Poetry
This week’s reading was surprisingly enjoyable for me. Aristotle begins by comparing the differences between epics, comedies and tragedies. He explains how comedies are focused on characters that are less than average and epics are multiple stories tied together while tragedies are about one story with a unified plot. Aristotle focused his article on what makes a good tragedy. He states that a good tragedy must have plot, characters, thought, diction, melody and spectacle. The most important, in Aristotle’s opinion, is the plot. He claims that a plot must have a beginning, middle, and end with some sort of unity. Without a beginning the story wouldn’t make any sense and there wouldn’t be a purpose. Without a middle the conflicts could never escalate and the conclusion would seem unsatisfactory in the end. Obviously without a conclusion the plot would be pointless and there would be no reason for even having the drama. He also states that the character must arouse fear and pity within us. To make us feel pity the character must bring suffering upon them self. The suffering must be caused by the decisions the character has made. We experience fear when we can relate to the character and see ourselves falling into the same traps and making the same mistakes. By experiencing these emotions the Greeks believed that it would empty you of hatred which is an interesting thought. It’s extremely difficult to be angry at someone when you feel sorry for someone else who has suffered through a great deal more. Also if you can relate to the character through fear you will be less likely to make the same tragic mistakes in our own life.
What I thought was really interesting, though, was the section where Aristotle compared the differences between historians and poets. Historians will simply try to tell the story the way it happened and add nothing else. They’re limited to what events actually took place in history. While historians tell it how it happened poets are allowed to tell history how it could have occurred. More often than not these stories are much more interesting. Poets can use their creativity to create new events and different situations that could have taken place. Another thing I found interesting was how “spectacle” was the last thing on Aristotle’s list of what makes a good tragedy. If you look movies today you will find that spectacle is the main focus of almost any film. You would think most people would choose an inspiring movie with a meaningful plot over a pointless movie with billions of dollars worth of special effects including explosions and fighting scenes but even as I say this the second seems to pull me in first. Why does our society seem to put such an importance on visual elements and what does that say about us? Anyways these are my thoughts for this week’s reading.