Aristotle’s Poetics

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Courageous and admirable with noble qualities defines a heroine. In Aristotle’s Poetics he describes a tragic hero as a character who is larger than life and through fate and a flaw they destroy themselves. Additionally, Aristotle states excessive pride is the hubris of a tragic hero. The hero is very self-involved; they are blind to their surroundings and commit a tragic action. A tragedy describes a story that evokes sadness and awe, something larger than life. Furthermore, a tragedy of a play results in the destruction of a hero, evoking catharsis and feelings of pity and fear among the audience. Aristotle states, "It should, moreover, imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation." (18) For a tragedy to arouse fear, the audience believes similar fate might happen to them and the sight of the suffering of others arouses pity. A tragedy's plot includes peripeteia, anagnorisis, hamartia and catharsis. Using Aristotle’s criteria, both characters in Oedipus The King and The Medea share similar qualities that define a tragic hero such as being of noble birth, having excessive pride, and making poor choices. They both gain recognition through their downfall and the audience feels pity and fear. In The Medea, Medea gives up her home, murdered her brother and tossed the pieces of his corpse and betrays her family to escape with her lover Jason. Against her father's wishes she helps Jason recover the Golden Fleece. Afterwards, Medea and Jason fall in love, get married and Medea gives birth and raises two sons. Unfortunately, Jason abandons Medea and marries King Creon's beautiful daughter. Medea alternates her role from a lover and partner in crime to an obsessive prideful monster. Me... ... middle of paper ... ... his place as a king, to losing his wife and children. The audience feels pity for him because he was trying to save Thebes. However, the audience always knew Medea had some evil characteristics to her when she betrayed her family with no shame or dignity to escape with Jason. The Medea and Oedipus the King both have the same criteria Aristotle states in Poetics. Tragedies depict the downfall of the noble heroine and hero through their fate, hubris and the will of gods. They did not die at the end but they did experience a change from high prosperity to a low prosperity. Works Cited Butcher, S.H. The Poetics of Aristotle trans. Pennsylvania State University: The Electronic Classic Series, Copyright 2000-2013. Web. 24 February 2014. Domrosch, David. Longman Anthology of World Literature, The, Compact Edition. 1st Edition. Pearson College Div: Longman, 2007. Print.

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