Plot
vs Characters.
Picking the more important element is one of life’s great tragedies in it’s self. What makes this conflict even more significant is how in some circumstances plot may be of more importance, yet in other situations the individual characters are what drive the story, regardless of the plot. When this debate is taken to the tragedy ring; Aristotle declares that plot wins in a first round knock out. “Tragedy cannot exist without a plot, but it can without characters(90).” If by characters Aristotle is referring to characters as the people on stage who act out the play, I am not really sure how one could have a tragedy with out them. Aristotle then goes on to say that a tragedy must be structured “that the one hearing the events unroll shudders with fear and feels pity at what happens(93).” While feeling pity at specific events is not completely out of the question, humans find it easier to feel pity with a person, with whom they can relate to. When a famous hand model, such as George Costanza
uses his hands to break a fall on a hot iron, we feel pity for George because he will no longer be able to continue his career, not because of the specific event. It is much easier to relate to characters that may not lead the most eventful lives, compared to a rock and tree that are destroyed in a hurricane.
If you cannot relate or at least feel pity for the characters, what use is the play in itself?
uses his hands to break a fall on a hot iron, we feel pity for George because he will no longer be able to continue his career, not because of the specific event. It is much easier to relate to characters that may not lead the most eventful lives, compared to a rock and tree that are destroyed in a hurricane.
If you cannot relate or at least feel pity for the characters, what use is the play in itself?
I thought you made a great modern day connection to Aristotle's believes. It is very true that as humans, we find it much easier to feel sympathy toward other human beings rather than objects. Because of this I would also say that characters play an important role in these tragedies because without the people we would be left with a story we felt no connection to.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on the importance of characters are really interesting. The journey that the characters go through is essentially the plot and the characters drive the emotional heft of the story. If we aren't sympathetic towards, or at least understand the characters, we can't really get into the tragedy. Plot gives the play structure while characters give a play substance.
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