Completeness refers to the necessity of a tragedy to have a beginning, middle, and end. Rounding out his rankings: thought, meaning what a character says in a given circumstance, followed by diction, song, and spectacle.Īristotle goes on to describe the elements of plot, which include completeness, magnitude, unity, determinate structure, and universality. Plot, then, is the 'soul of a tragedy,' and character comes second.
Thirdly, diction, song, and thought - even elegantly combined - cannot replicate the action of life without plot. Second, without action, there cannot be a tragedy - but there can be a tragedy without character. First, the result of a man's actions determines his success or failure, and hence his happiness, so it is action which is paramount - not character, which doesn't necessarily affect every action. Plot is the most important part of a tragedy for a number of reasons.
With the above in mind, Aristotle lays out the six parts that define a tragedy: Plot, then, is arrangements of incidents (successes or failures) that result from character and thought giving way to action. These elements also determine the success of a given action. Character - the qualities ascribed to a certain man - and thought, according to Aristotle, are the two causes from which actions spring. Since tragedy is the imitation of action, it is chiefly concerned with the lives of men, and thus presents a stage for character and thought. Tragedy is an imitation of action with the following characteristics: it is serious, complete, of significant magnitude, depicted with rhythmic language and/or song, in the form of action (not narrative), and produces a 'purgation' of pity and fear in the audience (also known as catharsis).
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