Aristotle and the Parts of Drama

Advances of human understanding have come intermittently through the ages, often the result of individual efforts, in particular societies. Ancient Greece was one such society, Aristotle one such individual. In the fourth century B.C. Aristotle was able to reflect on the artists of the previous century, the “Golden Age of Greece,” and talked about drama in his Poetics.

As a scientist, Aristotle analyzed drama as a biologist might dissect a sea creature, dividing tragedy into six parts; the whole fish had a soul (no pun intended) called a praxis or “dramatic action”. The six parts, in order of relative importance, were:

• Plot (Mythos)
• Character
• Thought
• Diction (Language)
• Music
• Spectacle

The six parts you’ll find it useful to commit to memory; like the ways in which plays appeal to audiences, we’ll use the list as a convenient approach to discussing drama and theatre for the rest of the semester. Note the detailed aspects of the six parts (also called “elements of drama”) as they are described in Brockett, pp.42-49, and for plot, next week, in Jacobus, pp.95-98. Note that the six elements refer to total theatrical production, not just to scripts. The productions Aristotle was commenting on were more like musicals or operas than straight plays, and included instrumental music, all-singing and dancing Choruses, scenery, and elaborate masks and costumes.

Tragedy

The word “tragedy” is itself related to the early beginnings of theatre, being made up from the Greek words “tragos” (goat) and “ode” (song). How did goats get involved? Conjecture has it that the whole word meant either “song sung when a goat was sacrificed” or “song for a goat prize” or “song sung by men dressed in goatskins.” Since a goat was often sacrificed to Dionysus to begin the festivities, the first and possibly the last options are favored (except by goats). In Greek tragedies, the rules of competition decreed that the Chorus would sing five odes, which were divided by three episodes, all preceded by a Parados sung as the Chorus entered, and followed by an Exodus at the end. This custom led eventually to the five act structure followed by Shakespeare.

By the way, the term “theatre” itself referred to the seating area in a Greek theatre - the “theatron.” (The “orchestra” was the circular dancing place.) Hence “theatre” literally translated means “the place from which we view (the world).” The “skene” was the scene building - the front of which the Romans were to call the “frons scaenae” meaning the “front of the scene.” Hence our word “scenery.”

The Festival of Dionysus competition for tragedy, and how and where the plays were produced is described in our texts, along with the works of the three major Greek tragic playwrights, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Note their respective output of plays, and how many of them still exist. (The wonder is not that so many were lost, but that so many survived.) Aeschylus was the first, and accounted the most conventionally religious, since plays were very much part of a religious ritual in honor of Dionysus, while Sophocles and Euripides were contemporaries: Sophocles was reputed as portraying men as they ought to be, and Euripides became famous for showing men (and women) as they are. All of them grappled with man’s attempt to come to terms with powers greater than himself, including his own nature, in presenting unexcelled examples of the tragic experience.