Analysis of The Poetics - Chapter 17

-
The best method of avoiding inconsistency in a fable according to Aristotle is to analyse it from the viewpoint of a spectator. The poet should make the play run in his mind. An example of such a situation can be traced in Carcinus. Amphiaraus was made to come out of the temple and this would not have been noticed if it were not actually seen. But the spectators were offended by this oversight and the play became a failure. The poet must act his story with appropriate gestures. He should express such emotions which are actually visible on the faces of the characters. For instance, the emotion of anger will be best expressed by one who himself is angry.
Whether the story is being imitated or made himself by the poet. The poet must first set it out in general terms then form episodes and then lengthen it. What Aristotle means by ‘setting it out in general terms’ may be illustrated from Iphigenia. A young girl was chosen to be a victim of sacrifice. She disappeared mysteriously from the site of sacrifice. She was taken to a country where it was customary that strangers will be offered to the Goddess. She became the priestess of this custom over there. Then her brother came over there. He was sent by Oracle but this was outside the plan. The brother was caught and he was ordered to be sacrificed. Then it was Oracle who said that it was not only his sister but the two were doomed to be sacrificed and this saves him.
After the proper names are attached to the plot, the poet should compile episodes. These should be in a systematic manner such as the fit of madness of Orestes and his release by the rite of katharsis. The episodes of a drama are short but they lengthen the play. For example the story of Odyssey is not long. A man is absent from his home for many years. He is alone and is jealously watched by Poseidon. His wealth is being wasted by the suitors of his wife and there is plotting to kill his son. Finally through the tempest, the man returns. He reveals his identity and attacks his enemies. Thus this is the main story of the Odyssey and the rest are episodes. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of The Poetics - Chapter 24

-
Aristotle continues to give important points related to epic poetry. He says that just like tragedy, epic is also of various kinds such as simple, complex, that which depend upon character, and that which depends upon suffering. Other then this, the epic and tragedy are similar in the sense that both have the same constituent elements except for song and spectacle. There is also reversal, recognition, and suffering in the epic. The thought and diction of the tragedy must also be good. Homer had excelled in these two in his ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’. The ‘Iliad’ is a story of suffering and is simple in structure while the ‘Odyssey’ is complex in structure because it has scenes of recognition and is based on character. The epic differs form a tragedy in length and meter . The proper length of a literary genre should be such that it’s beginning and end could be viewed as a complete whole. The poets of the present should try to compose poems which are limited in size. The epic, according t...
Read more

Analysis of The Poetics - Chapter 26

-
Aristotle in the final chapter of The Poetics has compared the epic form of poetry and tragedy. He analyses which is the greater between the two. If the greater form of art is that which is the less vulgar one and if the greater form of art pleases the specific kind of audience then the art which appeals to every one is the vulgar one. And in fact, the performers tend to bring various unnecessary movements on the stage as if they would not be identified if they do not perform such actions. Bad flute players twist and twirl, if they have to represent ‘the quoit-throw’, or hustle the Corpyhaeus when they perform the ‘Scylla’. Tragedy is said to have the same defects. It could be compared to what the older actors said of the later ones; for, Myniscus used to call Callipides, ‘the ape’, because he over acted. The same view was presented for Pindarus. Thus tragedy is related to the epic art just as the later actors are related to the older ones. Thus the epic poetry is the higher form of p...
Read more

Analysis of The Poetics - Chapter 20

-
Language viewed as a whole consists of the following parts - letter, syllable, connecting word, noun, verb, inflection or case and phrase or sentence. A letter is an indivisible sound but not any sound without intelligence. It is true that animals also utter indivisible sound but that sound cannot be called letter. These indivisible sound can be vowel, semi vowel or mute. A vowel has an audible sound which does not need the contact of the two organs of speech to be produced. A semi vowel such as s or r has an audible which needs this contact. The audible sound produced by a semi vowel is because of this contact. A mute even with the aid of this contact is not able to produce an audible sound, it needs to be combined with letters that possess some sort of sound such as g and d. The letters have different types of sounds depending upon the shape of the mouth while they are spoken and also on the places from where they originate, as aspirated or not aspirated, as short or long, as acute,...
Read more