Analysis of The Poetics - Chapter 8

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Aristotle gives his views on the unity of the plot. He says that although tragedy is the story of a single person but it does not mean that the play should present all the incidents which occurred in the life of that person. The reason is that the various things which befell on a person may not have any unity. It could also be that the various deeds done by the person are not all similar to each other. Poets of the past used to present each and every thing which happened in the life of the main character of the tragedy. They thought that since the main character is a single person, hence his story must possess a unity. However they were not right. Homer who excelled all the other poets in everything seems to know the true meaning of unity either by art or instinct. In his Odyssey, he did not include everything which happened to Odysseus. Thus the wounding of Odysseus on Mount Parnassus and his feigned madness at the time of war preparations were excluded by Homer because they did not have any probable connections between them. Thus it is clear that only such incidents and actions should be included in a tragedy which have any probable relationship with the other incidents. If any incident does not add to the growth of the plot then it must be excluded from the play. If the presence or absence of any particular incident does not effect the play than it is certain that the incident is insignificant.

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