Aristotle Poetics

Dramatic ElementsDramatic Unities

Let there be LIGHT

Six Elements

PlotCharactersThought, motivationVerbal expression, script Song composition music/choralVisual adornment set/costume

Plot Plot-a tragedy cannot exist without a plot;

can exist without characters The basic principle, the “heart and soul”,

the structure of the events

CharactersCharacters defined by context; actionImitates the persons primarily for the sake of

the action; clearly reveals the bent of man’s moral choice

Thought

Motivation of characters; the ability to state the issues and appropriate points pertaining to a given topic; the passages in which they (characters) try to prove something is or is not so, or state some general principle.

verbal expression

How do we get rid of the man?

What do you mean?A Script:

conveyance of thought through language

Song composition

music/choral

the greatest of the sensuous attractions (through language)

visual adornment

Sets/costume

which has strong emotional effect (least connected with the poetic art)

PLOTS

Simple Plots: continuous without reversal Complex plots: reversal-recognition: a shift from ignorance to awareness -“peripety” what is being undertaken to the opposite Peripeteia- a reversal of fortune, for better or for worse, for the protagonist. Used to describe a character’s fall in Greek tragedy. 

Aristotle’s Dramatic Unities

There are two dramatic unities outlined in PoeticsScholars later interpreted Aristotle’s ideas and as rules and added the third.....

Unity of Time- Aristotle noted that a play’s action usually

occurs in one day (or a little more)

Unity of Action- Aristotle argued that the plot should reveal

clearly ordered actions and incidents moving towards the plot’s resolution

Unity of Place-

A play’s action should occur in a single locale.