theory of tragedy

8/11/2019 Theory of Tragedy

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Theory of tragedy

Classical theoriesAs the great period of Athenian drama drew to an end at the beginning of the 4th century BCE,

Athenian philosophers began to analyze its content and formulate its structure. In the thought

ofPlatoc.4!"#$4" BCE%, the history of the criticism of tragedy began with speculation on the role

ofcensorship.&o Plato in the dialogue on theLaws% the state was the noblest wor' of art, a

representation mimsis% of the fairest and best life. (e feared the tragedians) command of the

e*pressi+e resources of language, which might be used to the detriment of worthwhile institutions.

(e feared, too, the emoti+e effect of poetry, the ionysian element that is at the +ery basis of tragedy.

&herefore, he recommended that the tragedians submit their wor's to the rulers, for appro+al,

without which they could not be performed. It is clear that tragedy, by nature e*ploratory, critical,

independent, could not li+e under such a regimen.

Plato is answered, in effect and perhaps intentionally, byAristotle)sPoetics. Aristotle defends the

purgati+e power of tragedy and, in direct contradiction to Plato, ma'es moral ambiguity the essence

of tragedy. &he tragic hero must be neither a +illain nor a +irtuous man but a -character between

these two e*tremes,a man who is not eminently good and /ust, yet whose misfortune is brought

about not by +ice or depra+ity, but by some error or frailty 0hamartia1.2 &he effect on the audience

will be similarly ambiguous. A perfect tragedy, he says, should imitate actions that e*cite -pity and

fear.2 (e uses 3ophocles)Oedipus the Kingas a paradigm. ear the beginning of the play, 5edipus

as's how his stric'en city the counterpart of Plato)s state% may cleanse itself, and the word he uses

for the purifying action is a form of the word catharsis.&he concept of catharsis pro+ides Aristotle

with his reconciliation with Plato, a means by which to satisfy the claims of both ethics and art.

-&ragedy,2 says Aristotle, -is an imitation 0mimsis1 of an action that is serious, complete, and of a

certain magnitudethrough pity and fear effecting the proper purgation 0catharsis1 of these

emotions.2 Ambiguous means may be employed, Aristotle maintains in contrast to Plato, to a

+irtuous and purifying end.

&o establish the basis for a reconciliation between ethical and artistic demands, Aristotle insists that

the principal element in the structure of tragedy is not character but plot. 3ince the erring

protagonist is always in at least partial opposition to the state, the importance of tragedy lies not in

the character but in the enlightening e+ent. -6ost important of all,2 Aristotle said, -is the structure of

the incidents. 7or tragedy 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 8uality.2 Aristotle considered the plot to be the soul of a

tragedy, withcharacterin second place. &he goal of tragedy is not suffering but the 'nowledge that

issues from it, as the denouement issues from a plot. &he most powerful elements of emotional

interest in tragedy, according to Aristotle, are re+ersal of intention or situation peripeteia% and

recognition scenes anagnrisis%, and each is most effecti+e when it is coincident with the other.

InOedipus, for e*ample, the messenger who brings 5edipus news of his real parentage, intending to

allay his fears, brings about a sudden re+ersal of his fortune, from happiness to misery, by

compelling him to recognize that his wife is also his mother.
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9ater critics found /ustification for their own predilections in the authority of :ree' drama and

Aristotle. 7or e*ample, the ;oman poet (orace, in hisArs poeticaArt of Poetry%, elaborated the

:ree' tradition of e*tensi+ely narrating offstage e+ents into a dictum on decorumforbidding e+ents

such as 6edea)s butchering of her sons from being performed on stage. And where Aristotle had

discussed tragedy as a separate genre, superior to epic poetry, (orace discussed it as a genre with a

separate style, again with considerations of decorum foremost. A theme for comedy may not be set

forth in +erses of tragedy< each style must 'eep to the place allotted it.

