Outlining the Chapters of the "Poetics" By Aristotle

Stephen Alexander Beach 

Introduction - Poetics is Mimesis of Life

Aristotle begins by laying out the goal of this work. He says that he wants to consider: 

- "Art in general, 

- "the species of art and their respective capacities," 

- "of the structure of plot required for a good poem," and 

- "of the number and nature of the constituent parts of a poem." 

Aristotle begins by categorizing types of poetry under the umbrella of "modes of imitation" (Mimesis). 

For example, flute/lyre playing, Epic, Tragedy, Comedy, and Dithyrambic poetry all share in common the imitation mode. 

There are differences between them also, though, which fall into three categories themselves: means, manner, and object. 

Chapter 1 - Differences in Imitation Through Means 

Means, for example, includes the use of 

- rhythm, 

- language, 

- harmony 

to imitate. These things can be considered together or on their own.

Chapter 2 - Differences because the Object of Mimesis is Human Actions of Virtue and Vice 

The object of imitation must be that of the actions of the individuals represented. These actions will reflect the moral nature of the characters, being either good or evil. "... the diversities of human character being nearly always derivative from this primary distinction, since the line between virtue and vice is one dividing the whole of mankind." 

Now when it comes to the moral nature of characters, he says that they are either above the normal man in virtue, below him in vice, or about the same. He follows this with many specific examples, but concludes with a distinction between tragedy and comedy. "the one would make its personages worse, and the other better, than the men of the present day." 

-Men worse than the average

-Men better than the average

-Men the same as the average person

Chapter 3 - Differences by Three Types of Manner (Narration) 

Here Aristotle talks about differences through manner of narration. You can narrate in a mixed style with both a narrator and a character who narrates ("assumed character"). One can also keep it the same throughout with one or the other. Third, one could have no narrator and just have the poem be lived out by the characters alone. 

- Mix of narrator and character narration

- Either fully one or the other

- Neither present, but just have characters act it all out

He then discusses possibilities for where the words "comedy" and "drama" come from. But overall, "This in fact, according to some, is the reason for plays being termed dramas, because in a play the personages act the story." 

Chapter 4- History of the Origin of the Types of Poetry - Tragedy, Epic, and Comedy

In chapter four Aristotle talks about the origin of poetry, and he assigns it two sources. One, he says, is the fact that human beings, from birth, have the power of imitation, and that we are always learning things from imitation. Thusly, there is an inherent delight in imitation and seeing imitation. Second, he says that when there are realistic depictions of human life, especially at the extremes, like death, that all people can enjoy in the learning that takes place. "... though the objects themselves may be painful to see, we delight to view the most realistic representations of them in art, the forms for example of the lowest animals and of dead bodies." And so when the natural inclinations of imitation and music came together, poetry was born. 

Then as poets began their work, some were drawn towards representing the more serious and noble of people, while others represented more roguish and vicious of men. The latter of the two, Aristotle says, began by using extreme language, leading to the use of iambic meter, the iambs being the invectives used. The former poets were writers of heroic tales. Homer, he says, as the master poet, introduced a third category, the comedy, which blended the dramatic with the ridiculous. 

When speaking of the development of tragedy, he says that there were four stages. First, Aeschylus increased the actors from one to two and made the dialogue of the play the central drama. Second, Sophocles added a third actor and scenery. Third, tragedy became more serious in nature and took on the iambic meter, and had less to do with dancing. Fourth, There were added several acts or episodes to the play. 

Chapter 5 - The Nature and History of Comedy, and The Epic  

Here Aristotle gives insight into the nature of comedy. He says that it focuses on imitating men who are more ridiculous than the average man. Here ridiculous being a form of ugliness, but one which is a "mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others..." 

As for its origin, it is not as well known as tragedy. This was because it was not first taken seriously and paid by the Archon. Rather, there were volunteers and they had developed a certain style before it became popular. There was a known development when the comedy could be expressed in a fable form, which was not personally about an individual. 

Moving to Epic poetry, he mentions it has a commonality or serious topics in verse with that of tragedy. There are three essential differences though between the two. First, that Epic are in one type of verse and they are narrative. Second, While tragedies try to deal with a day length, or a very short period of time, the Epic has no limit to the action. Third, they may have different constituents. "All the parts of an epic are included in Tragedy; but those of Tragedy are not all of them to be found in the Epic." 

