Aristotles Criteria and Apology by Socrates - Essay Example

Aristotle views mimesis or imitation as one of the most imperative principle, where a refined literary piece should represent the social and cultural traits prevailing all around, by portraying the exact and perfect picture of the social environment in which that specific literature has been created (3-5). Hence, he regards producing of poetry and drama as a brilliant effort of drawing out various cultural aspects with the help of imagination, intellect and creative abilities the author has been gifted with.

Consequently, he discards the claim made by Plato in his Apology that human imagination serves as a copy of real natural phenomena, and poetry is the copy of that imagination; consequently, poetic work is mere the copy of the copy of reality, which should not be accepted altogether. It is therefore the Apology criticizes all forms of art, either performing or verbal or written, by declaring them as strictly against moral values and reality. On the other hand, the Poetics proclaims literature as the written expression of the observation made by an intelligent observer of social and natural phenomena, which possesses the art of imitating what is real in nature and scope (8).

Moreover, Aristotle divides literary pieces into two categories, where he views tragedy and epic as refined forms, while declares comedy and satire as mean forms of literature (11-12). Tragedy and epic, according to him, are the serious, complete and adequate imitation of reality existing in society, and present the true picture of the social traits and characteristics in a serious tone and refined manner. Consequently, Aristotle admires tragedy, and condemns comedy while making an analysis of various literary genres (29).

Tragedy, in the eyes of Aristotle, is not mere an imitation, but is actually the presentation of reality through action; it is therefore he declares imitation as the state of ‘men in action’. Tragic form of literature presents reality through action in such a manner that it arouse the emotions of pity and fear in the audience in order to bring about emotional relief; Aristotle names this state as catharsis. Thus, catharsis has turned out to be an inevitable element in every tragedy, which seeks relief for readers or spectators at the eve of tragic happening taking place in tragedy.

The great critic of ancient Greek elaborates six elements in a tragedy, which includes mythos (plot), Eythos (character), dianoia (thought), lexis (language), melos (music) and opsis (spectacle). He views plot, character and thought as three internal elements of tragedy, where plot is the most important one in all regards. Plot is a complete whole, containing beginning, middle and end, where there is a visible unity in all the three parts of it. There are two types of plots according to Aristotle, which include simple and complex; simple plots lack peripetcia or discovery (of truth or reality), while the complex ones maintain the same.

While elucidating hamartia, the critic is of the opinion that a tragic hero should be a normal person possessing high moral character and dignity; however, he should not be free from flaws and faults altogether. In simple words, the tragic hero is a human, not superman, which carries all human needs,