Plot vs Character in Tragedy Essay

Q. PLOT Vs CHARACTER In Tragedy In his immortal creation Poetics Aristotle mentions six formative elements of tragedy Plot, Character, Thought, expression, Spectacle and Song. And among them plot gets the prior attention and importance. Aristotle claims plot to be the soul of tragedy. In his view character as secondary to the plot. He in his keep Poetics opines Plot is the fundamental thing, the soul of tragedy, whereas character is secondary. Chap7. It is only in the context of describing ideal plot that Aristotle refers to character. Aristotle categorically states that there can be a tragedy without character, but there can never be a tragedy without plot. According to Aristotle, there are two kinds of plotsimple plot and tortuous plot.In simple plot we find only peripeteia or the reversal of situation, and complex plot shows both peripeteia and Anagnorisis or the sudden discovery. likewise these main two, plot can be based on scenes of wretcheds. An ideal plot is one which arouses pity and terror and brings about the outlet of emotions. But the suffering of all characters cannot arouse pity and terror. If the tragic shooter is a thoroughly bad man, his sufferings will not arouse the desired tragic emotions. And if the tragic hero is a thoroughly exhaustively man, his sufferings will shock us. So the arousal of pity and terror demands the description of a person who is neither very uncorrupted nor very bad.The ideal character should be a person of intermediate sort. Thus, character is subordinated to plot. Tragedy depicts actions, and not character it is the plot which reveals the character. In the classical tragedies of Greece emphasis is certainly laid on plot. Sophocles King Oedipus, Aeschyluss Agamemnon or Euripidess Medea is really plot-oriented.But in modern or social tragedies, character is most assimilated with the circumstances of lifewith different social forces. Bradleys definition of tragedy as a tale of exceptional calamity of a perso n who move from prosperity to misery shifts our attention to character. Synges Riders to the sea or Ibsens A Dolls House exhibits the greater prominence of characters. To sum up the above discussion we can accept the fact that a proper blending between plot and character is the sole requisite of a good tragedy. And a successful tragedy writer knows how to provide thereaders or the audience with the blend of these two and make them mutually contributory to each other.