5n the basis of this 'ind of stylistic distinction, theAeneid,the epic poem of =irgil, (orace)s

contemporary, is called a tragedy by the fictional =irgil inante)sDivine Comedy, on the grounds

that theAeneidtreats only of lofty things. ante calls his own poem a comedy partly because he

includes -low2 sub/ects in it. (e ma'es this distinction in hisDe vugari eo!uentia>$?4#?@< -5f

Elo8uence in the =ulgar2% in which he also declares the sub/ects fit for the high, tragic style to be

sal+ation, lo+e, and +irtue. espite the presence of these sub/ects in this poem, he calls it a comedy

because his style of language is -careless and humble2 and because it is in the +ernacular tongue

rather than 9atin. ante ma'es a further distinction

Comedy"differs from tragedy in its su#$ect matter% in this way% that tragedy in its #eginning is

admira#e and !uiet% in its ending or catastrophe foued and horri#e". &rom this it is evident why

the present wor' is caed a comedy.

ante)s emphasis on the outcome of the struggle rather than on the nature of the struggle is repeated

byChaucerand for the same reason their belief in the pro+idential nature of human destiny. 9i'e

ante, he was under the influence ofDe consoatione phiosophiaeConsoation of Phiosophy%, the

wor' of the thcentury ;oman philosopherBoethiusthat he translated into English. Chaucer

considered 7ortune to be beyond the influence of the human will. In his Canter#ury Taes, he

introduces -&he 6on')s &ale2 by defining tragedy as -a certeyn storie D of him that stood in greet

prosperitee, D And is yfallen out of heigh degree D Into miserie, and endeth wrecchedly.2 Again, he

calls hisTroius and Criseydea tragedy because, in the words of &roilus, -all that comth, comth by

necessitee D &hat forsight of di+ine pur+eyaunce D (ath seyn alwey me to forgon Criseyde.2

Absence of tragedy in Asian dramaIn no way can the importance of a conceptual basis for tragedy be better illustrated than by a loo' at

other dramaproducing cultures with radically different ideas of the indi+idual, human nature, and

destiny. hile the cultures of India, China, and Fapan ha+e produced significant and highly artistic

drama, there is little here to compare in magnitude, intensity, and freedom of form to the tragedies

of the est.

In Buddhistteaching, the aim of the indi+idual is to suppress and regulate all those 8uestioning,

recalcitrant, rebellious impulses that first impel the estern hero toward his tragic course. &he goal

of nir+ana is the e*tinction of those impulses, the 8uieting of the passions, a 'ind of 8uietus in which

worldly e*istence ceases. estern tragedy celebrates life, and the tragic hero clings to it to him, it is
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ne+er -sweet to die2 for his country or for anything else, and the fascination for estern audiences is

to follow the heroGas it were, -from the inside2Gas he struggles to assert himself and his +alues

against whate+er would deny them. In Asian drama there is no such intense focus on the indi+idual.

In the Fapaneseohplays, for instance, the hero may be seen in moments of weariness and despair,

of anger or confusion, but the mood is lyric, and the structure of the plays is ritualistic, with a great

deal of choral intoning, dancing, and stylized action. Although a number of oh plays can be

produced together to fill a day)s performance, the indi+idual plays are +ery short, hardly the length of

a estern oneact play. oh plays affirm orthodo*y, rather than probing and 8uestioning it, as

estern tragedies do.

&he drama in Indiahas a long history, but there too the indi+idual is subordinated to the mood of the

idyll or romance or epic ad+enture. Perhaps one reason why the drama of India ne+er de+eloped the

tragic orientation of the est is its remo+al from the people< it has ne+er 'nown the communal

in+ol+ement of the :ree' and Elizabethan theatres. Produced mainly for court audiences, an upper

class elite, it ne+er reflected the sufferings of common or uncommon% humanity. 5nly in the mid

!?th century did the drama in Chinaembrace the +igour and realism of the common people, but the

drama was in the ser+ice not of the indi+idual but of a political ideology, which replaced the

traditional themes of ancestor worship and filial piety. In all this, the mighty pageant figureG

5edipus, Prometheus, 9ear, or Ahab standing for the indi+idual as he alone sees and feels the

wor'ings of an un/ust uni+erseGis absent.

