Lakhasly

Aristotle now narrows his focus to examine tragedyexclusively.

Aristotle now narrows his focus to examine tragedyexclusively. In order to do so, he provides a definition oftragedy that we can break up into seven partsf/(1) it involvesmimesis; (2) it is serious; (3) the action is complete and withmagnitude ; ( 4 ) it is made up of language with thepleasurable accessories" of rhythm and harmony; (5) these"pleasurable accessories" are not used uniformly throughout,but are introduced in separate parts of the work, so that, for instance, some bits are spoken in verse and other bits are sung ; ( 6 ) it is performed rather than narrated ; and ( 7 ) it arouses the emotions of pity and fear and accomplishes a katharsis (purification or purgation) of these emotions. Next, Aristotle asserts that any tragedy can be divided into six component parts, and that every tragedy is made into these six parts with nothing else besides. There is (a) the spectacle, which is the overall visual appearance of the stage and the actors. The means of imitation (language, rhythm and harmony) can be divided into (b) melody, and (cdiction, which has to do with the composition of the verses The agents of the action can be understood in terms of (d) character and (e) thought. Thought seems to denote the intellectual qualities of an agent while character seems to denote the moral qualities of an agent. Finally, there is ( f)the plot, or mythos, which is the combination of incidents and actions in the story
Aristotle argues that, among these six, the plot the
is the most important. The characters serve to advance the action of the story, not vice versa. The ends we pursue in life, our happiness and our misery, all take the form of action. That is, according to Aristotle, happiness consists in certain kind a of activity rather than in a certain quality of character.
Diction and thought are also less significant than plot: a series of well-written speeches have nothing like the force of a well-structured tragedy. Further, Aristotle, the most powerful elements in tragedy, the
Peripeteia and the anagnorisis, are elements of the plot. Lastly, Aristotle notes that forming solid plot is far more difficult than creating good characters or diction. Having asserted that the plot is the most important of the six parts of tragedy, he ranks the remainder as follows, .frorn , most important to least: character, thought, diction, melody, 'and spectacle. Character reveals the individual motivations of the characters in the play; what they want or don't want,
and how they react to certain situations, and this is more important to Aristotle than thought, which deals on a more universal level with reasoning and general truths. Melody and spectacle are simply pleasurable accessories, but melody , is more important to the tragedy than spectacle: a pretty spectacle can be arranged without a play, and usually matters of set and costume aren't the occupation of the poet anyway.