Aristotle's "Poetics": Definition of Tragedy as a Genre Sec. I All poetry (poesis: "making") is imitation (Mimesis). Sec. II Tragedy is an imitation of men of a morally higher type. Tragedy draws men better than they are in life. Sec. III All forms of drama represent action directly, unlike narrative (epic), which represents it indirectly. Sec. VI "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these emotions." "Plot is the imitation of the action:--for by plot I here mean the arrangement of incidents." "[M]ost important of all is the structure of the incidents." "[T]he most powerful elements of emotional interest in Tragedy--Peripeteia or Reversal of the Situation, and Recognition scenes [anagnoresis]-- are parts of the plot. Sec. VII "Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete, and whole, and of a certain magnitude; for there may be a whole that is wanting in magnitude. A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end. . . . A well constructed plot, therefore, must neither begin nor end at haphazard . . . ." Sec. IX "[I]t is not the function of the poet to relate what has happened, but what may happen,--what is possible according to the law of probability or necessity." Sec. XI "Two parts . . . of the Plot--Reversal of the Situation and Recognition--turn upon surprises. A third part is the Scene of Suffering. The Scene of Suffering is a destructive or painful action, such as death on the stage, bodily agony, wounds and the like." Sec. XIII "A perfect tragedy should . . . be arranged not on the simple but on the complex plan. It should, moreover, imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation. It follows plainly, in the first place, that the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity: for this moves neither pity nor fear; it merely shocks us. Nor, again, that of a bad man passing from adversity to prosperity: for nothing can be more alien to the spirit of Tragedy; it possesses no single tragic quality; it neither satisfies the moral sense nor calls forth pity and fear. Nor, again, should the downfall of the utter villain be exhibited. A plot of this kind would, doubtless, satisfy the moral sense, but it would inspire neither pity nor fear; for pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves. Such an event, therefore, will be neither pitiful nor terrible. "There remains, then, the character between these two extremes,--that of a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or fraily [hamartia]. He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous,--a personage like Oedipus . . . . " Sec. XIV "Let us then determine what are the circumstances which strike us as terrible or pitiful. "Actions capable of this effect must happen between persons who are either friends or enemies or indifferent to one another. If an enemy kills an enemy, there is nothing to excite pity either in the act or the intention--except so far as the suffering in itself is pitiful. So again with indifferent persons. But when the tragic incident occurs between those who are near or dear to one another--if, for example, a brother kills, or intends to kill, a brother, a son his father, a mother her son, a son his mother, or any other deed of the kind is done--these are situations to be looked for by the poet." Sec. XV There are four things necessary for a tragic character: 1. The character must be good. 2. The character should exhibit propriety (e.g., men should act like men and women like women). 3. The character should be true to life. 4. The character should be consistent, "for though the subject of the imitation, who suggested the type, be inconsistent, still he must be consistently inconsistent." Sec. XVIII "Every tragedy falls into two parts,--Complication and Unravelling or denouement. Incidents extraneous to the action are frequently combined with a portion of the action proper, to form the Complication; the rest is the Unravelling. By the Complication I mean all that extends from the beginning of the action to the part which marks the turning-point to good or bad fortune. The Unravelling is that which extends from the beginning of the change to the end." Sec. XXIV "In Tragedy we cannot imitate several lines of actions carried on at one and the same time; we must confine ourselves to the action on the stage and the part taken by the players." "[T]he poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities." Sec. XXV "In general, the impossible must be justified by reference to artistic requirements, or to the higher reality, or to received opinion. With respect to the requirements of art, a probable impossibility is to be preferred to a thing improbable and yet possible. Again, it may be impossible that there should be men such as Zeuxis painted. `Yes,' we say, `but the impossible is the higher thing; for the ideal type must surpass the reality.'"