Chapter 6 - Formal Definition of Tragedy, 6 Fundamental Elements, Order of Importance 

He will now look at Tragedy more deeply. His definition of Tragedy is as follows: "A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions." 

- A serious poem that is complete in itself. 

- dramatic, not narrative form

- incidents arousing pity and fear

- to bring about catharsis in the audience

- bringing in pleasurable rhythm and harmony at different stages

Part I 

-There is a unified stage performance

- Use of diction and melody in the performance

- Action of the subject with other characters

- The subject's action is determined by both their thoughts and their character (moral qualities)

- The actions follow a plot or fable

Six fundamental elements, then: Spectacle, Character, Fable, Diction, Melody, and Thought

Means 

- Diction 

- Melody

Manner 

- Spectacle

Object 

- Plot/Fable

- Character

- Thought

Part II

The combination of the incidents in the story, Aristotle says, (i.e. the plot) is the most important aspect of tragedy. "Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but of action and life, of happiness and misery. All human happiness or misery takes the form of action..." "... it is the action in it, i.e. its Fable or Plot, that is the end and purpose of tragedy..." 

When it comes to the plot, likewise, what makes it most attractive are the discoveries and sudden reversals that can happen. The characters, and their thoughts come second to the plot and the actions. Tragedy is based around action fundamentally. 

Order of Importance

Most Important Aspect - Action and Plot

Second - Character (reveals moral purpose, seeking or avoiding)

Third - Thought (their speeches and words in relation to the actions) 

Fourth - Diction

Fifth - Melody

Sixth - Spectacle (least related to the actual making of the poem) 

Chapter 7 - The Construction of Fable/Plot with Beginning, Middle, and End - Size and Ordering

A plot must be a unified whole, with a beginning, middle, and end. A good plot must have a formed beginning, middle, and end in the sense that the beginning cannot have something preceding it, but naturally has something following it, the end the part with nothing after it and naturally something before it from which it usually follows, and the middle as that which naturally has a part before it and something after it. Beauty has to have both the proper size and ordering of its parts. Something to small cannot show the arrangement of its parts, and something too big cannot show its unity as as whole. These must conform to the limits of human memory. "As a general formula, 'a length which allows of the hero passing by a series of probably or necessary stages from misfortune to happiness, or from happiness to misfortune', may suffice as a limit for the magnitude of the story." 

Chapter 8 - What Unity Means in a Plot - All Incidents Correlated to the Essential Whole 

When Aristotle speaks of the unity of a plot, he does not mean that it just has one character. This is because so many unrelated things may happen to that one character that it would not all fit together as one story. Rather, a unified plot is one in which all the events and occurrences are important for the plot line. If something can be added or taken away without affecting the whole, then it is not relevant. "... one imitation is is always of one thing, so in poetry the story, as an imitation of action, must represent one action, a complete whole, with its several incidents so closely connected that the transposal or withdrawal of any one of them will disjoin  and dislocate the whole." 

Chapter 9 - The Historian Versus the Poet, The Poet Imitates Universal Truths, Pity and Fear  

What is the difference between the historian and the poet, then? Is it just the difference between prose and verse? No, Aristotle says. Rather, it is in the fact that the historian describes what has happened in the past, while the poet describes what might happen to someone. "Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars." Even though poetry gives proper names to its characters, the point is that anyone might be in the position of those characters, hence it being a universal truth. In Tragedy some still use historical names to show that this event might happen to anyone given that is has already happened to someone. The poet then is, at his heart, an imitator of universal truths of mankind. Here Aristotle goes into types of simple plots, such as the Episodic, which does not do a good job of expressing universal truths because they are not realistic to what might happen in life. 

Plots that arouse "pity and fear" in an unexpected way, though which seem to the audience not to be totally random, but have some kind of designed connection, are those which impact the audience the most. 

Chapter 10 - Simple and Complex Plots 

Plots, Aristotle says, are either (1) simple or (2) complex. This is because the actions of the plot naturally fit these two descriptions. A plot if considered (1) simple if the action part of a continuous whole where the fate of the hero is without discovery or a sudden change of fortune. A plot is considered (2) complex if discovery or sudden change in fortune are included. The plot should flow naturally from its structure and not be something just added in. "These should each of them arise out of the structure of the Plot itself, so as to be the consequence, necessary or probable, of the antecedents." 

