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Evolution of Tragedy: Notes Scavenger HuntYou will search the internet to answer the questions below. You can also find the notes on my teacher page on the Davidson website. Go to - Go to School Staff. Click on my name. Click on “Forms”. Download the “Evolution of Tragedy Notes”. You are responsible for completing the scavenger hunt questions on your own. At the end of the assignment, write down the sites you used to answer these questions.Define the following terms:Katharsis/Catharsis – Peripetia – Hamartia – Hubris - Apollonian – Dionysiac – Identify and Describe the six principles of Aristotle’s definition of tragedy:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Identify and Describe the major elements of a Shakespearean tragedy:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Both Nietzsche and Hegel define tragedy as a central conflict. What is the conflict in Nietzsche?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What is the conflict in Hegel?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How do Aristotle, Shakespeare, and Hegel define the tragic hero differently?Aristotle:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Shakespeare:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hegel:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6. How is Catharsis defined differently by each author?1._________________________________________________________________________2._________________________________________________________________________3._________________________________________________________________________4._______________________________________________________________________7. As a group – discuss the four philosophies on tragedy:Which author’s philosophy do you prefer and why? (circle one)AristotleShakespeare Hegel NietzscheWhy? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________From the Poetics (335 BC)Aristotle’s Ideas About TragedyAristotle was one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece. A philosopher looks for ideal forms, and tries to explain the nature of reality. The search for ideal forms led Aristotle to explore many subjects. His analysis of the ideal form of tragic plays became a guideline for later playwrights in Western civilization. For centuries, European playwrights like William Shakespeare tried to write plays that would match the ideals of Aristotle’s model.Drama was not invented by Aristotle. In fact, he used examples from the works of famous Greek playwrights such as Sophocles to illustrate his main ideas. The Greeks believed that tragedy was the highest form of drama, and Aristotle’s ideas about tragedy were based on this belief.Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy.“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious a d also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language; ... in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”1. “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself;”This means that a good tragedy deals with one issue that is very “serious.” You can’t have a tragedy about something trivial like breaking a fingernail. “Magnitude” here means great importance. The issue has to be serious and very, very important. That’s why a lot of tragedies deal with someone’s death. “Complete in itself” means that the play must stick to the o ne issue; otherwise, the audience will get lost in the plot.2. “in appropriate and pleasurable language:”Ancient Greek tragedy had a chorus whose role was to comment on the action of the play. The chorus sometimes sang their part. Aristotle said that the language should be easy to listen to. It should have rhythm and also good harmony for the lines that were sung.3. “in a dramatic rather than narrative form;”To narrate a story is simply to tell the story, like telling a friend what happened over the weekend. In a play, the story must be dramatized or acted out.4. “with incidents arousing pity and fear,”In a tragedy, the events or episodes in the play should lead the audience to feel very sorry for the main character—the tragic hero. The audience should also feel afraid for the hero as he moves toward a destructive end.5. “wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”As the play moves along, the events should build up the emotions of pity and fear. A catharsis is a purging, or cleansing of the emotions --a release of tension. In a tragedy, this is often a moment of revelation when the tragic hero “falls flat on his face,” and the audience can finally “explode.”Aristotle’s Elements of TragedyAristotle said that tragedy has six main elements:These will be described from least important to most important. The last four elements (Thought, Diction, Melody, and Spectacle) are the least important, but Aristotle felt they must be done well for the play to succeed.Thought is the power of saying whatever can be said and should be said at each moment of the plot. Do the lines spoken by the actors make sense? Are they saying what should be said at each particular moment in the play?Diction is the actual composition of the lines that are recited. Thought deals with what is said, and diction deals with how it is said. There are many ways to say something. A good playwright composes lines that say something extremely well. In a good play, some lines are so well constructed that the audience can leave the play quoting the lines exactly.Melody and Spectacle are accessories. The Greeks sometimes used musical accompaniment. Aristotle said the music (melody) has to blend in with the play appropriately. Spectacle refers to the staging of the play . Again, as with melody, the spectacle should be appropriate to the theme of the play.Character is the second most important element of tragedy. Each character has an essential quality or nature that is revealed in the plot. The moral purpose of each character must be clear to the audience. The characters should have four main qualities.A. No matter who they are (hero or slave), the characters must be good in some way.B. The characters should act appropriately for their gender and station in life.C. The characters have to have believable personalities.D. Each character must act consistently throughout the play. In other words, nothing should be done or said that could be seen as “acting out of character.”PlotAristotle felt that the action of the play (its plot) was the most important of the six elements.He said, “All human happiness or misery takes the form of action... . Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions--what we do--that we are happy or miserable.”There must be Unity of Plot. This has already been described in the definition which talks about “one complete action.” Any events or episodes must be necessary to the main issue and must also be probable or believable.2. A good plot has Peripetia or Discovery--sometimes both.Peripetia is the change from one state of things at the beginning of the play to the exact opposite state by the end of the play. This could be something like the change from being rich to being poor, or from being powerful to being powerless, or from being a ruler to being a beggar. The change that takes place in a tragedy should take the main character (and possibly other characters) from a state of happiness to a state of misery.Discovery is a change from ignorance to knowledge. This often happens to the tragic hero who starts out “clueless” and slowly learns how he himself created the mess he ends up in at the end of the play. The characters downfall is usually due to a tragic flaw, Hamartia. The most common tragic flaw is pride, or hubris.3. Change by itself is not enough. The character involved in the change must have specific characteristics to arouse the tragic emotions of pity and fear. Therefore, Aristotle said that there are three forms of plot that should be avoided.A. A totally good man must not pass from happiness to misery.This will make the audience angry that bad things happened to him. They won’t pity him so much as be angry for him.B. A bad man must not pass from misery to happiness.This won’t appeal to the audience at all because they won’t want to see evil rewarded.C. A bad man cannot pass from happiness to misery.The audience won’t feel sorry for him because they will believe he got what he deserved.The true tragic hero cannot be too good or too bad, but he must end up in misery. Aristotle concluded that the best tragedy centers on a basically good man who changes from happiness to misery because of some great error. For example, he might have a good quality, like pride, that gets out of hand.4. The plot of a tragedy also involves some horrible or evil deed. The tragic hero either does it consciously, does it out of ignorance, or mediates it (makes it easy for the deed to happen). For the audience to be horrified by the evil deed, the evil has to be done to someone important to the tragic hero. If the hero kills his enemy, the deed won’t seem so bad. On the other hand, if the hero kills someone he doesn’t care about, the audience won’t care much either. To make it really horrible for the audience, Aristotle suggested that the evil deed should be done to a family member.Shakespearean TragedyOf the three types of plays recognized in the Shakespeare First Folio -- Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies -- the last has been the most discussed and is clearest in outline. 1. Tragedy must end in some tremendous catastrophe involving in Elizabethan practice the death of the principal character. 2. The catastrophe must not be the result of mere accident, but must be brought about by some essential trait in the character of the hero acting either directly or through its effect on other persons. 3. The hero must nevertheless have in him something which outweighs his defects and interests us in him so that we care for his fate more than for anything else in the play. The problem then is, why should a picture of the misfortunes of someone in whom we are thus interested afford us any satisfaction? No final answer has yet been found. Aristotle said that the spectacle by rousing in us pity and fear purges us of these emotions, and this remains the best explanation. Just as a great calamity sweeps from our minds the petty irritations of our common life, so the flood of esthetic emotion lifts us above them. It is really much more difficult than is always recognized to be sure what constituted Shakespeare's view of the tragic satisfaction or even that he believed in it. It is possibly true that Lear is a better man at the end of the play than he was at the beginning, and that without his suffering he would not have learned sympathy with his kind; but this does not apply either to Hamlet or to Othello, and even in the case of King Lear it does not explain the aesthetic appeal. The student, after getting the story of the tragedy quite clear, should concentrate first on the character of the hero. Ask yourself whether his creator considered him ideally perfect -- in which case the appeal probably lies in the spectacle of a single human soul defying the universe; or flawed -- in which case the defect will bring about the catastrophe. The following points define a typical Shakespearean tragedy:? ?1.)???? Tragedy is concerned primarily with one person – The tragic hero.?2.)???? The story is essentially one of exceptional suffering and calamity leading to the death of the hero.? The suffering and calamity are, as a rule, unexpected and contrasted with previous happiness and glory.?3.)