The Nature of Tragedy
The Nature of Tragedy
The Nature of Tragedy
The Greek tragedies mark some of the best literature to survive from ancient Greek culture. The
foremost critic of Greek tragedy is the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle defined tragedy as "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; with incidents arousing fear and pity effecting the proper purgation of
these emotions (the Poetics qtd. in Weitz 155; Roberts and Jacobs 937).
For Aristotle, the tragedy should be a form of mimesis, or imitation, of an action; that is, the story
should mimic reality. What Aristotle appears to mean is that the play should present a unity of action
through a series of representative events ranging from happiness to misery that are a consequence of
the main character's own nature and habit of thought. These actions create the plot of the story (Weitz
155).