Chapter 11 - Peripety, Discovery, and Suffering - Helps to the Plot

Aristotle here then considers the meaning of "Peripety" in the context of Oedipus Rex. A Peripety is a sudden reversal of fortune, such as when the messenger in OR comes to gladden his heart, but actually shatters Oedipus with the truth. It is connected, again, with arousing pity and fear. A "Discovery", on the other hand, is "... a change from ignorance to knowledge, and thus to either love or hate, in the personages marked for good or evil fortune." A third part of a plot, first mentioned here, is that of suffering, when a character is killed or tortured. 

Chapter 12 - The Sections of a Tragedy

The sections into which tragedies are divided are as follows:

- Prologue - The part that precedes the Choral Parode. 

- Episode - The parts that come between two choral songs.

- Exode - The part that is after the last choral song.

- Choral Portion (Parode) - "The whole first statement of the Chorus". 

- Choral Portion (Stasimon) - "A song of the chorus without anapaests or trochees"

The previous six parts make up the form, the quality, while these make up the quantity, or sections. 

Chapter 13 - Plot Must Be About a Normal Man Who Makes an Error In Judgment and Falls Into Ruin

In chapter 13 Aristotle considers two questions about plot. What should be the goal, and what should be avoided, when making a plot, first, and, second, what gives poems their tragic effect on the audience? Aristotle says that the plot should be complex and aimed at inspiring fear and pity in the audience. 

Therefore, certain plot lines must be avoided, as they will not inspire fear or pity. One must avoid: a good man falling "from happiness to misery", a bad mean doing the opposite, passing from misery to happiness, and a wicked man falling from happiness to misery. We do not find fear or pity, but only hatred toward the first story. The second plot is not tragic at all. And the third, likewise, may be inspiring, but not of pity and fear. The type of character one should aim at is one that is not necessarily too virtuous or too wicked, but one that falls into tragedy through mistakes and error. 

Chapter 14 - How to Inspire Pity and Fear

Here Aristotle talks more about pity and fear. "The tragic fear and pity may be aroused by the Spectacle; but they may also be aroused by the very structure and incidents of the play - which is the better way and shows the better poet." Just hearing the nature of the plot should inspire pity and fear. This is not the same as using monstrous props though. 

What type of plot points inspire fear and pity? Tragic deeds must involve people who are care about one another, not who are enemies or indifferent to one another. Likewise whether the person knows it is another person they care about that they are harming is another way to inspire fear and pity. This will especially shock the audience if the deed is done and the discovery made later about the true nature of it. But one cannot leave the action undone and still have a tragedy, for the most part. Thus, certain families have become the exemplars of this in Tragedy. 

Chapter 15 - Four Qualities of Characters - Good, Appropriate, Realistic, and Consistent

Regarding characters, Aristotle gives four points. First, characters should be good. Secondly, characters should have qualities appropriate to who they are. For example, a woman should not be manly. Third, to make them realistic. Fourth is to make them consistent with themselves, even if this means consistent inconsistency. "The right thing, however, is in the Characters just as in the incidents of the play to endeavor always after the necessary or the probable; so that whenever such-and-such a personage says or does such-and-such a thing, it shall be the necessary or probably outcome of the character; and whenever this incident follows on that, it shall be either the necessary or the probably consequence of it." Characters in Tragedy should be made slightly better than the ordinary man. He also says that the ending should arise out of the play itself, and not depend on the stage props. These should be used to represent the god's foreknowledge or past or future events, but not for things that could be in the drama itself. 

Chapter 16 - Six Types of Discovery 

This chapter is about types of  Discovery in tragedy. Aristotle gives six types. 

1) Discovery by signs and marks, such as the scar on Odysseus or the stars showing some sign to a character. 

2) Discovery given by the poet. "Orestes is made to say himself what the poet rather than the story demands." 

3) Discovery through memory. A character is triggered to remember something which becomes a revelation to himself or others. Such as Odysseus crying at hearing the songs of Troy leading to him reveals who he was to Alcinous and Arete. 

4) Discovery through reasoning. 

