Worksheet: Aristotle's Poetics

Thinking Activity

Worksheet: Aristotle's Poetics

Q. How far do you agree with Plato’s objection to freedom of expression and artistic liberty enjoyed by creative writers? 

Ø  According to Plato, Poetry (literature in general) leads to arousal of emotions which are inappropriate, harmful and also, sometimes, ethically wrong. He attacks poetry on the following grounds.  I agree to an extent with Plato’s this objection to freedom of expression and artistic liberty enjoyed by creative writers.

Ø  Emotional Grounds-

As sometimes a creative writer busies himself so deeply in conveying his perceptions that s/he hardly thinks of the readers. As for example, Rowling’s novels are full of fantasies and magical world that readers sometimes forget their reality (real world) and they like more to dwell on these kinds of miraculous worlds. This way a reader experiences a deep involvement in fantasy or is prone to live in a dream world and hence suffers from a ‘fantasy-prone personality’ trait.

 Plato believes,

“Poetry feeds emotions and desires when they ought to be starved, and makes them control us when we ought, in the interests of our own welfare and happiness, to control them.”

This way Poetry gives encouragement to unworthy emotions and as a result of such poetry, it is not the good but pleasure and pain that rules one’s emotional state. For instance, when a fictional work is published/ produced in the form of a series of books/ movies, the reader/spectator generally suffers to the experience of what is going to happen in protagonist’s career further.

Additionally, some of the dystopian artworks seem so moving that rarely our mind is left capable to answer the questions which the work had created. The original series in Netflix “Leila” based on Prayaag Akbar’s dystopian novel of the same name is a complete surprise, where the importance of “being” is given utmost importance rather than “becoming”. We are made aware of the uncomfortable truths, the concept of authoritarianism and communal hatred. It is deeply dark and deeply moving that it raises some rare and robust questions which seem hard to answer. This type of work should not be objected but rather appreciated as it transforms our normal emotions of pity and fear resulting in a perfect cathartic effect. 

Ø  Ethical Grounds-

As far as morality is concerned, it can probably be considered that Plato’s objection against art on ethical grounds were noteworthy as he believes that poetry of inferior value i.e. the tales of treachery and lust corrupts the minds of young readers/spectators.

For instance, crime films like ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Kabir Singh’ and ‘Black Friday’ is detrimental to the morals of the public. It encourages lawlessness as it appeals to the baser instincts of men.

Ø  Intellectual Grounds-

On the intellectual side, according to Plato, poets have no knowledge of truth and hence they imitate illusions rather than reality.

For instance, books like ‘The Secret’ and ‘the power of Subconscious mind’ contains raw truth or illusionary thinking patterns. This world of senses is reflection or shadow of the ideal world and fails to convey reality.

In this way, Plato was a poet-philosopher and an idealist. His approach to literature was generally colored by moralistic and utilitarian bias. But Aristotle is objective; he believes that poetry represents reality in a very useful way. Poetry leads beyond the specio-temporal barriers by presenting universality. In a nutshell, Aristotle created the study of Aesthetics to liberalize art so that creative writers can enjoy the freedom of expression on condition that they are open to criticism.

v  Name the texts (novels, plays, poems, movies, TV soaps, etc. which can be rightfully objected and banned with reference to Plato’s objections)

As some of the commercial advertisements are exaggerations of the actual products, they should be rightfully objected as for instance ads of various fairness creams like ‘only those people who use this product possessed real talents so rest shall also start to use that product.’ The real nonsense act is presented to fool the audiences.

Another example, in which the advertisement is of a sanitary napkin that a girl topped in board exams and the credit is given to sanitary napkin instead of that girl’s hard work and determined attitude.

Some advertisements fail to convey any logic. They go against the concept of Plato who says that the poet or artist should exercise his genius only on things really worthy of depiction. For instance, the advertisement of Fogg perfume where forcefully without any the rational idea it is conveyed “Aaj Kal Fogg chal Raha hai” and that too in the very scene of the border of two countries and the other in the hospital.

Another one, “Kya aapke toothpaste mein Namak hai?” 

Q. With reference to the literary texts you have studied during B.A. programme, write a brief note on the texts which followed Aristotelian literary tradition.

Arthur Miller’s “All my sons” is one of the texts which, in some ways, follow a tradition of the Aristotelian Tragedy as the tragic hero of the play; Joe Keller undergoes every major characteristic that a tragic hero of Aristotle faces.

