Plot vs Character in Tragedy Essay

Q. PLOT Vs CHARACTER In calamity In his immortal creation Poetics Aristotle mentions six formative elements of tragedy biz, Character, Thought, Diction, Spectacle and Song. And among them plot gets the prior financial aid and importance. Aristotle claims plot to be the individual of tragedy. In his view temperament as secondary to the plot. He in his book Poetics opines Plot is the fundamental thing, the soul of tragedy, whereas character is secondary. Chap7. It is only in the context of describing elevated plot that Aristotle refers to character. Aristotle flatly states that on that point can be a tragedy without character, but thither can never be a tragedy without plot. According to Aristotle, there are two kinds of plotsimple plot and complex plot.In simple plot we find only peripeteia or the switch of situation, and complex plot shows both peripeteia and Anagnorisis or the sudden discovery. also these main two, plot can be based on scenes of sufferings. An ideal plot is one which arouses pity and terror and brings about the outlet of emotions. only when the suffering of all characters cannot arouse pity and terror. If the tragic hero is a thoroughly bad man, his sufferings will not arouse the desired tragic emotions. And if the tragic hero is a thoroughly good man, his sufferings will go against us. So the arousal of pity and terror demands the description of a individual who is neither very good 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 closely assimilated with the circumstances of careerwith different social forces. Bradleys definition of tragedy as a tale of exceptional calam ity of a person who falls 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 befitting 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 apiece other.