???? The tragedy involves a person of high estate.? Therefore, his or her fate affects the welfare of a whole nation or empire.?4.)???? The hero undergoes a sudden reversal of fortune that excites and arouses the emotions of pity and fear within the audience. The reversal may frighten and awe, making viewers feel that man is blind and helpless.? The audience will regard the tragic hero as an individual who is up against an overwhelming power that may treat him well for a short period of time, but will eventually strike him down in his pride.5.)???? The tragic fate of the hero is often triggered by a tragic flaw in the hero’s character. The hero contributes in some way, shape, or form to the disaster in which he perishes.?6.)???? Shakespeare often introduces abnormal conditions of the mind (such as insanity, dreams, or hallucinations).?7.)???? Supernatural elements are often introduced as well (ghosts, witches, etc…).?8.)???? Much of the plot seems to hinge on “chance” or “accident” (i.e. Fate).?9.) Besides the outward conflict between individuals or groups of individuals, there is also an inner conflict(s) and torment(s) within the soul of the tragic hero.?10.) The tragic hero need not be an overwhelmingly “good” person; however, it is necessary that he/she should contain so much greatness that in his/her fall the audience may be vividly conscious of the individual’s potential for further success, but also the temptation of human nature.? Therefore, a Shakespearean tragedy is never depressing because the audience can understand where the hero went wrong.?11.) The tragic world is one of action.? Action is created when thoughts turn into reality.? Unfortunately for the tragic hero, their plans do not materialize as they may have hoped and their actions ultimately lead to their own destruction.?12.) The ultimate power in the tragic world is a moral order; more specifically, the struggle between good and evil.?a)???? The main source of the problems which produces all the death and suffering is evil in the fullest sense.?b)??? This evil violently disturbs the moral order of the world.?c)???? Evil is seen as something negative, barren, weakening, destructive, a principle of death.? It isolates, disunites, and annihilates.? Only while some vestiges of good remain in the hero, can he/she still exist.? When the evil masters the good in the hero, it destroys him/her and those around them.?d)??? This evil is eventually destroyed and the moral order of the world is re-established.??The cycle of a tragedy is as follows:??Good….…Evil…….Chaos…....Death…....Re-assertion of Good Introduction to Hegel’s Theory of Tragedy by: MARK W. ROCHENext to Aristotle’s account of tragedy, the theory of tragedy developed by the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831) has become the most studied and quoted in the West. Tragedy arises, according to Hegel, when a hero courageously asserts a substantial and just position, but in doing so simultaneously violates a contrary and likewise just position and so falls prey to a one-sidedness that is defined at one and the same time by greatness and by guilt (i. e. close mindedness breeds tragedy).Tragedy is the opposition of two justified dogmas:For Hegel tragedy is the conflict of two substantive positions, each of which is justified, yet each of which is wrong to the extent that it fails either to recognize the validity of the other position or to grant it its moment of truth; the conflict can be resolved only with the fall of the hero.The original essence of tragedy consists then in the fact that within such a conflict each of the opposed sides, if taken by itself, has justification, while on the other hand each can establish the true and positive content of its own aim and character only by negating and damaging the equally justified power of the other. Hegel’s tragic hero – Outsider:Often a self-sacrificing hero arrives before a new paradigm is set and collides with tradition, or a stubborn hero holds on to his/her position long after a new norm has taken shape (i. e. the hero is too traditional or too progressive to adhere to the new society).Many tragic heroes stand for truths that are too new to have a majority behind them; after the hero’s sacrifice the situation will change;That is the position of heroes in world history generally; through them a new world dawns.The heroes appear, therefore, as violent, transgressing laws. Individually, they are vanquished;But the principles of the hero persist, if in a different form.Because the tragic hero acts both for and against the good, his/her nature is as paradoxical as the situation in which she finds herself: she is both great and flawed—indeed, her very greatness is her flaw, since greatness comes at the price of [rebellion]. The hero is both innocent and guilty—innocent insofar as she adheres to the good by acting on behalf of a just principle; guilty insofar as she violates a good and wills to identify with that violation. Fear and Pity:Hegel’s focus on the structure of tragic collision gives him a new angle on the traditional motifs of fear and pity. For Hegel the audience is to fear not external fate, as with Aristotle, but the ethical substance which, if violated, will turn against the hero (ethos). Insofar as suffering flows inevitably from the tragic hero’s profound identification with a just and substantial position, suffering for Hegel is not quite the undeserved suffering that for Aristotle elicits pity. Hegel reinterprets pity as sympathy not merely with the suffering hero as sufferer but with the hero as one who, despite her fall, is nonetheless in a sense justified. According