CATA 171

Intro to Theatre and Cinema

Chapter 2

Aristotle’s Guide to Pleasure

 

I.               Aristotle: 384-322 BC [student of Plato; 'greatest thinker of antiquity']

A.   The Poetics (the study of literary expression)

                                                     i.     Explains purpose of theatre

                                                      ii.     Provides methodology for analyzing form of theatre

                                                        iii.     Defines 6 elements of theatre

B.    Analyzed Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

C.    Primary purpose of all human activity is to provide pleasure

                                                     i.     Learning the truth, more than physical pleasure

D.  Plays give greatest pleasure when their form observes 3 Unities

 

II.             Three Unities of Theatre

A.   Unity of Action

                                                     i.     Play should have only one simple plot

                                                      ii.     Less confusing to audience

                                                        iii.     Later Shakespeare and modern playwrights have challenged this

1.     Multiple plots

B.    Unity of Time

                                                     i.     One passage of consecutive time

1.     Oedipus Rex a good example

2.     Some plays have audience live through same time as actors

                                                      ii.     Modern playwrights use flashbacks

C.    Unity of Place

                                                     i.     Set action in one place

1.     Oedipus Rex in front of palace

2.     Shakespeare challenged this practice

3.     Modern audience accepts switching of place much more due to TV and film

 

III.           Six Elements of Theatre

A.   No new elements have been identified since Aristotle

B.    Elements listed in order of importance

                                                     i.     Plot

1.     Aristotle: Life and soul of Drama

2.     Until plot unfolds, there is no play

3.     Can be organized in many different ways

a.     Aristotle only knew of ones with beginning, middle and end

                                                                                                           i.     He called it the “arrangement of incidents.”

4.     Most modern plays have a plot that gives them a life and a soul

                                                      ii.     Character

1.     The agent for the action

2.     Play unfolds when characters enact incidents of plot

3.     Cannot exist independent of what they do

a.     Achieve their being through actions they perform

                                                        iii.     Thought

1.     Meaning of the play or “message.”

2.     Plot tells the audience a particular story and it’s universal idea

3.     Can be stated by distilling the plot to a single sentence

4.     Meaning can only be communicated through plot and plot can only be presented through characters

                                                        iv.     Diction

1.     Vocabulary playwright uses and order of words

2.     Not a synonym for articulation (muscular activity)

3.     Large vocabulary usually uses better grammar and signifies higher characters

4.     Small vocabulary denotes opposite

5.     Aristotle valued plays written with high language and in verse because he believed their diction gave the audience greatest pleasure

                                                      v.     Music

1.     Everything we hear in a performance

a.     Sound effects

b.     Musical accompaniment

c.     Sounds of actors’ voices

                                                                                                           i.     Speaking

                                                                                                            ii.     Chanting

                                                                                                              iii.     Singing

2.     Aristotle believed the more actors used their voices to embellish playwright’s word, the more deeply the audience would feel the characters’ emotions

3.     Classic plays often used high language and “musical” voices to provided pleasure to the audience, similar to how priests chant to add emotion to religious services or musical comedy characters burst into song to show happiness

                                                        vi.     Spectacle

1.     Aristotle believed what audience sees is least important

2.     Radio drama can support this thesis

3.     Today theatre uses visual spectacle (along with audio, etc.) much more than in classic theatre

a.     Modern audience has much higher capacity (through TV) to absorb large spectacle that moves quickly and assaults the senses

b.     Spectacle, however, was important in Middle Ages to teach Biblical stories

IV.       Aristotle’s six elements provide excellent tools for analyzing and evaluating a play or film