An e*ample from the oh plays will illustrate these generalizations. In The (o'a Priests, by

Henchi'u /inobu >4>4#JJ%, a son is confronted with (amlet)s problemGi.e., that of a+enging the

death of his father. (e is uncertain how to proceed, since his father)s murderer has many bold

fellows to stand by him, while he is all alone. (e persuades his brother, a priest, to help him, and

disguising themsel+es as priests, they concoct a little plot to engage the murderer in religiouscon+ersation. &here are a few words of lamentG-5h why, D hy bac' to the bitter orld D Are we

borne by our intentK2Gand the Chorus sings lyrically about the uncertainties of life. &he theme of the

con+ersation is the unreality of the orld and the reality of &hought. At an appropriate moment, the

brothers cry, -EnoughL hy longer hide our plotK2 &he murderer places his hat on the floor and

e*its. &he brothers mime the 'illing of the murderer in a stylized attac' upon the hat, while the

Chorus describes and comments on the action -3o when the hour was come D id these two brothers

D By sudden resolution D estroy their father)s foe. D 7or +alour and piety are their names

remembered D E+en in this aftertime2 translated byArthur aley,The ) Pays of *apan, >J!>%.

&hus, oh a+oids directly in+ol+ing the audience in the emotions implicit in the e+ents portrayed onthe stage. It gi+es only a slight hint of the spiritual struggle in the heart of the protagonistGa struggle

that is always speedily resol+ed in fa+our of traditional teaching. In play after play the action does

not ta'e place on stage but is reenacted by the ghost of one of the participants. &hus, the e+ents

presented are tinged with memory or longingGhardly the primary emotions that surge through and

in+igorate estern tragedy at its best.

Loss of viability in the West
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&he absence, e+en in the est, of a continuing great tragic theatre may be e*plained by the pantheon

of panaceas in modern life. Politics, psychology, social sciences, physical sciences, nationalism, the

occultGeach offers a conte*t in terms of which one might act out one)s destiny, were it not crowded

out by the others. &he indi+idual is not tested but harried and not by gods but, too often, by demons.

In the dramas of Athens and England, tragedy was born of the impossibility of a clearcut +ictory in

the human struggle with powers greater than oneself. In the modern drama, the struggle itself seems

impossible.

&he wouldbe hero is sa+ed from a meaningful death by being condemned to a meaningless life. &his

too, howe+er, has its tragic dimension, in its illustration of the power of e+il to sur+i+e from

millennium to millennium in the presence or the absence of the gods.

&ragedy is a means of coming to terms with that e+il. &o assume that tragedy has lost +iability is to

forget that this +iability was seriously 8uestioned by the first estern philosopher to address himself

to the problem. An account of the de+elopment of the theory of tragedy will re+eal a resourcefulness

in critical powers that can help to compensate, or occasionally e+en supersede, lapsing creati+epowers.

+ichard ,. -ewa

efinitions of the word iteraturetend to be circular. &he >>th edition oferriam/0e#ster1s

Coegiate Dictionaryconsiders literature to be -writings ha+ing e*cellence of form or e*pression

and e*pressing ideas of permanent or uni+ersal interest.2 &he >Jthcentury criticalter

Paterreferred to -the matter of imaginati+e or artistic literature2 as a -transcript, not of mere fact, but

of fact in its infinitely +aried forms.2 But such definitions assume that the reader already 'nows what

literature is. And indeed its central meaning, at least, is clear enough. eri+ing from the 9atin ittera,

-a letter of the alphabet,2 literature is first and foremost human'ind)s entire body of writing< afterthat it is the body of writing belonging to a gi+en language or people< then it is indi+idual pieces of

writing.

But already it is necessary to 8ualify these statements. &o use the word writingwhen describing

literature is itself misleading, for one may spea' of -oral literature2 or -the literature of preliterate

peoples.2 &he art of literature is not reducible to the words on the page< they are there solely because

of the craft of writing. As an art, literature might be described as the organization of words to gi+e

pleasure. Met through words literature ele+ates and transforms e*perience beyond -mere2 pleasure.

