Analysis of The Poetics - Chapter 15

Aristotle mentions about the four important characteristics of a tragic character. The first characteristic is that the tragic character must be good. The character will be good if the purpose is good. There is a class of goodness present in all the different divisions. For instance, a woman and a slave can be good even though the former is inferior while the latter is insignificant. The second characteristic is that the character must be appropriate. He should present the class of men or women to which it belongs. A person may have countless features but those features must be attributed to him which are appropriate for him. Thus a woman should not be presented with manly features. The third characteristic of a tragic character is that he should be true to life. This means that he should not be artificial but a living man of flesh and blood. The fourth characteristic is that a tragic character must be a man of consistent personality. The features presented in the character in the starting of a play should be retained by the character till the end of the play. If the basic quality of a character is inconsistency then he should remain consistently inconsistent. A few examples of inconsistency in character are as follows. Menelaus who is a character in the Orestes behaves in an inappropriate manner. Similar inconsistency is in the lament of Odysseus in Scylla, and in the speech of Melanippe. An inconsistent character appears at ‘Iphigenia’ at ‘Aulis’ where the suppliant Iphigenia is not like her later self.
Just like incidents and plots which are depicted in a tragedy should be probable and meaningful. Similarly the characters which are used by the poet must also be probable and meaningful. This means that it should be clear as to why a particular person was presented in a particular tragedy. Even the speeches spoken by these characters should be genuine and must help in the development of the tragedy.
The unravelling of a fable should be from the fable (plot) itself and not from Deux ‘ex Machina’. Deux ‘ex Machina’ refers to an unexpected event which saves a hopeless situation. If a poet wants to use Deux ‘ex Machina’ to serve his purpose than he must use it outside the drama proper. The audience must be made to realize that the event took place either before the start of the drama or it will take place after the end of the drama. Thus, only those events should be given the room in the dramatic portion which are important, probable and meaningful.
Since tragedy is an imitation of men better than those in the actual life, it should be imitated in the manner portrait-painters imitate it. The painters while painting the portrait of a person imitate each and every small detail of him. They portray him exactly like the real person and still are able to add extra charm to that person. Hence the portrait of a person becomes more beautiful than the real one. Similarly the poet while depicting the qualities of a particular character must preserve his distinguishing qualities and at the same time should enoble him as Homer and Agathon did with Achilles.