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Six Parts of Tragedy

 To_Evulate my assignment click here
Name: - Charmi Vyas
Roll No: -52
Study: - M.A Sem-1
Year: - 2017-2019
Topic: - Six part of tragedy
Sub: - Literary theory & criticism
Submitted to: - Pro.Dilip Barad
                           Department of English
Uni: - Bhavnagar University

Six part of tragedy

                                                            Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Introduction:-
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira. His father Nicomachus died when Aristotle was a child. Whereafter proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian at seventeen or eighteen years of age he joined Plato’s academy.
His writing cover many subjects like physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, politics, and government.
Aristotle's theory of tragedy is completely based on induction. The ample examples or citations that Aristotle uses in his text from the tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides, make the idea clear that his theory of this literary genre comes from his extensive reading of their tragedies, and the ideas are mere generalizations of the commonalities in their tragedies.
       Thus, it is interesting to see a theory that followed the genre for which it is actually theorized. But in modern times this theory has lost its importance with the development of different sorts of tragic plots ending with a catastrophe. Now its significance is limited to the level of differentiating Aristotelian mode of tragedy from non-Aristotelian mode.
Definition of Tragedy:-
Aristotle’s famous definition of tragedy says “ A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also has having magnitude complete in itself in language with pleasurable accessories each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work in a dramatic not in narrative form with incidence arousing pity and fear where with to accomplish its catharisis of such a emotion.”
The definition clearly falls into two parts. The first part tell us about the nature of tragedy it is object, manner and medium of imitation. The second part is points out the function of tragedy. The aim of tragedy, Aristotle writes, is to bring about a "catharsis" of the spectators to arouse in them sensations of pity and fear, and to purge them of these emotions so that they leave the theater feeling cleansed and uplifted, with a heightened understanding of the ways of gods and men. This catharsis is brought about by witnessing some disastrous and moving change in the fortunes of the drama's protagonist
Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of action and life, of happiness and misery. And life consists of action, and its end is a mode of activity, not a quality. Now character determines men's qualities, but it is their action that makes them happy or wretched. The purpose of action in the tragedy, therefore, is not the representation of character: character comes in as contributing to the action. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of the tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all. Without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be one without character  The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy: character holds the second place. 
Aristotle asserts that any tragedy can be divided into six parts and that every tragedy is made up of these six parts.
·      The Plot
·      The Thought
·      The Diction
·      The Character
·      The Spectacle
·      The Melody
1.  The plot:-
Aristotle argues that, Among these six parts the plot is the most important the characters serve to advance the action of the story not vice versa the ands we pursue in life our happiness and our misery, all take the form of action. That is according to Aristotle
The Plot is most important part of tragedy the plot means ‘The Arrangement of the Incidents’. Normally the plot is divided into five acts and each act is further divided into several scenes. The unity of a plot dose not consist as some suppose, in it is having one man as its subject. An infinity of thing befall that one man some of which it is impossible to reduce to unity and in like manner there are many action of one man which cannot be mad to from one action the truth is that just as in the other imitative arts one imitation is always of one thing.
Aristotle is arguing that a plot is not unified simply because it concerns a single person since many unrelated or trivial actions will obscure the development of the drama.      
2.  The Thought
Thought means what characters think or feel during their career in the development of the plot. The thought is expressed through their speeches and dialogues
Concerning thought, we assume what is said in the rhetoric to which inquiry the subject more strictly belongs. Under thought is included every effect which has to be produced by speech.  The feelings such as pity, anger, fear, and like, the suggestion of importance or its opposite.
Thought comprises both the rational processes through which characters come to decisions as represented in the drama, as well as the values put forward in form of maxims and proverbs. 
3.  The Diction
Aristotle says diction should be clear in conveying meaning and use language from day to day life but should also have unusual language to emphasize certain important sections because that is what the audience remembers the most. Diction can also be used to stir emotion and empathy in the audience for the character plights in a tragedy.
Diction has alredy been defined as the metrical composition of the play, the way language is used to convey the representation.
diction (lexis) Lexis is better translated according to some as "speech" or "language." Otherwise, the relevant necessary condition stemming from logos in the definition (language) has no followup:  plot could be done by dancers or pantomime artists, given Chs 1, 2 and 4, if the actions are structured (on stage, as drama was usually done) just like plot for us can be given in film or in a story ballet with no words.
4.  The character
Character is second in important after plot, tragedies depict characters as they relate to the action which is the main object of representation. Characters represent their moral qualities throught the speeches assigned to them by the dramatist    
Aristotle says that characters being ‘like the reality’. It is clear that his sense of character has more to do with dramatic types accurately portrayed than with what we think of us densely imagined individuals.       
5.  The Spectacle
Aristotle lists spectacle last in order of importance, pointing out that the power of tragedy is not fully dependent upon its performance (we can read a tragedy and still appreciate its message), and that the art of the spectacle really belongs to the set designer and not to the poet.
Spectacle includes all aspects of the tragedy that contribute to its sensory effect: - costumes, scenery, the gestures of the actors, the sound of the music and the resonance of the actors voice. Aristotle ranks spectacle last in importance among the other components of tragedy remarking that or tragedy does not need to be performed to have its impact on the audience, as it can be read as a text.
6.  The Melody
Music is described as an embellishment of language. The lines assigned to the chorus in a tragedy are usually conveyed in melody accompanied by rhythmical movement.
Melody and spectacle are simply pleasurable accessories but melody is more important to the tragedy than spectacle a:- a pretty spectacle can be arranged without a play and usually matters of set and costume are not the occupation of the poet anyway.
melody (melos) "Melos" can also mean music-dance as some musicologists recognize, especially given that its primary meaning in ancient Greek is limb (an arm or a leg). This is arguably more sensible because then Aristotle is conveying what the chorus actually did
·      Conclusion
This theory of tragedy later developed through Castlevetro to neo-classical theorists like Cornellie in 16th and 17th centuries. But where Aristotle is descriptive in his own right, the neoclassical theorists developed it as a rule of tragedy with an addition of two other elements to make up three unities of drama assimilating Aristotle's emphasis upon the unity of action.

Aristotle concludes by tackling the question of whether the epic or tragic form is higher. Most critics of his time argued that tragedy was for an inferior audience that required the gesture of performers, while epic poetry was for a 'cultivated audience' which could filter a narrative form through their own imaginations. In reply, Aristotle notes that epic recitation can be marred by overdone gesticulation in the same way as a tragedy moreover, tragedy, like poetry, can produce its effect without action - its power is in the mere reading. Aristotle argues that tragedy is, in fact, superior to epic, because it has all the epic elements as well as spectacle and music to provide an indulgent pleasure for the audience. Tragedy, then, despite the arguments of other critics, is the higher art for Aristotle.

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