9iterature also functions more broadly in society as a means of both criticizing and affirming cultural

+alues.

2d.

Table Of Contents

The scope of literature
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9iterature is a form of human e*pression. But not e+erything e*pressed in wordsGe+en when

organized and written downGis counted as literature. &hose writings that are primarily informati+e

Gtechnical, scholarly, /ournalisticGwould be e*cluded from the ran' of literature by most, though

not all, critics. Certain forms of writing, howe+er, are uni+ersally regarded as belonging to literature

as an art. Indi+idual attempts within these forms are said to succeed if they possess something called

artistic merit and to fail if they do not. &he nature of artistic merit is less easy to define than to

recognize. &he writer need not e+en pursue it to attain it. 5n the contrary, a scientific e*position

might be of great literary +alue and a pedestrian poem of none at all.

&he purest or, at least, the most intense% literary form is thelyricpoem, and after it comes elegiac,

epic, dramatic, narrati+e, and e*pository +erse. 6ost theories of literary criticism base themsel+es on

an analysis ofpoetry, because the aesthetic problems of literature are there presented in their

simplest and purest form. Poetry that fails as literature is not called poetry at all but+erse.

6anyno+elsGcertainly all the world)s great no+elsGare literature, but there are thousands that are

not so considered. 6ost great dramas are considered literature although the Chinese, possessors of

one of the world)s greatest dramatic traditions, consider their plays, with few e*ceptions, to possess

no literary merit whatsoe+er%.

&he:ree'sthought of history as one of the se+en arts, inspired by a goddess, the muse Clio. All of

the world)s classic sur+eys of history can stand as noble e*amples of the art of literature, but most

historical wor's and studies today are not written primarily with literary e*cellence in mind, though

they may possess it, as it were, by accident.

&heessaywas once written deliberately as a piece of literature its sub/ect matter was of

comparati+ely minor importance. &oday most essays are written as e*pository, informati+e

/ournalism, although there are still essayists in the great tradition who thin' of themsel+es as artists.

ow, as in the past, some of the greatest essayists are critics of literature, drama, and the arts.

3ome personal documents autobiographies, diaries,memoirs, andletters% ran' among the world)s

greatest literature. 3ome e*amples of this biographical literature were written with posterity in mind,

others with no thought of their being read by anyone but the writer. 3ome are in a highly polished

literary style< others, couched in a pri+ately e+ol+ed language, win their standing as literature

because of their cogency, insight, depth, and scope.

6any wor's of philosophyare classed as literature. &heDiaoguesof Plato 4th century BC% are

written with great narrati+e s'ill and in the finest prose< theeditationsof the !ndcentury ;oman

emperor 6arcus Aurelius are a collection of apparently random thoughts, and the :ree' in which

they are written is eccentric. Met both are classed as literature, while the speculations of other

philosophers, ancient and modern, are not. Certain scientific wor's endure as literature long after

their scientific content has become outdated. &his is particularly true of boo's of natural history,

where the element of personal obser+ation is of special importance. An e*cellent e*ample is :ilbert

hite)s)atura (istory and Anti!uities of -e#ourne>"NJ%.
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5ratory, the art of persuasion, was long considered a great literary art. &he oratory of the American

Indian, for instance, is famous, while in Classical :reece,Polymniawas the muse sacred to poetry

and oratory. ;ome)s great orator Cicerowas to ha+e a decisi+e influence on the de+elopment of

English prose style.Abraham 9incoln)s :ettysburg Addressis 'nown to e+ery American schoolchild.

&oday, howe+er, oratory is more usually thought of as a craft than as an art. 6ost critics would not

admit ad+ertising copywriting, purely commercial fiction, or cinema and tele+ision scripts as

accepted forms of literary e*pression, although others would hotly dispute their e*clusion. &he test

in indi+idual cases would seem to be one of enduring satisfaction and, of course, truth. Indeed, it

becomes more and more difficult to categorize literature, for in modern ci+ilization words are

e+erywhere. 6an is sub/ect to a continuous flood of communication. 6ost of it is fugiti+e, but here

and thereGin highle+el /ournalism, in tele+ision, in the cinema, in commercial fiction, in westerns

and detecti+e stories, and in plain, e*pository proseGsome writing, almost by accident, achie+es an

aesthetic satisfaction, a depth and rele+ance that entitle it to stand with other e*amples of the art of

literature.

