Poetics Summary by Aristotle. - Englishveda

POETICS:

(European Classical Litreature)

-ARISTOTLE:

INTRODUCTION:

Poetics is a collection of lectures of Aristotle on the rules or treaties of poetry and drama. This book is a glimpse of critical thoughts of Aristotle. Poetics is a reply book to “The Republic” written by Plato. In Poetics Aristotle talks about myth, mimesis (imitation), different genres and catharsis. According to Aristotle plot is the soul of tragedy and character is important in tragedy. Dramatist must maintain three unities in the drama- 

1.      Unity for time

2.      Unity of place

3.      Unity for action

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ARISTOTLE:

Aristotle was born in 384 B.C.in a well to family. His father was doctor. When he was young, his father died. After the death of his father his uncle sent him to Athens (capital of Greece) to study at Plato’s academy. Further he became an associate of Plato. After the death of Plato he left for Amos to live with Herneias, the adopted father of his wife Pythias. He became tutor to Alexander, son of King Philip of Macedon, in 342 B.C. Aristotle was a great thinker, philosopher, researcher, writer and teacher. He composed Poetics in 335 B.C. he died in 322 B.C.   

  POETICS

   1. MIMESIS   

   2. DIFFERENT GENERS       

   2.1.  EPIC

   2.2. TRAGEDY

1.      Plot

2.      Character

3.      Thought

4.      Diction

5.      Music

6.      Spectacles

   2.3. COMEDY    

   3. CATHARSIS  (EMOTIONAL   SATISFACTION)

For better understanding let us divide Poetics into different chapters as follow-

1^st chapter- Different forms of poetry

  1. Sonnet

  2. Ode

  3.  Lyric

  4.  Elegy

  5.  Satire

2^nd chapter- Matter, manner and medium of poetry.

3^rd chapter- Poetry is art.

4^th chapter- Origin and development of poetry.

5^th chapter- History of comedy.

6^th chapter- What is tragedy?

7^th chapter- Tragedy analysis.

8^th chapter- Concept of myths.

9^th chapter- Difference between poetry and history.

10^th chapter- Principle of unity.

11^th chapter- Fables.

12^th chapter- Suffering and recognition.

13^th chapter- Fables construction.

14^th chapter- Tragic emotions.

15^th chapter- Analysis of tragic character.

Aristotle’s Principle of characterisation:

Character are the important for a play. According to Aristotle good character must posses these qualities which are as follow- 

  1. Goodness- The first good and important quality for a character is that they must be sincere in his performance. If the main protagonist is not possessing virtue, it is not worth watching or reading. Any speech or action must be supporting moral value. Lack of goodness in the character can’t give the feeling of sympathy which is the foundation of the tragedy. It is not important that all character in the play have to possess these quality but the protagonist must have these qualities.

  2. Propriety- Propriety is another important thing and must be maintain in a play. There is proper character for man and proper character for a women. A man should be adventurous, bold, heroic, strong and revengeful to the extend of murder. A women must be kind, loving, merciful and sacrificing. A dramatist must keep the sense of propriety in his character while painting a drama.

 3.  Consistency- There must be consistency in development of the character. The rise and fall in the action of character must be consistent. Therefore, the development of character in the performance must be logical, natural and according to the demand of the story.

  4. True to life- characterisation of the character in a drama must be resembling to be true to life. The character must possess human weakness and strength. They should not appear inhuman in their action.

Aristotle’s poetics:

He composed poetics in 335 B.C. In the opening three chapters of the poetics he gives brief introduction to poetics form. Poetry is a mimetic art and mimesis. Fourth chapter presents origin and development of poetry. Fifth chapter gives a brief history of comedy. From the sixth chapter Poetics main text begins and their tragedy is defined and analysed. The epic is compared with tragedy and in eighth chapter (8) there is an explanation of the concept of mythos. The ninth chapter (9) distinguished poetry and history.

A classification of fables appears next, followed by an account of peripeteia, suffering and recognition. Then the thirteen chapter shows the construction of fables. The next chapter (14^th) is about examination of tragic emotions, and 15^th chapter is an analysis of the tragic character. In the 16^th chapter various forms of discovery are taken up. In the next two chapters 17^th and 18^th offers a few practical rules. The nineteen examines thought and diction and the next chapter twentieth chapter is linguistic (language) definition. The two chapter 21^st and 22^nd chapter covers poetic diction and style and in 23^rd and 24^th chapter nature in the epic. In the last 25^th chapter epic and tragedy are compared.