Greek tragedy originated from Aristotle's definition in his work Poetics from 330 BCE. Aristotle defined tragedy as an imitation of a serious action using poetic language that arouses pity and fear in the audience and results in a catharsis or release of emotions. According to Aristotle, the six elements of tragedy are plot, character, thought, diction, spectacle, and melody. The plot involves the arrangement of incidents, characters are the people who act, and thought, diction, spectacle, and melody refer to insights, dialogue, visuals, and sounds respectively. Tragedies also follow the three unities of time, place, and action and have a standard structure of a prologue, parodos, episodes, stasimon,

1. Greek Tragedy

2. Where does tragedy come from?
 The Greek
philosopher
Aristotle first
defined tragedy in
his book Poetics
written in about
330 BCE

3. Aristotle’s definition
 Aristotle defines tragedy as “the imitation of an action
which is serious, complete, of a certain magnitude,
couched in poetic language. It should be dramatic, with
incidents arousing pity and fear, which bring about a
purgation of these emotions.”
 Pity is aroused in the audience for the character(s), and
we fear lest the same misfortune happen to us.
Purgation/catharsis is a cleansing; a release of
emotions.

4. Aristotle’s definition of tragedy had SIX parts:
 Plot
 Character
 Thought
 Diction
 Spectacle
 Melody

5. Plot
 According to Aristotle ,plot means the
arrangement of incidents.

6. Characters
 Characters are men and women who act
The tragic hero
Must be a noble King or Ruler
Must have a tragic flaw: Hamartia (Usually Hubris: Pride)
Downfall must be caused by his own actions and must be a result
of his tragic flaw
Aristotle's Six Elements of
Drama

7. Aristotle's Six Elements of
Drama
 Thought is insights into humanity and life
 Diction is the dialogue and poetry
 Spectacle is scenery and other visual
elements
 Melody is all sound

8. Dramatic Unities
 Time – 24 hours for the action of the play.
 Place – no change of scenery
 Action – no subplot (an action which
happens elsewhere is told by another
character)

9. Structure of Tragedy
1. Prologue the actor enters and gives the background the audience
need to know about the play.
2. Parados – entrance of chorus; and comment on the events
presented in the prologue.
3. Episodes –the characters speak to one another and develop the
central conflict.
4. Stasimon – the chorus comment on what happened in the
episodes.
5. Exodus – the final action of the play where the conflict is resoled
and the actors leave the stage.