Adam Syty - 12 / 02 / 2002 - Trackstar5@aol.com

Tragedy Notes

Aristotle stated that a tragedy is "an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament … in the form of a drama … through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions."

Serious = elevated subject matter

Characters must be some form of royal (important)

Complete = beginning middle end that makes logical whole

Magnitude = a length which can be easily embraced by memory

Purgation ( catharsis ) - bringing out emotion in the watchers (getting rid of it)

Misfortune of character brought out by error or frailty ( hamartia ) [ tragic flaw ]

Caused by a common human mistake or fault

Fate / Fortune / Gods / Circumstance all play role

Tragic Dilemma - caused by question - protagonist faces decision of two unacceptable answers

Reversal of Action = Peripeteia : action reverses to opposite

Recognition = Anagnorisis : leads to reversal *key element*

Tone / Diction - lofty diction and poetic ornaments are necessary to tragedies (not true in future always)

Roman = Poetic , English Renaissance / Restoration = blank verse + heroic couplet

Tone = usually ironic (readers know more then character of what’s going on)

Other Elements :

unity of place , time , action

Deus ex Machina = god from the machine (cheap way to end play by sending in the god)

Parados - entry / exit ways for chorus

Personae - stylized masks to over exaggerate persona of character

Cothurni / buskin = big shoes to make actor taller