Tragedy

Aristotle and ‘The Poetics'on Tragedy

• Aristotle defines tragedy as “the limitation of an action that is serious and as having magnitude, complete in itself”

• the person cannot be either good nor evil byt must be someone the audience can identify with

• their disastrous end results from a mistake action, which turn arises from a tragic flaw or from a tragic error in judgement

Features of a Tragedy

• Hubris = excessive pride/arrogance

• Harmartia = fatal flaw eg. ambtion

• Peripeteia = a reversal of fortune. the moment of catastrophe when the downfall

• Anagnorsis = the moment when they become aware of the magnitude of their error

• Catharsis = the shedding of the feeling of pity and terror that build up during the play

Structure of a Tragedy

• Act 1 - The Exposition = the audience learns the setting, the characters are developed

• The Complication = some incident that begin a conflict that will continue throughout the play

• Act 2 - Rising Action = the action of this act leads the audience to the climax

• Act 3 - The Climax = the turning point - the hero now moves towards their inevitable end

• Act 4 - Falling Action = the events occuring from the time of the climax to the hero's death

• Act 5 - Catastrophe = the necessary consequences of the hero's actions - it will be characteristically simple and brief

• Denouement = the tone about the subject is revealed and sometimes a moral lesson js learned

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