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Tragedy, according to Five Feet Apart

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Tragedy, according to Five Feet Apart

In my personal opinion, the Five Feet Apart movies fall under the Aristotle rules of

tragedy. This is a romantic film released in 2019 with a storyline following the 17 years old girl

named Stella spending most of her teenage life in the hospital due to Cystic Fibrosis (CF). The

life of Stella gets scripted with limitations and self-control from the time she wakes up until

when she goes to bed. Stella falls in love with Will that is also suffering from the same CF

condition. The disease becomes a challenge to their love because such patients are supposed to

stay six feet apart. They are forced to stay apart, and they cannot find anything about this; they

are forced into two different provoking cages. The movie shows teenagers how other people

suffer due to uncommon diseases, with a message that they should always have hope no matter

what. The movie is treasurable, and it has a lot of reality and true emotions that aim at the heart

of the spectators.

Stella Grants normally wants to be in control even though her severe lung condition

keeping her in and out of the hospital most of the time. During this time, Stella is supposed to be

in control to avoid anything that may put her at risk of contracting an infection or trigger the

chances of having a heart transplant; she strictly observes the six feet apart without compromise

(Lippincott et al., 2019). Will struggles to control his leaving the hospital, and he does not care

much about his treatment or an improved clinical drug trial.

Very soon, Will shall be eighteen years, and he will be free from all the machines; he

will have the chance of seeing the world again and not just the hospitals. In case he breathes a

lot, Stella could end up losing him on the spot and put her on the transplant list; either of them

could end up collapsing. The only way the two can stay awake is by staying apart. With time, the
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six feet was no longer a safety measure for the two, and they felt like this was a punishment; they

continued to fall in love with one another.

Aristotle holds that tragedy normally arouses emotions of pity and fear and affects the

katharsis of emotions. Aristotle divided the tragedy into six distinct parts with a rank from the

most important ones to the least important ones. This includes mythos, character, thought,

diction, melody, and spectacle.

A good tragedy should first maintain the unity of the plot, meaning that the plot has to

move from the start to the end according to an important sequence of events. The start doesn't

have to follow any preceding events, and the end has combined all the loose ends and does not

lead to any impacts. This movie imparts that the main characters cannot form any deep social

connections because of their conditions.

The CF condition has the limited will and Stella, and they may attract other infections if

they get close to one another. The situation worsened when the male protagonists tried to change

the situation, and the conditions become worse to situations where they cannot be managed,

which keeps a state of life and death. The tragedy of this disease kept them to the state where

they started, which tied up the loose ends of the film's plot. Aristotle holds that the plot has been

improved through the use of an intelligent reversal.

According to Aristotle, the plot should have a hero who is advancing from happiness to

misery. The hero should be presented consistently, and this should be a good light with the poet

remaining true to what the audience knows about the character of the story. The misery in the

story has to as a result of some aspects of errors of the character. Normally, tragic plots should
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always comprise some aspects of tragic deeds that can be completed or kept pending, and they

can be approached with consent or ignorance.

The hero in this movie is Will, and he sacrifices his love for Stella by letting her out of

her life. He creates a large space between them to allow Stella to survive. Even though the movie

is advancing from hope to optimism, it is very hard for one to escape from the strong emotions

that have are being presented. Each scene in the movie connects directly to the heart with bad

luck, and many scenarios of misery and pain have also been presented. For example, Poe, the

best friend to Stella, dies, which greatly traumatizes her; it is the most astonishing part of this

movie. The two have been very close friends, but they never had the chance of getting close to

one another. This is due to the six feet rule that forces them to be apart.

Aristotle has discussed thought and diction and then advances to the epic of poetry. The

epic of poetry resembles tragedy in many different ways, but this is normally longer, more

fantastic, and deals with a wider scope of actions. Thus, according to him, tragedy is more

advanced than the epic of poetry (Kelly, 1993).

Along with the entire movie, it is clear that treatment does not work for the Will and

might end up dying early. He should have recognized this possibility earlier, and he does not

want Stella to be around him when such a moment occurs. This is a tragic deed that has been

implied and approached with total confidence by the protagonist character. The movie does not

have a happy ending and represents an actual tragedy that human beings go through in the entire

universe. The main lesson in the movie is that people can get hope and ambition in difficult

situations and never lose hope.

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References

Kelly, H. A. (1993). Ideas and forms of tragedy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages (No. 18).

Cambridge University Press.

Lippincott, R., Chivot-Buhler, M., Daughtry, M., & Iaconis, T. (2019). Five feet apart. Albin

Michel.