Joe Keller fits in the frames of Aristotle’s concept a tragic hero- he is true to life, is consistent in his thoughts and actions, and is neither an outright saint nor a wicked criminal but a representative of normal human beings.

Though it is considered as a modern tragedy Joe Keller, like Aristotelian hero suffers from-

Hubris- He has an excessive ambition that leads to his downfall, causing his death by committing suicide.

Hamartia- He makes a terrible error of dispatching the faulty parts in his limited views for his business and his family. This way Joe suffers not as a result of any wise but as a consequence of his error in judgment.

Catharsis- an essential function of tragedy is arousing pity and fear in a way to accomplish Catharsis of emotions. In ‘All my Sons’, pity for characters is felt through the hardships of Larry Keller and the future of family members after Joe’s suicide.

In short, the play can be, in some reference, called a model similar to Aristotelian tragedy but it cannot be an Aristotelian tragedy.

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare

Another illustration is ‘Othello’- a tragedy of an ideal situation where a rather good man meets a terrible end. The hero is a moor with a higher rank, and speaks acts and does in a very probable way which gives the necessary outcome of his character.

 A Tragic Hero with Hamartia- Othello is a man of action; his tragic flaw is extreme jealousy. It is this jealousy that leads to his catastrophic downfall. The villainous deeds of Iago and his constant poisoning of Othello’s ears with monstrous jealousy serve as a medium for murdering his own wife.

Catharsis- Othello’s cruel act of murdering Desdemona arouses pity and fear in reader/spectator’s and causes catharsis in such a way that a group of emotions is disturbed.

Q.  With reference to the literary texts you have studied during B.A. programme, write brief note on the texts which did NOT follow Aristotelian literary tradition. (i.e. his concept of tragedy, catharsis, tragic hero with hamartia, etc.)

The text which did not follow the Aristotelian literary tradition is ‘The Hairy Ape’ as it does not have a hero of a higher rank; the tragedy is of a layman who suffers from a sense of belonging in the modern world.

According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must suffer because of an error of judgment and this fatal flaw leads to his downfall which causes catharsis.

The play ‘The Hairy Ape’ presents an antihero- Yank, an ideal stoker. He does not have any tragic flaw but he faces conflict with his surroundings and his insult by a wealthy lady Mildred Douglas turns Yank avenge upon her. He feels alienated and an outsider, especially when he is compared with an ape and he is called a ‘hairy ape’. He is constantly reminded that he ‘does not belong’. The subtitle ‘A comedy of Ancient and Modern World’ is a satirical title by Eugene O’Neill which fails to arouse pity and fear and thus catharsis is not as effective as the Aristotelian Tragedy. So it can be considered that “The Hairy Ape” does not follow Aristotelian literary tradition. 

Q. Have you studied any tragedies during B.A. programme? Who was/were the tragic protagonist/s in those tragedies? What was their ‘hamartia’?

Yes I have studied four tragedies during B.A.

Tragedies	Tragic Protagonists	Hamartia
All My Sons	Joe Keller	Shipping of faulty parts
Tughlaq	Muhammad bin Tughlaq	Idealistic vision of Tughlaq
Othello	Othello	Extremeness of jealousy, Blind trust on Iago
The Hairy Ape	Yank	Excessive pride in his dominant nature

Q.  Did the ‘Plot’ of those tragedies follow necessary rules and regulations proposed by Aristotle? (Like chain of cause and effect, principle of probability and necessity, harmonious arrangement of incidents, complete, certain magnitude, unity of action etc.)

According to Aristotle, ‘Plot’ is the most essential part of tragedy. He says that Tragedy is an “imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude.” In simple words, it can be said that deed, incidents, situations, motives and mental processes are all contained in the idea of an action moving towards a specific end. All the above-mentioned tragedy’s ‘Plot’ mostly follow the general concept of tragedy with some modifications rather than fixed rules and regulations proposed by Aristotle.

The tragedy ‘Othello’ follows the chain of cause and effect, observed by Othello’s suspicion which causes jealous behavior for Desdemona and this cause leads him to murder his own wife (effect).

As far as the principle of probability and necessity is concerned, the characters are true to nature and represent universal nature of human beings, hence these kinds of incidents can be probable as well as possible too. So, the plot of the tragedy is true to that extent, that it can be applicable to 21^st century also. Unity of action is maintained by Iago who weaves every character in his web of deceit. 

In a nutshell, The subject matter of tragedy in the 21st century has changed a lot so the necessary rules and regulations proposed by Aristotle may not be followed to some extent.