Aristotle's Literary Criticism

The idea of literary criticism was not utilized until Aristotle, renowned philosopher, initiated and supported the idea. Literary criticism still exists in modern day literature proving to be an essential tool for successful writing. The publication of The Poetics left many in the literary world unsatisfied and baffled by the idea that works of literature could even be criticized. The Poetics suggests that literary criticism does not only focus on the aesthetically pleasing side of writing, but also on the social and psychological purpose of a piece of writing, and by doing this Aristotle introduced the concept of catharsis to readers and writers. Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher who at a young age enrolled in Plato’s Academy. Both

The first quality being the character has to be valiant in one way, because this will make the audience pity him/her if something terrible were to happen to them. Secondly, each character should act accordingly based on their gender and societal standing in life. The third states that the characters must be believable. The last quality states that characters must be consistent with their characteristics from the beginning of a piece of writing until the end. (Aristotle’s The Poetics, 1) He believed that tragedies and dramas sparked fear in people and made the piece of writing more relatable because it was universal.

“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and 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.” (Aristotle, 2)

The difference between recording the history and dramatizing a tragedy is history represents facts while tragedy is altered in a way that made it seemingly relatable to everyone who reads it. This was the aesthetically pleasing side that Aristotle recognized. The Poetics was not a manual to what one considers aesthetically pleasing, but it can be interpreted as shedding light on what people found beautiful in works of art and

This hero can be described as a moral individual who does have a beastly side, but not detestable enough to upset the audience if the hero is subjected to misery. If they are beastly, the audience will believe they deserved their downfall. The hero must also have a fatal flaw, and this fatal flaw should result in his/her misery. These are the qualities a true tragic hero acquires. In other words, the hero 's excessive pride stands in the way of them being able to perform heroic acts. Combining all of these aspects, Aristotle pointed out that a piece of writing would lead to the reader experiencing an emotional relief, otherwise known as catharsis. The purging of the emotions of pity and fear that are aroused in the viewer of a well written tragedy. This marked the tragedy and/or drama coming to an end. The writer would leave the purging of emotions to the very end, and then wrap up the writing while the reader was coming down from their catharsis (McManus