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King Lear. L.O. Aristolean analysis. L.O. Aristolean analysis. According to Aristotle – there are three unities that a drama needs to portray. The unity of action : a play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few subplots .
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King Lear L.O. Aristolean analysis
L.O. Aristoleananalysis According to Aristotle – there are three unities that a drama needs to portray. • The unity of action: a play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few subplots. • The unity of place: a play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place. • The unity of time: the action in a play should take place over no more than 24 hours.
L.O. Aristoleananalysis Does this fit ‘King Lear’? Shakespeare famously used ‘irregular’ unities. He didn’t follow Aristotle’s unity of action, unity of place or unity of time in ‘King Lear’.
L.O. Aristoleananalysis Unity of action How many main actions are there in King Lear? How many sub-plots? Unity of place What locations is King Lear set in? What characters travel where? Unity of time What is the timescale of King Lear? How long does the action stretch?
L.O. Aristolean analysis “Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirrour of manners and of life” - Samuel Johnson ‘Preface to Shakespeare’ 1765 “Shakespeare has no heroes; his scenes are occupied only by men, who act and speak as the reader thinks that he should himself have spoken or acted on the same occasion:”
L.O. Aristoleananalysis Aristotle’s views on Tragedy Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action which has magnitude, in embellished speech, with each of its elements [used] separately in the [various] parts [of the play]; [represented] by people acting and not by narration; accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions.
L.O. Aristoleananalysis Tragedy consists of six parts: • Plot (mythos) • Character (ethos) • Thought (dianoia) • Diction (lexis) • Melody (melos) • Spectacle (opsis)
L.O. Aristoleananalysis 1. PLOT Key elements of the plot are reversals, recognitions and suffering. The best plot should be "complex". It should imitate actions arousing horror, fear and pity. 2. CHARACTER It is much better if a tragical accident happens to a hero because of a mistake he makes instead of things which might happen anyway. That is because the audience is more likely to be "moved" by it.
L.O. Aristoleananalysis 3. THOUGHT spoken (usually) reasoning of human characters can explain the characters or story background. 4. DICTION The speech used and how it is constructed. 5. MELODY The Chorus too should be regarded as one of the actors; it should be an integral part of the whole, and share in the action
L.O. Aristoleananalysis 6. SPECTACLE For example: if play has "beautiful" costumes and "bad" acting and "bad" story, there is "something wrong" with it. Even though that "beauty" may save the play it is "not a nice thing“. Aristotle suggests that "spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet" [3].
