Similarities Between Epic and Tragic

•Dignified

•Serious

•All characteristics of the epic are possible in the tragic.

Differences Between Epic and Tragic

• Time: Epic is not limited in time nor space

Tragedy is limited to 1 day (or so) and to a manageable setting.

Epic is narrative.

Tragedy is dramatic (action).

Definition of Tragedy

• A representation of an action that is worth serious attention;

• Complete in itself and of some amplitude;

• In language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the play.

• Presented in the form of action, not narration.

Continued

• By means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

Katharsis

• The purgation of emotions caused by pity and fear.

Where do the pity and fear come from?

What are they?Why do we have the emotions?Why do we need to purge them?How do we purge them?

Tragic Language

• Possesses rhythm

• May use music or song

– How, then, will tragic language differ from normal conversational language?

– How does it differ from normal literary language?

– Why is this language necessary?

Imitation

• In tragedy, action is imitated, and this action is brought about by agents which necessarily display certain distinctive qualities of character and of thought…

• Thought and character…are the natural causes of actions.– What is an agent?– What does he mean by “distinctive qualities of

character and of thought?”

Plot: the representation of an action in an ordered arragnement

• Plot is the most important of the constituent parts of a tragedy

• Represents “action and life….happiness and unhappiness”

• Actions cause happiness or unhappiness, not character

• Reversal and recognition are part of the way that plot plays on our emotions

Thought

• The ability to say what is possible and appropriate in any given circumstances

– Explain what “possible and appropriate” mean.

– Expresses what is natural and normal, what is true for all people and which does not reveal merely a personal choice.

Character

• That which reveals personal choice, the kinds of things a man chooses or rejects when that is not obvious.

– Must show preference in order to reveal character