5) Discovery through bad reasoning of the other party

6) "The best of all Discoveries, however, is that arising from the incidents themselves, when the great surprise comes about through a probably incident ..." 

Chapter 17 - Tips for Forming the Dialogue of a Play 

In terms of forming the Diction of a play ... (1) the poet should try to envision everything as the audience so that he doesn't leave things out. (2) the poet should act out his own play with the corresponding emotions, hopefully having a gift for this or a "touch of madness" to help him. (3) He should reduce the play down to its universal forms before adding in the lengthy details and episodes. "In plays, then, the episodes are short; in epic poetry they serve to lengthen out the poem." 

Aristotle summarizes the whole plot of Homer's Odyssey as this: "A certain man has been abroad many years; Poseidon is ever on the watch for him, and he is all alone. Matters at home too have come to this, that his substance is being wasted and his son's death plotted by suitors to his wife. Then he arrives there himself after his grievous sufferings; reveals himself, and falls on his enemies; and the end is his salvation and their death. This being proper to the Odyssey, everything else in it episode." 

Chapter 18 - Four Types of Tragedy 

Aristotle then introduces another term, the "Complication", by which he means "all from the beginning of the story to the point just before the change in the hero's fortunes...". When he uses the term "Denouement" he means "all from the beginning of the change to the end." Both of these parts are important for the weaving of the tragedy. 

Aristotle talks about four types of tragedy. 

(1) Complex Tragedy - all peripety and discovery 

(2) Tragedy of Suffering 

(3) Tragedy of Character

(4) Spectacle

A drama should not deal with too large of a set of events and incidents, or it will not turn out well. That is for the Epic to do. (He also mentions that the Chorus must be a relevant actor in the play and not just sing unrelated things.) 

Chapter 19 - Thought Is Expressed In The Subject's Words

Turning to Thought and Diction, Aristotle says that the Thought of the subject must be expressed in what they say, and everything surrounding it. Likewise their words and actions must match as well. 

Chapter 20 - 8 Parts of Speech 

Turning more toward Diction, he expresses the following parts that make it up: 

- the letter

- the syllable

- the conjunction

- the article 

- the noun 

- the verb 

- the case

- the speech

(1) The Letter - The letter is the building block, an "indivisible sound of a particular kind". When these sounds are conjoined they can become something intelligible. There are three basic types of elementary sounds, "vowels, semi-vowels, and mutes". 

(2) The Syllable - "A syllable is a non-significant composite sound, made up of a mute and a latter having a sound..." 

(3) The Conjunction - "a non significant sound which, when one significant sound which, when one significant sound is formable out of several, neither 1457a hinders nor aids the union, and which, if the Speech thus formed stands by itself (apart from other Speeches), must not be inserted at the beginning of it; e. g. Méu, ốn, toi, 8é. Or (b) a non-significant sound capable of combining two or more significant sounds into one; 5 e. g. aui, repl, &C. 

(4) An Article -  is a non-significant sound marking the beginning, end, or dividing-point of a Speech, its natural place being either at the extremities or in the middle. 

(5) A Noun - or name is a composite significant sound not involving the idea of time, with parts which have no significance by themselves in it. It is to be remembered that in a compound we do not think of the parts as having a significance also by themselves; in the name 'Theodorus', for instance, the Supov means nothing to us. 

(6) A Verb - is a composite significant sound involving the idea of time, with parts which (just as in the Noun) have no significance by themselves in it. Whereas the word 'man' or 'white' does not imply when, 'walks' and 'has walked,' involve in addition to the idea of walking that of time present or time past. 

(7) A Case - of a Noun or Verb is when the word 20 means 'of' or 'to' a thing, and so forth, or for one or many (e. g. 'man' and 'men'); or it may consist merely in the mode of utterance, e.g. in question, command, &c. 'Walked?' and 'Walk!' are Cases of the verb 'to walk' of this last kind. 

(8) A Speech - is a composite significant sound, some of the parts of which have a certain significance by themselves."

Chapter 21 - 8 Types of Nouns

Turning to nouns, they can be simple, being made of non-meaningful parts, or they can be multiple, being made up of meaningful parts which take on a new whole. [Think names here like "Christopher" - Christ bearer]. 

