Classi Classic Greek Tragedies

One of the primary readings in Chapter 2 of our textbook is an excerpt from several chapters of a translation of Aristotle’s writing Poetics, from the fourth century B.C.E. A summary of the primary reading is as follows: Aristotle writes that a tragedy should be complete, a pleasing language, in a dramatic not narrative form, and should arouse pity and fear to accomplish ‘catharsis of emotions.’ He also tells us what a tragedy should not be. Plots should not be about a good man going from happiness to misery, or a bad man from going from misery to happiness, or extremely bad man from happiness into misery. A tragedy should be about a man who has a misfortune caused by his error in judgment. The perfect plot should contain just this single issue. The fear and pity may be aroused by ‘the Spectacle’ but a better poet is able to arouse this response solely by the structure and incidents of the play.

Also still studied extensively and widely read are Shakespearean tragedies such as the plays Julius Caesar and Hamlet. The first contemporary example that came to mind for me was the film Avatar, where the hero in the story has made multiple errors in judgment that cause him to be outcast both from his human counterparts as well as his newly found tribe that he first was assigned to help destroy. This was both a popular and critically acclaimed film, an example of how the formula for a great tragedy according to Aristotle is still pertinent today. Many great fictional works still seem to follow Aristotle’s guidelines of a great tragedy, however modern cultural texts have multiple plot lines and often multiple tragedies. Modern films often contain aspects that could be considered ‘the Spectacle’, such as visual effects and do not necessarily detract from the story, in my opinion. Many modern audiences demand these effects before watching a