to Hegel, we fear the power of an ethical substance that has been violated as a result of collision, and we sympathize with the tragic hero who, despite having transgressed the absolute, also in a sense upholds the absolute.Thus, Hegelian tragedy has an emotional element: we are torn between the values and destiny of each position; we identify with the character’s action but sense the inevitable power of the absolute, which destroys the hero’s one-sidedness. Hegel upholds that in the best tragedies the conflict is equal. In works where the conflict is unequal, tragic intensity tends to diminish.The most dramatic form of tragedy arises when the poles are embodied in two characters or institutions.There is also the possibility of a tragic collision within an individual’s consciousness. An internal collision of this kind may become less dramatic because of Hegel’s theory on the evolution of tragedy:In ancient tragedy the characters completely identify with the substantive powers and ideas that rule human life; characters act “for the sake of the substantial nature of their end” (Artistotle).In modern tragedy, in contrast, we see greater internal development of character as well as the elevation of more particular concerns: “what presses for satisfaction is the subjectivity of their heart and mind and the privacy of their own character” (Shakespeare & Nietzsche). Also the complexity of modern causality diminishes the extent to which one single person can affect the world around her; complexity and the contingency of circumstances play a greater role in modern tragedy.Catharsis:For Hegel tragic fate is rational: reason does not allow individuals to hold on to one-sided positions. Because each stance is constituted through its relation to the other, the elimination of one stance leads to the destruction of the other. The human result is death, but the absolute end is the reestablishment of ethical substance. This unity is for Hegel the catharsis of tragedy, which takes place in the consciousness of the audience, as it recognizes the supremacy of the whole of ethical life and sees it purged of one-sidedness. Nietzsche’s ‘Birth of Tragedy’ Background Nietzsche: a nineteenth century Classicist and Philosopher Birth of Tragedy originally published in 1872 The question Nietzsche poses: "how to view scholarship from the vantage of the artist and art from the vantage of life" (from the preface) This was (in N's words!) "an arrogant and extravagant book" The Birth of Tragedy: Marriage of the Apollonian and the Dionysiac Apollo – god of the sun (i.e. knowledge/light)Dionysus – god of wine (i.e. lust, abandon)Dream illusion wisdom, delight, beauty of illusion like a day-dream: a set of fantasies under one's control Intoxication (of wine or more generally a link to primordial, uncontrolled emotions) narcotic: loss of self, a "mystical self-abrogation" uncontrolled fantasies principium individuationis: principle of "individuation," of divorcing one's SELF from the group, and focusing on self-identitythiasos: oneness of individual with the group, losing oneself in the massesprinciple of order, controluncontrolled, orgiastic rites that are barbaric (a sort of controlled riot)CULTURE self-control, counter to hubris Sayings inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi" "nothing in excess" "know thyself" triumphs over monsters and reality through illusion NATURE primordial emotions loss of self in the thiasos a lack of self-control Tragedy resolves the fundamental conflict between Apollo and Dionysus: Marriage of the Apollonian and Dionysiac Dionysiac excitation creates a group identity, associated with the chorus, and by extension with the audience, who identifies with the chorus But the Dionysiac is overlaid, and controlled, by the Apollonian structure of poetry and dramatic illusion: these emotions are not, finally, a loss into the primordial, a total loss of self, but are simply a part of the dramatic experience Tragedy is then a Dionysiac chorus (actors, chorus, and audience!) which "discharges itself in Apollonian images" Apollo = poetry, dramatic scene, i.e. controlled expressions (of the "dream illusion") Dionysus = chorus, audience (thiasos!): an empathic, ecstatic response Importantly, N. adds to the discussion how it may be that the watching of dramatic suffering is not simply an individual experience, but one informed fundamentally by the group dynamics Dionysiac thiasos: one measure's one's own reactions by those of the group, and this informs, to an extent the emotion that we feel But this happens with the context of Apollonian control: so the connection with these group emotions, though primordial, "ecstatic", and potentially orgiastic, are in fact controlled by the beautiful order of the artistic structure, that "dream illusion" we call drama *Reprinted from ()*Works CitedElse, Gerard.. Aristotle's Poetics: The Argument. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957.Hegel, G.W.F. Hegel’s Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art. Trans. T. M. Knox. Oxford: Clarendon, 1975.—. Werke in zwanzig B?nden. Ed. E. Moldenhauer and K. M. Michel. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1970.Paolucci, Anne and Henry Paulucci. Hegel on Tragedy. New York: Doubleday, 1962.Roche, Mark W. “The Greatness and Limits of Hegel’s Theory of Tragedy.” A Companion toTragedy. Ed. Rebecca Bushnell. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. 51-67.Spens, Janet. Elizabethan Drama. London: Metheun & Co. 1922. Shakespeare Online. June 2009 —. Tragedy and Comedy: A Systematic Study and a Critique of Hegel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. ................
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