Aristotle and the Nature of Tragedy

The Greek tragedies mark some of the best literature to survive from ancient Greek culture. The
foremost critic of Greek tragedy is the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle defined tragedy as "an
imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished
with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the
form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing fear and pity effecting the proper purgation of
these emotions (the Poetics qtd. in Weitz 155; Roberts and Jacobs 937).
For Aristotle, the tragedy should be a form of mimesis, or imitation, of an action; that is, the story
should mimic reality. What Aristotle appears to mean is that the play should present a unity of action
through a series of representative events ranging from happiness to misery that are a consequence of
the main character's own nature and habit of thought. These actions create the plot of the story (Weitz
155).

Electra and Orestes

from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church the characters in these plays were typically
members of the ruling class so that the consequences of their actions extended beyond themselves to
the society of which they were a part. In this way, the play evoked the emotion of fear in the audience,
as they recognized in the tragic figure their own humanity and the danger of their own fall (Kirszner
and Mandell 1129). After all, if this great person could fall, how much more likely the average citizen?
This sense, then, of fear as "the misfortune of one like ourselves" (Weitz 155) called forth from the
audience a feeling of humility, as if each viewer were to think, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."
In addition to fear, a well written tragedy evoked in its viewers a sense of pity at the "unmerited
misfortune" befalling the tragic hero (Weitz 155). Rather than calling forth censure or criticism of the
main character, the viewer was expected to feel compassion. The purging of these emotions of fear
and pity, humility and compassion, result in catharsis, or a release from negative emotions as the
audience empathizes with the hero.
The tragic hero falls as a consequence of hamartia, some weakness of character or excess of virtue.
Frequently, this tragic flaw is a consequence of the hero's own hubris or excessive pride (Kirszner and
Mandell 1130).
Irony, where reality is different than it is portrayed, often plays a role in the development of a tragedy.
Sometimes the audience is aware of things about which the character is oblivious (dramatic irony).
Sometimes the character suffers at the hands of fate or the gods, where all attempts to escape one's fate
inevitably result in its fulfillment (cosmic irony) (Kirszner and Mandell 1130). Irony often supports
the feelings of fear and pity the audience feels, as they recognize the limits of their own knowledge
and control of their lives.
(Following, under Works Cited, is a list of credits for the source materials documented on this page.
Students do not need to read these credits. They are provided for documentation purposes only.)
Works Cited
Church, Alfred. Electra_Orestes.jpg. Image. Stories from the Greek Tragedians New York: Dodd,
Mead, 1879. Produced by David Kline, Josephine Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team. Project Gutenberg 7 Mar. 2017 Web.
[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14994/14994-h/14994-h.htm]
Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 4th ed. Fort
Worth: Harcourt, 2001. Print.
Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 3rd
compact ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2006. Print.
Weitz, Morris. "Tragedy." The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Vol. 8. Ed. Paul Edwards. New York:
Macmillan, 1972. Print.