Aristotle Poetics Terms

Length of Tragedy

The duration of a single revolution of the sun (a day).

Proper purgation/Katharsis

The emotional cleansing/purification experienced by feeling pity and fear.

Character

Reveals moral purpose and shows what we choose and avoid.

Diction

Expression of meaning in words, their arrangement, and the way in which they are performed.

Proper magnitude

The necessity to show a change of fortune.

Reversal of the Situation

A change by which action veers to its opposite.

Recognition

A change from ignorance to knowledge.

Arousal of Pity and Fear

The unmerited misfortune of a man like ourselves.

Cause of misfortune

An error or frailty.

Change of Fortune

The shift from good to bad.

Actions capable of inspiring pity and fear

Tragic incidents between those near and dear to one another.

Complication

All that extends from the beginning of the action to the part that marks the turning point to good or bad fortune.

Dénouement

Extent from the beginning of change to the end.

Four kinds of tragedy

Pathetic, ethical, complex, simple.

Thought

Every effect which has to be produced by speech, proof, or refutation.

Spectacle

The visual aspect of a play, production of spectacular effects.

Tragedy

An imitation of a complete action and of a certain magnitude.

Whole

That which has a beginning, middle, and end.

Beginning

That which does not follow anything but naturally comes after it.

Middle

That which follows something and some other thing follows it.

End

That which naturally follows some other thing but has nothing following it.

Simple plot

Change of fortune takes place without reversal of the situation and recognition.

Complex plot

Change is accompanied by reversal and/or by recognition.

Parts of Tragedy

Prologue, Episode, Exode, Choric Song (Parode and Stasimon).

Four aspects of character

Goodness, propriety, true to life, consistency.

Deus Ex Machina

An artificial plot device.

Five kinds of recognition

Signs, will by the poet, memory, process of reasoning, natural means.

Plot

Imitation of one action; if any part is moved or removed, the whole is disjointed.