Poetics

    Aristotle’s poetics is a reply to Plato’s Republic. Plato believes in two word but Aristotle believes in only one word, therefore he is monoist not a dualist for him it is nature that contains truth. He defines art is perfecting the imperfect nature. For him art is an imitation with beautification. Art is the imitation of object beautifying nature. No matter artist imitate but they make better world than what it is so artist is not merely imitator but also creator.Aristotle avoids the idea that the world of appearance is merely an ephemeral copy of the changeless ideas. He holds the idea that change is the fundamental process of nature, which he takes as a creative force with a direction.

    By taking the form from nature, the poet reshapes it in a different manner, using different matter and medium. But this medium and matter is not the slavish copying. Aristotle hence believes in change, which is a fundamental process of nature, which he regards as a creative force. For Aristotle, art is a sort of improvement on nature in that the poet has brought to completion what nature is still trying to complete. So the poet is both imitator and a creator.Aristotle holds the belief that art is the imitation of human actions. Poet takes the improbable subject matter and he turns it in to probable one. Poets change the impossible one to possible. Nature is incomplete but artists imitate and change to make it a complete by reshaping and something using novelty.

    Aristotle differs in the subject of reality form Plato. For Plato reality is the idea where as Aristotle believes being essence to be reality which is always in process; it is changeable. We get this essence with sense perception quite contrary to Plato.For Aristotle imitation is related to human instinct. Imitation is our instinct doing things without imitation is impossible. By birth we are imitative and we imitate things because it gives pleasure. Imitation is very important way to understand the world. Imitation is delightful and it is the source to built or extend the horizon of thought.

    In Poetics, he talks about tragedy, epic, poetry, comedy and lyric poetry. All these differ from one another in three respects: the medium the objects and the manner of imitation. But imitation is common to all forms (tragedy, comedy, music, dancing, painting etc) In poetry the medium of imitation is the use of words while in painting the shades of colors. Poetry and painting thus differ in the medium of imitation.Tragedy and comedy differ in their object of imitation. Aristotle opines that tragedy has the imitation of serious subject matter devoted to human action. Tragedy and epic, for instance, deal with men better than they are in real life: while comedy and satire draw attention towards the trivial aspect of human life and nature and imitate men as worse than they are in reality. Thus tragedy and comedy differ in their object of imitation.

    In respect to manner of imitation, Aristotle says that poet follows dramatic method in comedy, farce and tragedy. Similarly poet follows narrative method in ballad, epic and tales. And poet follows lyric in dithyrambic, ode and elegy.For Aristotle tragedy is the greatest art, there is no art that is rival to tragedy. For him tragedy is the imitation of action of noble type of people. It is the best art because it is neither too big nor too small in form. It is moderate in form which can be grasped by human mind. Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of certain magnitude which are related with the cathartic effects on readers. Plato is the heart of tragedy; it has unity of action, place and time.

     For Aristotle epic resembles tragedy it is imitation of action of noble people. It differs from tragedy in terms of manner: it uses narrative technique in hexameter. It is long poem. For Aristotle epic is better than comedy.Comedy for Aristotle is the imitation of action of the characters who, are lower than the real people. Aristotle does not appreciate comedy, for him it is false representation of society.Aristotle has also talked about the unity of time action and place. Time should not exceed twenty four hours. All the actions should be organized and they should wake the single action or unity, all the actions must be correlated. Here he evokes against fragmented action. If a single main plot creates monotonous then it is better to use subplot which contribute to the main plot. The place also should be fined or single place. If plot demands, variation of place then put off stage narration.

    Aristotle also talks about the qualities of characters. For him character should be of noble birth, good, should have propriety, truth to life, moral, intellect, consistent, with higher profile and should have flaw in judgment. Which becomes the justification leads to tragic flaw that becomes the source to catharsis.Aristotle believes “plot” to be the soul of tragedy. A good plot must begin at teleological equilibrium point and must end at equilibrium point. Plot is the chain of inter- related actions. It should have three parts- proper beginning, middle and logical ending. There must be cause and effect relationship, i.e. former action should lead the latter one. Every events moves so well that it reaches up to teleological point. The events with in the plot should be logically connected. In plot, there is the reversal and recognition of the situation. Peripetia of the situation is a change by which the action goes sound to its opposite. The cause of fall to protagonist should be his own flaw that is hamartia. Recognization is the transformation from ignorance to knowledge.Recognition and several lead the audience to pity and fear. When we know the down fall of protagonist, we realize the defeat of good. Because and at the downfall of protagonist, we feel pity of the same time we get fear assuming that such event might happen to us. The main cause of the downfall of the protagonist is hubris which he carries by birth.  “Pity” and “fear” lead to catharsis that refers to purgation of emotion or represses ego. In other words, catharsis assists audience to externalize their emotion, repressed desires and concepts, finally, transforming themselves to more moralists.