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Topic:
Tragedy
Essay Instructions:
- needs to include extensive ten references
- The references should be to materials we have discussed in the class throughout the term
Things covered in class are: Books Hamlet, Macbeth Movies: Natural born killers, deal alive, twilight the (first one), black swan, Amadeus and the night of living dead
Additional source: Poetic: Aristotle
Tragedy –action: that is serious, must represent the action not the story.
- Complete and of a certain magnitude
- Artistic
- Form of action not narrative
- Arousing pity and fear
- Accomplish KATHARISIS(cleaning or purifying) of emotion
- Must include 6parts: plot, characters, diction, thoughts, spectacles and melody
- Mimesis(basic theoretical principle in the creation of art): intimation of action(though in the sense of “re-presentation” rather than of “copying”)
- Superior to history
1. Plot is the most important component of tragedy
– The plot should follow the three unities:
– Unity of Action – it should be complete and show cause and effect;
– Unity of Time – it should take place in real time – i.e. the period of one day
– Unity of Space – it should take place in the same amount of space that can be travelled during the course of the play
2. Character
– Should support plot
– Characters should be elevated above reality, but still believable
– Peripeteia – set of self desctructive actions taken in ignorance
– Anagnorisis – the gaining of knowledge from experiences
– Hamartia – tragic flaw connected to the world
3. Thought
– The collection of items that make up the play should involve an important message or theme that is imparted to the audience
– Diction
– The way that the play is written should make use of stylistic techniques, the chief of which is metaphor
4. Song (melody)
– The choral sections should be fully integrated into the story so as to create a more musical whole
5. Spectacle
– The final – and least important – component are the special stage effects used to help tell the story
***** According to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation: that which really exists (in the “world of ideas”) is a type created by God; the concrete things man perceives in his existence are shadowy representations of this ideal type. Therefore, the painter, the tragedian, and the musician are imitators of an imitation, twice removed from the truth. ****
***** According to Aristotle, the reason that we do Tragedy is to achieve katharsis – a cleansing or cleaning*****
**** Aristotle believes that the experiencing of these stories will help to make us better people, by helping us with our decision making
Essay Sample Content Preview:
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On Tragedy
Contrary to popular belief, tragedy is not a literary or an artistic genre. Indeed, this prevalent misconception is a product of a practical and lexical misuse of the term, wherein the adjective ‘tragic` for instance denotes something of a sad event. Due to this linguistic aberration, it not quite rare to hear something about TV melodramas as being ‘tragic` to evaluate their emotional impact, especially if their outcomes are unpleasant, sorrowful or depressing.
Aristotle, however, classified tragedy as an artistic form or theme. In his seminal work Poetics, he ventured to do one of the first serious analysis of the classical Greek tragedy (Aeschylus, Sophocles, among others) to illustrate its essential aesthetic concepts and theorize a general outline of the tragedy, emerging of course from the earlier Platonian concept of mimesis.
Hence, in light of Aristotle`s theory of the tragedy, this paper will try to demonstrate how elements of the tragic form operate within the different types of narratives. Moreover, it will also illustrate how these elements continue to emerge in different forms of art even from the earliest literary works up to the most popular contemporary form of film.
Plot: the soul of tragedy
In contrast to other literary forms, tragedy regards the plot as it most vital element. In modernist literature, for instance, the stream of consciousness technique gives primacy to the internal thoughts of the protagonists, its capacity to spill over and distort the supposedly stable narrative structure, making it an exercise on alienated subjectivity and character development (Carlson 1993).. However, in tragedy, mimesis functions as an aesthetic tool to represent the very worldliness of everyday life, and hence targets not the unreliable ‘sensual` perceptions of characters to their circumstances, because it may commit another lie, making the work an illusion to the extreme degree. Rather, the tragedy according to Aristotle:
:
…is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.
While tragic works also employ extensive character development, the action remains situated to the conflict beyond the rational faculties of the tragic hero. These entities that are beyond the power of the hero, however, are not of mystical and unexplainable nature: these are completely rational, expected but nonetheless tense and shocking, and comply with a single tragic master plan that the tragic hero cannot bypass and therefore must be full-facedly endured.
Tragedies are rationally consistent; a tragedy must come full circle, and through its course from the beginning until the climactic end, it must present a believable totality. Hence, it must subscribe to what we may call the three unities, (a) the unity of action, (b) unity of time, and (c) unity of space. Together, these three basic laws contain the whole plot into an enormous vessel of reality, governed by unbreakable laws which human nature must absolutely comply.
