Monday, August 12, 2019

Read the following excerpt from Aristotle's Poetics and discuss the Essay

Read the following excerpt from Aristotle's Poetics and discuss the respects in which the Medea adheres to his guidelines and - Essay Example *** The Third Episode of Medea contains all the elements necessary, from Aristotle’s point of view, for a play to be called a tragedy. Among others these include, Jason’s mimesis, dialogues, structure of the plot, peripeteia. Another evidence of tragedian character of Euripides’ play is a scene of pain. In the Third Episode we can see the mimesis when Medea repeats Jason’s wrong doings in burning desire to revenge on him and make him suffer. She makes a plan how to force Jason to suffer as much as Medea did felt when he has broken his oath. So here we can observe one of the main elements of a tragedy according to Aristotle. Another key element of a classical tragedy is dialogue, which Medea uses when speaking to Aegeus and asking him to â€Å"Swear by the Earth on which you tread/Swear by the Sun, my father’s father dread/Swear by every god and godhead† to always defend her. This utterance is a dialogue as it said in a highly poetic, elevated tone. Peripeteia of this tragedy also purely corresponds to Aristotle’s requirements stated in the Poetics. ... In Euripides' tragedy there is too much suffering, due to this reason Aristotle called Euripides the most tragic of the playwrights. Here we can observe sufferings when Jason sees his sons’ blood seeping from under the door. It was Medea’s plane to make him suffer – with this purpose she killed her children, the only part of Jason she still had. She wanted to get rid of him completely and at the same time to make him feel grief and agony. The Third Episode of the tragedy shows vividly all the elements in which Euripides’ Medea adheres to Aristotle’s guidelines. So, Medea represents a classic tragedy and can be taken as an example for analysis. In spite of the fact that Aristotle himself considered Medea to be one of the best samples of classical tragedy, Euripides’ masterpiece contains a few elements which do not satisfy Aristotle’s views. For example, Aristotle reproached Euripides for partiality to the method of "God from the machine †, which consists in the fact that the denouement does not escape from the plot, but is achieved with god’s help. Aristotle wrote: â€Å"... the denouement of the plot should follow from the plot, but not, as in Medea, through the machine.† And if the denouement of the conflict so often required the sudden appearance of supernatural forces, then it was not due to Euripides’ inability to find a more convincing composite course, but due to the fact that the poet had not seen in contemporary world solutions for many intricate human affairs. The poet is abhorrent to every theatrical convention. According to Aristotle, a real tragedy, arousing in the viewer sympathy and fear, makes discharging of these affects, directing them into

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