character, diction, thought,
spectacle and song. Two of these parts relate to the medium of imitation, one to the manner of
imitation, and three to the object of imitation. Song is to be found in the Choric parts of a
tragedy. The Spectacle has more to do with stagecraft than with the writing of poetry.

'Thought' is the power of saying what can be said, or what is suitable to the occasion. It is the
language which gives us the thoughts and feeling of various characters. The language of Tragedy
must be unusually expressive. The Language of Tragedy ‘must be clear, and it must not be mean’.
It must be grand and elevated with familiar and current words. ‘Rare’ and ‘unfamiliar’ words
must be set in wisely to impart elevation.

Aristotle stresses four essential qualities for characterization. First, the characters must be good,
but not perfect. Secondly, they must be appropriate. They must have the traits of the profession
or class to which they belong. Thirdly, they must have likeness. By likeness he means that the
characters must be life-like. Fourthly, they must have consistency in development. There should
be no sudden and strange change in character.

Aristotle lays down that an ideal tragic hero should not be perfectly good or utterly bad. He is a
man of ordinary weakness and virtues, like us, leaning more to the side of good than of evil,
occupying a position of eminence, and falling into ruin from that eminence, not because of any
deliberate sin, but because of some error of judgment of his part, bringing about a Catharsis of
the emotion of pity and fear.

The plot should arouse the emotions of pity and fear which is the function of tragedy. A tragic
plot must avoid showing (a) a perfectly good man passing from happiness to misery (b) a bad
man rising from misery to happiness (c) an extremely bad man falling from happiness to misery.
Comparing the epic and the Tragedy, he writes:

“Tragedy tries, as far as possible, to live within a single revolution of the sun, or only slightly to
exceed it, whereas the epic observes no limits in its time of action.”