For instance, one of the William Shakespeare`s tragedies Macbeth, was structured to be having the plot centered on a classic prophetic device. Like Sophocles` Oedipus in Oedipus Rex, Macbeth is fully aware of a prophecy concerning his future as a noble. Furthermore, like Oedipus, Macbeth`s tragic fate is indeed a fatal misinterpretation of the Three Witches` prophecy (otherwise, it can be argued that Macbeth`s flow is not because of ‘misinterpretation` or flaw, but the stubborn and consistent avoidance of the realness of the prophecy). The plot was constructed by Macbeth`s obsession with power and the blinding corruption of guilt, leading us to the final moment of the tragic narrative, the fulfillment of the prophecy, completing the overarching action and concluding the conflict once and for all.
The tragic hero
The tragedy, being a form which rests on its consistency, also requires fully consistent characters which take on their particular stable roles. Nonetheless, the tragic hero need not be perfect, for it will be inconsistent to the conflict he was subjected to. Aristotle, however, points out that even if the tragic hero is a ‘consistent inconsistency`, his final stand as a moral being must remain at the center point. The tragedian, then, "in representing men who are irascible or indolent, or have other defects of character, should preserve the type and yet ennoble it."
In this way, Aristotle argues that tragic characters, although essentially elevated above reality (as in the case the classic example Oedipus), must remain believable and recognizable. In this way, the tragic hero can be ‘owned` by the audience, and become the deserving sacrificial lamb that is necessary for the catharsis. In Black Swan, the protagonist is obviously a much respected figure, a fine dancer who remains in the hubris of her own insecurities. She commits a few flaws that led to her eventual breakdown, but nonetheless we can recognize ourselves in her dilemmas, and we remain baffled by her decisions. Yet, despite the irrationality of her decisions (her relationship to the senior instructor, for instance), we maintain a certain level of empathy for her, and finally our sympathy to her difficulties only make us question the validity (or otherwise) of our own conceptions of her and her decisions.
Aristotle summons three concepts which are integral to creating the tragic hero. First is peripeteia, a set of self-destructive actions taken out of ignorance or pure stubbornness. These actions actually give form to the character, making him/her human because of these defects, and also to the tragedy itself, as these actions in fact shape the whole narrative. For instance, Lionel in Dead Alive was projected as a victim of her unexplainably obsessive (crazy, in fact) affection for her monster/zombie mother. We are troubled and annoyed with his lack of heart to sever his connection to the maternal love of his mother, which led to the aggravation of his problems and the death of many innocent lives. However, as he continues to impose his decision to let his mother stay in the cellar, he was eventually led to a situation that forced him to dig up the wounds of the past and confront his insecurities and fears, the concept called anagorisis or the tragic ‘revelation` and ultimate submission to the will of the external force e.g. fate, the gods (In Dead Alive, this external force is not personified; the fortune-telling cards that the female protagonist`s mother uses in her prophesying, however, gives us a clue that this external force is fate or destiny, a thing which cannot be circumvented or avoided). In the dramatic final scene of the film, we witnessed how Lionel was ‘born again`, ready to confront his fears and accept the tragic demise of his mother, who in fact is not her mother, but a heavily-di...
Professor
Subject
Date
On Tragedy
Contrary to popular belief, tragedy is not a literary or an artistic genre. Indeed, this prevalent misconception is a product of a practical and lexical misuse of the term, wherein the adjective ‘tragic` for instance denotes something of a sad event. Due to this linguistic aberration, it not quite rare to hear something about TV melodramas as being ‘tragic` to evaluate their emotional impact, especially if their outcomes are unpleasant, sorrowful or depressing.
Aristotle, however, classified tragedy as an artistic form or theme. In his seminal work Poetics, he ventured to do one of the first serious analysis of the classical Greek tragedy (Aeschylus, Sophocles, among others) to illustrate its essential aesthetic concepts and theorize a general outline of the tragedy, emerging of course from the earlier Platonian concept of mimesis.
Hence, in light of Aristotle`s theory of the tragedy, this paper will try to demonstrate how elements of the tragic form operate within the different types of narratives. Moreover, it will also illustrate how these elements continue to emerge in different forms of art even from the earliest literary works up to the most popular contemporary form of film.
