The birth of the concepts of plot, storytelling, imitation, tragedy, episode, and catharsis.
The art of perfect storytelling that leaves an impression on the heart

Even after 2,400 years, Aristotle's Poetics (hereafter referred to as Poetics), which contains "methods of drama composition, development, and plot construction" that are still relevant, meets readers as the 35th volume of the Modern Intellectual Classics.
『Poetics』 is a book in which Aristotle intensively explores 'tragedy', which was an important part of Greek life at the time, and presents the essence and principles of poetry.
The term 'poetry' used here is a broad concept that includes tragedy, comedy, epic, and lyric poetry.


Aristotle considers “plot” to be the most important and repeatedly emphasizes it.
A plot is a unified whole composed of several actions and events, and tragedy aims to achieve emotional purification (catharsis) based on the plot, thereby developing a mature personality and leading a virtuous life.


Plato belittled emotions, but Aristotle believed that emotions expressed in actions reveal human character and thoughts, and thus play an important role in the process of practicing virtue.
Therefore, Aristotle repeatedly emphasized that the unique goal of tragedy is to arouse fear and pity, experience catharsis (purification), and enjoy pleasure in the process.
Experiencing such emotions through tragedy can be a great help in regulating your emotions in real life and channeling them in a positive direction.


He discovered that tragedy and epic, which were deeply rooted in the lives of the Greeks at the time, were not mere entertainment, but were connected to his own philosophical system of ethics and politics. He saw this tragic element as a human act that achieved the goal of philosophy in life.
The true value of 『Poetics』 lies in the fact that it shows that humans can discover the essence of truth and goodness in the things they instinctively do while living, and enjoy true 'happiness' (ε?δαιμον?α, eudaimonia), which is the goal pursued by philosophy.

In general, poetry seems to have arisen from two innate causes in human beings.
Humans have an instinct for imitation from an early age.
What distinguishes humans from other animals is that they initially learn through imitation, are best at imitating, and find joy in what they imitate.


This fact can be proven by experience.
Even shapes that are disgusting in themselves, such as very disgusting animals or corpses, can be enjoyed when they are copied.
Because learning is an extremely enjoyable activity not only for philosophers but also for ordinary people (although their learning abilities may be less).


It is for this very reason that people enjoy seeing things that have been imitated.
Because we infer and learn what we are imitating.
If the real thing is unfamiliar, we find pleasure in the imitation technique, color, and other reasons rather than in the imitation itself.


In this way, since imitation, as well as melody and rhythm (rhyme is clearly a part of rhythm), are part of human nature, people who are instinctively and strongly drawn to these things first imitated them spontaneously, and then gradually developed into poetry.

--- 「Chapter 4.
From “The Origin and Development of Poetry”

Tragedy is a method of purifying emotions by imitating a single, magnificent and complete event through the performance of actors, not through recitation, using all sorts of spiced language, and thereby making us feel pity and fear.


“Seasoned language” means language or song with rhythm and melody, and “placed here and there” means using only poetry in some parts and song again in other parts.


Since the imitation of tragedy is expressed through the actor's performance, it is natural that the visual element takes up a part of the tragedy first.
The reason why it is song and dialogue next is because in tragedy, dialogue and song are the means that actors use to express imitation.
A line is an arrangement of words that has a rhythm, and the meaning of a song is known to everyone.


Tragedy is also an imitation of action.
An action is something that the actor does, and the actor cannot help but have certain characteristics depending on his or her personality and thoughts.
(…) But the most important of the six elements is the plot, which constitutes the actions or events.
Because tragedy imitates actions and life, not people.
(The happiness and unhappiness of life lie in actions, and the purpose of tragedy is not character but action.
(A person's character determines his or her character, but his or her happiness and unhappiness are determined by his or her actions.) Therefore, tragedy does not use actions to imitate character, but rather involves character in order to imitate action.
So the purpose of tragedy is action and plot, and purpose is the most important of all.

--- Chapter 6.
From “Definition and Components of Tragedy”

On the other hand, Homer, although he excelled in other respects, seems to have known this very well, whether by learning or by nature.
When writing the Odyssey, Homer did not cover everything that happened to the protagonist.
For example, it does not cover the protagonist's injury on Mount Parnassus or his feigned insanity to avoid going to war.
This was because these two events were not connected in terms of probability or necessity to anything else that happened to the protagonist.
On the contrary, Homer composed the Odyssey around the single, unified action mentioned above, and the same was true of the Iliad.


Just as other imitative arts imitate a single object as a single whole, so too must the plot of tragedy imitate actions or events as a unified whole.
Therefore, the plot must be structured so that if any one part of the various events that make up the plot is moved or removed, the entire plot becomes tangled and disordered.
If there is no difference in the presence or absence of a part, then that part cannot be said to be part of the whole.
--- Chapter 8.
From “Unity of Plot”

Therefore, poetry is more philosophical and noble than history.
Poetry tends to speak of the universal, while history speaks primarily of the individual and the particular.
“Universals” are about how a person speaks and acts in such and such a case, according to probability or necessity.
Although poetry gives specific names to its characters, its goals are universal.
“The individual and particular” concerns, for example, what Alcibiades did and what happened.


This is very evident in comedy.
In comedy, the plot is constructed according to probability and then the characters are given names that fit the plot.
This is different from a satirical poet writing a poem about a specific individual.
Tragedy, on the other hand, stubbornly uses the names of real people.
Because it has to be possible to be persuasive.
It may be hard to believe that something that hasn't happened yet is possible, but what has already happened is certainly possible.
Because if there was no possibility, it wouldn't have happened at all.

--- Chapter 9.
From “The Inevitability and Probability of Plot”

The best tragedies have complex, not simple, plots, and contain acts or events that evoke fear and pity (this is the unique characteristic of the imitation called tragedy).
That is why we should not show noble people being happy and then becoming unhappy.
Because such things evoke not fear or pity, but a feeling of rejection.


Next, we must not show the evildoer becoming happy after suffering misfortune.
Because such a thing is the furthest thing from being tragic, and cannot produce the slightest effect of tragedy.
People cannot accept it, and they feel neither pity nor fear.

--- 「Chapter 13.
Among the "objects of imitation of the plot"

Homer is praiseworthy for much, but he is especially praiseworthy for knowing what a poet should not do.
A poet must be extremely careful not to speak out himself.
Because such behavior is not something a poet, an imitator, should do.
While other poets, with little or no imitation, stir themselves up throughout the play themselves, Homer, after a few brief introductory lines, immediately introduces a man, a woman, or some other character, each with a distinct individuality.
(…) It was also Homer who properly taught other poets how to lie plausibly.
One way is to deceive through faulty reasoning.
That is, let us assume that if the first thing exists or happens, the second thing also exists or happens.
When a second thing exists or happens, people assume that the first thing also exists or happens.
But that is a wrong inference.

--- 「Chapter 24.
From "Epic and Tragedy"

You should choose something that is impossible but probable rather than something that is possible but unbelievable.
You shouldn't build your plot around unbelievable things.
It's best not to include anything unbelievable in the plot.
If we cannot avoid including such an incredible event, we should leave it outside the work, like the setting in Oedipus the King where the protagonist does not know how Laius died, and not inside it, like the person reporting on the Pythian festival in Electra or the person in The Mysians who leaves Tegea and does not say a word until he arrives in Mysia.

--- 「Chapter 24.
From "Epic and Tragedy"