He talks about 8 types of nouns: 

(1) the ordinary word for a thing - "in general use in a country"

(2) a strange word - "one in use elsewhere"

(3) a metaphor - "giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on grounds of analogy" Aristotle then goes over extensively how to work a metaphor wherein two like things A and B are compared to two other like things C and D. Then these like things can be substituted to create interesting references and analogies. He mentions, for example, a cup of wine is to Bacchus as a shield is to Ares. Therefore we can mix them and talk about The cup of Ares (being his shield) or the shield of Bacchus (being his wine). 

(4) an ornamental word 

(5) a coined word

(6) a word lengthened out

(7) curtailed 

(8) altered in form 

Chapter 22 - Balance in Word Choice and the Mastery of Metaphor

When it comes to Diction, Aristotle says that there has to be a balance between everyday common words, metaphors, and ornamental words which are not as familiar. If one uses only everyday words, the prose seems lacking and "mean". If one uses only metaphors and ornamental words one creates either a riddle or "barbarism". There has to be a balance of the two to achieve interesting and yet grounded diction. "What helps most, however, to render the Diction at once clear and non-prosaic is the use of the lengthened, curtailed and altered forms of words. Their deviation from the ordinary words will, by making the language unlike that in general use, give it a non-prosaic appearance; and their having much in common with the words in general use will give it the quality of clearness." 

The proper use of metaphor, though, is a sign of a great writer. "But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." 

Chapter 23 - A Unified Topic in Narrative Poetry 

Here Aristotle is moving away from talking about Tragedy to speak about "the poetry which merely narrates, or imitates by means of versified language (without action)..." He says that they should be based around a single action, not trying to cover unrelated events, even if they happened at the same time in history. Homer masters this as he only selects a week in the battle of the Trojan war. 

Chapter 24 - (incomplete) 

There are many similarities with Epic and Tragedy ... "it must be either simple or complex, a story of character or one of suffering. Its parts, too, with the exception of Song and Spectacle, must be the same, as it requires Peripeties, Discoveries, and scenes of suffering just like Tragedy. Lastly, the Thought, and Diction in it must be good in their own way." 

There are also differences though. 

Chapter 25 - (Incomplete) 

In terms of criticizing poetry, there are certain justifications for Aristotle. Poetry is imitation of life through language. This can be imitation of what was, what was said to be, or what should be. There are accidental faults and essential faults. Accidental faults could be misrepresenting something due yo lack of knowledge, such as getting a medical term wrong. Essential faults deal with the core imitation of life that the poem seeks. 

The poet can err by trying to describe the impossible, when it doesn’t add to the goal of the poem. Also by not describing something realistically, though this is argued. There can also be issues if language and metaphor is not clear or clarified. There can also be ambiguity in grammar or punctuation or mistranslation. 

If one is to justify the impossible, it must be for certain good reasons. (1) If it makes the poem better and is a convincing impossibility. (2) Showing that it is not altogether improbable or against opinion. (3) 

 

Chapter 26 - (incomplete) 

Aristotle, in this last chapter, addresses a claim that tragedy is more vulgar than epic poetry. The claim goes like this, that the higher form of imitation is that which is done for the more noble crowds. And so the ones that are done for everyone must be more vulgar, and thus include easily interpretable signs in the play that give away the meaning or that excite the less intelligent people. The tragic actors, being of a new generation, act in this way, appealing to all people, and thus must be the lower order of the two. 

He responds by saying that 

Questions to teach this text in an existentially relevant way:

1) Does this work make poetry and literature too formulaic?

2) Given what Aristotle says about the poet needing to have the universal in mind when composing, is the poet just an artistic philosopher?

3) Why is good literature/tragedy cathartic to the viewer? (Cleansing and purifying) (In these plays the unconscious is made conscious so that we can confront it safely and don't have to actually live it. We live our deepest fears and insecurities virtually through the story, and therefore are purified of them by learning how to deal with them.)

4) Why spend time imitating life in play? Is play the highest form of culture?

5) What happens if we don't share common stories together anymore (As Aristotle clearly shows that their culture did by all the references to plays that are assumed)

6) If the heart of poetry is mimesis, should it not be the heart of teaching as well? Why is mimesis also the role of the teacher? (You are giving the students forms through which to work and understand. These forms allow us to grasp the fundamentals and and then to be creative.)