OutlinePlot

I. Plot

....... A. Plot is the most important feature of Greek Tragedy ........... 1. It is defined as the “arrangement of incidents” or the structure of the play. ........... 2. Constructed by a cause-and-effect chain of actions ........... 3. Most important is the structure of the incidents because tragedy is an imitation of action and life. ....... B. A plot must have a beginning, middle, and an end. ........... 1.The beginning, or incentive moment is the first part of the play ...................... a. It is independent of anything that is not part of the play and must start the cause-and-effect sequence. ........... 2.The middle follows the incentive moment ...................... a. The middle must be created by earlier events and create further occurrences. ........... 3.The end, or dénouement finalizes the play ...................... a. This must again be created by earlier incidents but cannot be leading to any further situations outside the play. ...................... b. The resolution must also resolve any problems created in the course of the incentive moment. ........... 4.The cause-and-effect sequence that leads from the beginning to the middle is the complication ...................... a. Aristotle calls it, the "tying up"(desis). ........... 5.The cause-and-effect chain that goes from the middle to the dénouement is the lusis ...................... a. In Aristotle's words, the "unravelling". ........... 6. There are three unities in a play: time, place and action ...................... a. The time that goes by inside a play cannot exceed 24 hours. This doesn't mean that the play is 24 hours long, it just represents that .......................... time. ...................... b. The play can only have one setting ...................... c. And there is one complete action ....... C. Plots must be “complete” having a “unity of action.” ........... 1.When a plot has a “unity of action,” all action in the plot has a connection to the other actions. ........... 2.A plot must be structurally self-contained ...................... a. Incidents are bound together by internal necessity ...................... b. Each action leads to the next action with no outside intervention. ........... 3.According to Aristotle, the worst kinds of plays are “episodic” plays ...................... a. In “episodic” plays, an act or episode comes after another without probable or necessary sequence. ...................... b. The only thing that should tie those events is that they happen to the same person. ........... 4.Playwrights shouldn’t use coincidences in a plot ...................... a. Effects that inspire fear or pity should come as a surprise in a plot. ................................. 1. If the events also follow cause-and-effect, the effect is heightened even more. ...................... a. Coincidences are most striking when they have an “air of design,” for example, when an event happens not just because of mere chance. ....... D. The plot has to be "of a certain magnitude". It must have quantity: complexity and length and quality: significance and seriousness. ........... 1. The more events and themes the playwright can combine in a play, the greater the artistic value of it. ........... 2.The deeper the meaning and significance of the place, the more the playwright can manipulate the audience's emotions, the worthier the play will .............. be. ....... E. Plots can be simple or complex ........... 1.Complex plots are better ...................... a. Simple plots only have “changes of fortune” or catastrophes. ...................... b. Complex plots have “reversals of intention,” or peripeteia, and “recognition,” or anagnorisis, which are connected with the catastrophe. ................................. 1. Peripeteia occurs when a character produces an effect opposite to the one he had wished to produce. ................................. 2. An anagnorisis is a change from ignorance to knowledge, which can produce love or hate between people that are destined for a .................................... good or bad fortune. ........... 2.The best plots combine anagnorisis and peripeteia as part of a cause-and-effect chain. ...................... a. When combined, the catastrophe is produced. ................................. 1. The combination that produces the catastrophe leads to the final “scene of suffering,” which could agony, etc., but it is never a .................................... death on stage.

Works Cited

........ McManus, Barbara F. //Outline of Aristotle’s// //Theory of Tragedy in the Poetics.// The College of New Rochelle. Web. November 1999.

........ Aristotle. //Poetics//. Trans. S. H. Butcher. //The Internet Classics Archive//. Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2008. .