Theatre at Epidaurus

1
Theatre at Epidaurus
2
Aristotle
Aristotle was the younger of the three great
philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. All
three of these philosophers of life, science,
metaphysics and humanities had similar yet
different views. Each thought they were improving
on and cultivating the others ideologies into a
more refined and acceptable concept of how they
saw life, with Aristotle having the final word of
the three.
www.eleganza.com/busts-famous-people-gallery/6-02-
philosopher-aristotle-bp.html
3
Biography
The great trilogy of philosophy began with
Socrates. His pupil Plato further expanded the
realm of thought and at his death passed the
torch to his pupil, Aristotle. Aristotle was the
son of a physician. At the age of eighteen
Aristotle came to Athens from Macedonia to study
with Plato. Although he was an original thinker
who made great contributions of his own, he
remained a student in Plato's Academy for twenty
years. When Plato died, Aristotle may have felt
disappointment in not being chosen to head the
school which Plato had founded but at the time
Philip, King of Macedonia, invited him to become
the tutor of his son who came to known as
Alexander the Great. Aristotle later returned to
Athens where he founded his own school, The
Lyceum. Aristotle was not only an original and
deep thinker but an observer, an organizer, a
systematizer of knowledge. He laid the foundation
of all sciences and philosophies by defining and
classifying the various branches of knowledge
Psychology, Metaphysics, Politics, Rhetoric and
Logic.
www.eleganza.com/busts-famous-people-gallery/6-02-
philosopher-Aristotle-bp.html
4
Aristotle and Tragedy

• from
• The Poetics

5
Basic Vocabulary

• Anagnorisis The critical moment of recognition
  or discovering , preceding peripeteia
• AreteMagnanimous Pride, Courage, Spine of a
  fish, Ridge of a mountain, Ear of wheat
• Catastrophe Sudden disaster, Overturning, the
  event that switches the plot from ascending to
  descending action
• CatharsisDischarge or cleansing of pent up
  emotions
• Hamartia Tragic Flaw
• Hubris Excessive and selfish pride, arrogance
• Pathos Pity and Fear
• Peripeteia A sudden turn of events, reversal in
  action, sudden change, a falling
• For more definitions see http//maven.english.haw
  aii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/terms/sophocles.html
  
• Or http//faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/A-Robert.R.Lauer-
  1/ArisHorLong.html

6

The Famous Definition
7
The Parts of a Tragedy

• A Prologue
• Episodes
• An Exode

• Choral Portions
• The Parode ends the Prologue
• A Stasimon (choral ode) separates episodes
• A Commos ( a lamentation)
• paeans (prayers)

8
Six Elements of Tragedy

• Plot (or Fable)
• Characters
• Diction

• Thought
• Spectacle
• Melody

9
Plot is the most important element.
Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of
persons but of action and life, of happiness and
misery.
All human happiness or misery takes the form of
action the end for which we live is a certain
kind of activity not a quality
Character gives us qualities, but it is our
actions - what we do - that we are happy or the
reverse.
Aristotle, The Poetics
Important and clear excerpt http//www.vanderbilt
.edu/AnS/english/kupomse/poetics.html
10
The Perfect Plot

• must have a single and not a double issue

• the change in the heros fortunes must be not
  from misery to happiness, but happiness to
  misery
• and the cause of it the heros change must lie
  not in any depravity but in some great error on
  his part.

11
Tragedy is ... an imitation an
actionofincidents arousing pity and fear.
Pity and Fear Pathos
12
Ascending or Rising Action

• The Actions or Incidents of the plot become more
  suspenseful
• Empathy for the hero and his situation
  increases.
• Pathos and irony increase

13
(No Transcript)
14
The catastrophe creates the CLIMAX
15
Anagnorisis or Recognition Scene by the Tragic
Hero
Catastrophe scene of death or moral destruction
of the protagonist
Peripetieia or the change of fortune for the
Tragic Hero
16
Definition of Catastrophe It is a narrative that
excites pity or terror by a succession of
sorrowful events, miseries or misfortunes leading
to a catastrophe. The hero or protagonist will
have some sort of limitation but will be a person
of a high status. His suffering will not be
commensurate with his weakness or mistake
(hamartia) or pride (hubris). It is from this
that pity will arise, as he will suffer far too
much. The emotion of pity and fear experienced in
the catastrophe bring about catharsis or
purgation.  

• The plot may be either simple or complex,
  although complex is better. Simple plots have
  only a change of fortune (catastrophe). Complex
  plots have both reversal of intention
  (peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorisis)
  connected with the catastrophe. Both peripeteia
  and anagnorisis turn upon surprise. Aristotle
  explains that a peripeteia occurs when a
  character produces an effect opposite to that
  which he intended to produce, while an
  anagnorisis is a change from ignorance to
  knowledge, producing love or hate between the
  persons destined for good or bad fortune. He
  argues that the best plots combine these two as
  part of their cause-and-effect chain (i.e., the
  peripeteia leads directly to the anagnorisis)
  this in turns creates the catastrophe, leading to
  the final scene of suffering (context).
  Application to Oedipus the King.

17
The Climax is the high point of action and emotion
18
(No Transcript)
19
1st - The Hero makes a decision.

• We meet the hero/protagonist at his most
  successful he has power, wealth, respect, and
  love. He has worked hard for his success.

• The protagonist makes a decision, based on his
  hamartia, and thereby sets forces in motion. He
  does not realize he has set off a chain reaction
  of incidents which will culminate in a
  catastrophe.

20
                                                
                                
In his book Technique of the Drama (1863), The
German critic Gustav Freytag proposed a method of
analyzing plots derived from Aristotle's concept
of unity of action that came to be known as
Freytag's Triangle or Freytag's Pyramid. In the
illustration above, I have borrowed from both
critics to present a graphic that can be employed
to analyze the structure and unity of a
narrative's plot. Tools for Analyzing Prose
Fiction (Barbara F. McManus)
21
Three Forms of Plot to be avoided

• A good man must not be seen passing from
  happiness to misery
• A bad man from misery to happiness
• An extremely bad man be seen falling from
  happiness to misery.
• Aristotle, Poetics

22
Characters

• The Second Most Important Element of Tragedy

23
There remains, then, the intermediate kind
of personage, a man not pre-eminently virtuous
and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought
upon him not by vice and depravity but by some
error of judgment, of the number of those in the
enjoyment of great reputation and prosperity.

• In the Characters, there are four points to aim
  at
• good
• appropriate
• realistic
• consistent