Literarycomposition

CRITICAL THEORIES

WESTERN

If the early Egyptians or 3umerians had critical theories about the writing of literature, these ha+e

not sur+i+ed. 7rom the time of Classical :reece until the present day, howe+er, estern criticism has

been dominated by two opposing theories of the literary art, which might con+eniently be called the

e*pressi+e and constructi+e theories of composition.

&he :ree' philosopher and scholarAristotleis the first great representati+e of the constructi+eschool of thought. (isPoeticsthe sur+i+ing fragment of which is limited to an analysis of tragedy

and epic poetry% has sometimes been dismissed as a recipe boo' for the writing of potboilers.

Certainly,Aristotleis primarily interested in the theoretical construction of tragedy, much as an

architect might analyze the construction of a temple, but he is not e*clusi+ely ob/ecti+e and matter of

fact. (e does, howe+er, regard the e*pressi+e elements in literature as of secondary importance, and

the terms he uses to describe them ha+e been open to interpretation and a matter of contro+ersy e+er

since.

&he >stcentury :ree' treatise On the -u#imecon+entionally attributed to the $rdcentury

9onginus% deals with the 8uestion left unanswered by AristotleGwhat ma'es great literature -great2KIts standards are almost entirely e*pressi+e. here Aristotle is analytical and states general

principles, the pseudo9onginus is more specific and gi+es many 8uotations e+en so, his critical

theories are confined largely to impressionistic generalities.

&hus, at the beginning of estern literary criticism, the contro+ersy already e*ists. Is the artist or

writer a technician, li'e a coo' or an engineer, who designs and constructs a sort of machine that will

elicit an aesthetic response from his audienceK 5r is he a +irtuoso who abo+e all else e*presses
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/431039/oratoryhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468782/Polymniahttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468782/Polymniahttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468782/Polymniahttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/117565/Marcus-Tullius-Cicerohttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/117565/Marcus-Tullius-Cicerohttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/341682/Abraham-Lincolnhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/341682/Abraham-Lincolnhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/341682/Abraham-Lincolnhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/232225/Gettysburg-Addresshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/232225/Gettysburg-Addresshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/343487/literary-criticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34560/Aristotlehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/466081/Poeticshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/466081/Poeticshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/466081/Poeticshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34495/Aristotelian-criticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/428849/On-the-Sublimehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/428849/On-the-Sublimehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/431039/oratoryhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468782/Polymniahttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/117565/Marcus-Tullius-Cicerohttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/341682/Abraham-Lincolnhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/232225/Gettysburg-Addresshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/343487/literary-criticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34560/Aristotlehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/466081/Poeticshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34495/Aristotelian-criticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/428849/On-the-Sublime


7/7

himself and, because he gi+es +oice to the deepest realities of his own personality, generates a

response from his readers because they admit some profound identification with himK &his

antithesis endures throughout western European historyG

3cholasticism+ersus(umanism,Classicism+ersus ;omanticism,Cubism+ersus E*pressionismG

and sur+i+es to this day in the common /udgment of our contemporary artists and writers. It is

surprising how few critics ha+e declared that the antithesis is unreal, that a wor' of literary or plastic

art is at once constructi+e and e*pressi+e, and that it must in fact be both.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/527973/Scholasticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/527973/Scholasticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275932/humanismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275932/humanismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120317/Classicism-and-Neoclassicismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120317/Classicism-and-Neoclassicismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120317/Classicism-and-Neoclassicismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/145744/Cubismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/145744/Cubismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198740/Expressionismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/527973/Scholasticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275932/humanismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120317/Classicism-and-Neoclassicismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/145744/Cubismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198740/Expressionism

theory of tragedy

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