Plot: the soul of tragedy
In contrast to other literary forms, tragedy regards the plot as it most vital element. In modernist literature, for instance, the stream of consciousness technique gives primacy to the internal thoughts of the protagonists, its capacity to spill over and distort the supposedly stable narrative structure, making it an exercise on alienated subjectivity and character development (Carlson 1993).. However, in tragedy, mimesis functions as an aesthetic tool to represent the very worldliness of everyday life, and hence targets not the unreliable ‘sensual` perceptions of characters to their circumstances, because it may commit another lie, making the work an illusion to the extreme degree. Rather, the tragedy according to Aristotle:
:
…is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.
While tragic works also employ extensive character development, the action remains situated to the conflict beyond the rational faculties of the tragic hero. These entities that are beyond the power of the hero, however, are not of mystical and unexplainable nature: these are completely rational, expected but nonetheless tense and shocking, and comply with a single tragic master plan that the tragic hero cannot bypass and therefore must be full-facedly endured.
Tragedies are rationally consistent; a tragedy must come full circle, and through its course from the beginning until the climactic end, it must present a believable totality. Hence, it must subscribe to what we may call the three unities, (a) the unity of action, (b) unity of time, and (c) unity of space. Together, these three basic laws contain the whole plot into an enormous vessel of reality, governed by unbreakable laws which human nature must absolutely comply.
For instance, one of the William Shakespeare`s tragedies Macbeth, was structured to be having the plot centered on a classic prophetic device. Like Sophocles` Oedipus in Oedipus Rex, Macbeth is fully aware of a prophecy concerning his future as a noble. Furthermore, like Oedipus, Macbeth`s tragic fate is indeed a fatal misinterpretation of the Three Witches` prophecy (otherwise, it can be argued that Macbeth`s flow is not because of ‘misinterpretation` or flaw, but the stubborn and consistent avoidance of the realness of the prophecy). The plot was constructed by Macbeth`s obsession with power and the blinding corruption of guilt, leading us to the final moment of the tragic narrative, the fulfillment of the prophecy, completing the overarching action and concluding the conflict once and for all.
The tragic hero
The tragedy, being a form which rests on its consistency, also requires fully consistent characters which take on their particular stable roles. Nonetheless, the tragic hero need not be perfect, for it will be inconsistent to the conflict he was subjected to. Aristotle, however, points out that even if the tragic hero is a ‘consistent inconsistency`, his final stand as a moral being must remain at the center point. The tragedian, then, "in representing men who are irascible or indolent, or have other defects of character, should preserve the type and yet ennoble it."
In this way, Aristotle argues that tragic characters, although essentially elevated above reality (as in the case the classic example Oedipus), must remain believable and recognizable. In this way, the tragic hero can be ‘owned` by the audience, and become the deserving sacrificial lamb that is necessary for the catharsis. In Black Swan, the protagonist is obviously a much respected figure, a fine dancer who remains in the hubris of her own insecurities. She commits a few flaws that led to her eventual breakdown, but nonetheless we can recognize ourselves in her dilemmas, and we remain baffled by her decisions. Yet, despite the irrationality of her decisions (her relationship to the senior instructor, for instance), we maintain a certain level of empathy for her, and finally our sympathy to her difficulties only make us question the validity (or otherwise) of our own conceptions of her and her decisions.
Aristotle summons three concepts which are integral to creating the tragic hero. First is peripeteia, a set of self-destructive actions taken out of ignorance or pure stubbornness. These actions actually give form to the character, making him/her human because of these defects, and also to the tragedy itself, as these actions in fact shape the whole narrative. For instance, Lionel in Dead Alive was projected as a victim of her unexplainably obsessive (crazy, in fact) affection for her monster/zombie mother. We are troubled and annoyed with his lack of heart to sever his connection to the maternal love of his mother, which led to the aggravation of his problems and the death of many innocent lives. However, as he continues to impose his decision to let his mother stay in the cellar, he was eventually led to a situation that forced him to dig up the wounds of the past and confront his insecurities and fears, the concept called anagorisis or the tragic ‘revelation` and ultimate submission to the will of the external force e.g. fate, the gods (In Dead Alive, this external force is not personified; the fortune-telling cards that the female protagonist`s mother uses in her prophesying, however, gives us a clue that this external force is fate or destiny, a thing which cannot be circumvented or avoided). In the dramatic final scene of the film, we witnessed how Lionel was ‘born again`, ready to confront his fears and accept the tragic demise of his mother, who in fact is not her mother, but a heavily-di...
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