Aristotle's Poetics Paper - Essay Example

According to Plato, poetry is an imitation of the appearance of the world which is created on the idea of God thus poetry is twice removed from reality. Aristotle refuses this idea and illustrates that poetry is the creative reproduction of the real idea. It is not superficial rather it presents inner reality. Unlike Plato who perceives poetry as painting, Aristotle links poetry to music as poets imitate though harmony and rhythm like the musicians. Aristotle considers ‘tragedy’ as an important kind of poetry and elaborates the function and nature of tragedy briefly.

He explains the nature and qualities of a tragic hero comprehensively that he carries in a well constructed tragedy. He states that arousing fear and pity in the audience must be the hallmark of a tragic hero so he rules out three kinds of persons to be presented as tragic heroes. According to him ‘a good man must not be seen passing from happiness to misery’ or ‘a bad man from misery to happiness’. If a person possessing good qualities passes from happiness to misfortune, we do not feel fear or pity for him rather we hate that kind of situation.

A situation in which a person possessing bad qualities gets happiness after passing through miseries, does not appeal to human mind and such feelings as pity or fear are not aroused as it is the most untragic situation. The third type of situation which doesn’t go in favour of an ideal hero is ‘an extremely bad man be seen falling from happiness into misery’. This kind of man does not qualify for arousing the feelings of fear and pity as it is a deserved misfortune. Aristotle defines tragic hero as an ‘intermediate kind of personage’ who is not very pious or morally low and the misery befallen on him must be because of some error of his judgement or a flaw in his character which Aristotle terms as ‘hamartia’ or ‘tragic flaw’.

The tragic hero must be a prosperous person who holds an eminent place in the society. The change in his fortune must be from happiness to misery arousing fear and pity in the readers. Aristotle further discusses the ‘character’ of the tragic hero and put forth four important qualities. First important quality regarding character is the goodness of the hero. The hero must be a good person regardless of the position he holds in the society. He emphasizes so much on the goodness of character that even he considers woman as an inferior creature and slave as a worthless beings but if chosen they must also possess good qualities.

Secondly, the character of the hero must be appropriate about which some critics say that it must be taken as true to type. The hero must be true to his profession, sex, age, class r status. Thirdly, the character must be true to real life and fourthly, he must be consistent throughout the play. The development that takes place in his character must be logical his words and actions should follow necessity or probability. Shakespeare’s Macbeth successfully wins the title of Aristotle’s tragic hero as he exhibit all the qualities that are described by Aristotle.

Macbeth is a man who holds an eminent position in the society and gets the title ‘Thane of Cawdor’ from the king for his bravery in the battlefield. This noble man’s error of judgement allows him to be misled by the evil witches and by the instigations of his wife