The Role Of Aristotle In The History Of Theatrics

A common mistaken thought throughout people is that Aristotle was a famous actor, or studied drama and theatrics. But the truth is, he was actually a philosopher. Shocking, I know. Here are the basics that you should know about Aristotle before diving into all the other great and amazing things he did in his lifetime with Drama. Aristotle was born around 384 BC in the ancient Greek kingdom, Macedonia. He died in 322 BC He grew up to be a very famous philosopher, and was given nicknames like ‘The Master’ or ‘The Philosopher’. Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great, and when he moved to Athens, worked under Plato for around 20 years. He then went off on his own and founded a school called The Lyceum. The people who followed him were called ‘peripatetics’. He was one of the first scientists. Now that I’ve introduced the great ‘Philosopher’, let’s move on to what he did in his life that is still extremely significant and important to Drama today.

Aristotle's Poetics

Aristotle’s Poetics is a book in which he addresses: How to make a good poem The different kinds of poetry in which he includes: Epic poetry Tragedy Comedy Dithyrambic poetry Certain types of music The different components of a poem He defines poetry as a duplicate life through emotion, character and action.

He defines poetry very widely Vocabulary

There’s quite a lot of complicated Greek words in Aristotle’s Poetics that most people have never heard of in their lives. So, to make your life a little easier and to help you understand what everything means, here is the key vocabulary you need to know to fully understand Aristotle’s tragic hero rules: Hubris Hubris = Pride Hubris is a type of fatal flaw that often was used in Greek Tragedies. When using the word pride, I don’t mean they were arrogant and had too big of an ego. It means that they had too much pride in what they believed in and wouldn’t give up on completing their objective that had to do with it.

Hamartia Tragic/Fatal flaw

In Greek tragedies, the downfall of the hero is not brought upon by a villain, but their own mistake or error of judgment. Usually, their fatal flaw is hubris. This mistake then leads them to their downfall, and in the ancient Greek time, that usually meant death. An example of this would be in Antigone where the girl, Antigone, keeps on trying to bury her brother and ends up killing herself Her fatal flaw in the play would be hubris because she had to much pride in what she believed in and wouldn’t give up. Peripeteia A reversal of fortune In the play, this would be when the hero goes from a state of happiness to misery or sadness. It is often an ironic twist meaning that it is thought to be a good change but turns out to result in the hero’s demise. The reversal of fortune could be something like the hero going from being powerful to powerless, rich to poor etc.

Catharsis Purgation/purification of pity or fear

When watching the tragedy unfold on stage, someone who is watching it could be purified/purged/get rid of these emotions. This experience is Agnorosis. Agnorosis is the discovery of something that causes a change from ignorance to knowledge. For example, if the hero in a Greek play finds out that their thought to be dead brother is actually alive. Most often, the agnorosis plays a part in the reversal of fortune (peripeteia).

Three Classical Unities The three rules of drama

1. Unity of Action = The play should only have one plot/action that it follows, with minimal to none subplots.
2. Unity of Time = The action should occur for a time period of no longer than 24 hours.
3. Unity of Place = The play should exist in one physical space, and the stage should not represent more than one setting. If any of these unities are displaced or taken out, the whole play will be disjointed.

Tragic Hero

The tragic hero is the hero in the play who has a reversal of fortune which leads to their downfall. These are the rules that Aristotle made to have a hero considered ‘tragic’. Without all of these traits, the hero is not considered a real ‘tragic hero’.

1. The tragic hero must be of noble status, and this should be evident in the play. They must have a high status but still be noble and virtuous.
2. The hero cannot be perfect or we as an audience would not be able to relate and take pity on them
3. The hero’s downfall must be their own fault and be because of a choice they made.
4. The hero’s downfall or misfortune is not what they deserve.

The punishment that they face at the end of the play also must exceed what they did in the play due to their hamartia. A modern day example could be: Someone puts on a riot that fights for equal rights, and their punishment is a life sentence in prison.

Five Act Structure

How are you understanding things so far? Good? I hope so. Hang in there a little longer cause you’re almost there. Next up – as you probably already figured out or maybe as the title clearly states – is the five act structure. The five act structure is the structure in which the play is set up and executed. These are the 5 different acts in the structure of a Greek tragedy (you can see the layout more clearly in the picture):

Act 1: Prologue/Exposition In the prologue, the audience find out the setting (time and place), the characters are developed and established, and the conflict is introduced.

Act 2: Rising Action A series of events that result in the climax. The hero will often face complications or challenges

Act 3: The Climax The most suspenseful, or exciting part of the play. The turning part of the performance.

Act 4: Falling action The story starts coming to an end, and any unknown details or plot twists are shown and finished. The consequences of what happened in the climax are shown here too.

Act 5: Resolution/Denouement This would be the final outcome of the play. Often a moral or life lesson will be taught or learned. Storyboard That (no date) Zazzle (Accessed: 6 October 2018)

Conclusion

Good job! You made it through the most complex parts! Now I’m going to wrap up everything by saying why Aristotle is still studied within theatre today. Aristotle is still studied today within theatre because he was very influential to how Greek comedies and tragedies were acted out since his lifetime all the way to ours. Even though Aristotle’s knowledge was more targeted towards his lifetime (for example, the play had to either be a comedy or tragedy, only a maximum of three characters acting on stage), he greatly shaped how we study and perform performances today. He also taught people who criticize and review plays how to become an expert at their job through the knowledge that he shared about the rules of Greek plays. Most movies and shows today are based around Aristotle’s three/five act structure.

To wrap everything up, Aristotle was an extremely significant figure in the history of theatrics, and many of his rules are still applied to modern day blockbusters. I hope this guide was of some use to you and that you learnt something from it and that you can go on to tell someone else of how you learnt who Aristotle was and what great things he did for the drama industry today.