THESIS:
.
I. Topic sentence
A. Main detail [
1 sub details
2
B
1
2
C [if needed]
II. Topic sentence
A Main detail
1
2
B Main detail
1
2
C [if needed]
III. Topic sentence
A Main detail
1 sub details
2
B. Main detail
C [if needed]
Concluding Statement
How to choose a topic
and create an outline for
the five-paragraph essay
on Aristotle and Match
Point
In my lecture on Aristotle’s theory and in
the study questions for the film Match
Point, I indicate the essential elements of
what Aristotle felt had to be in a drama to
make it a tragedy.
In this outline I want you to use THREE AND NO MORE
of Aristotle’s elements of tragedy to support one of three
possible topics: Choose three from hero, flaw, downfall,
recognition and catharsis. Look at the three you have chosen.
Do they all show that
that Aristotle’s theory works well with the film Match Point
that Aristotle’s theory does not fit the film Match Point
that Aristotle’s theory applies in some areas but not in others
in the film Match Point.
2. A summary of Aristotle’s theory of tragedy: tragedy is an
imitation of real life with universal meaning to all and involves five
elements:
1. A hero
2. who has a flaw
3. that leads to his or her downfall
4. that ends in the hero’s recognition.
5. The result of witnessing the tragedy for the audience is catharsis a release of pity and fear for the hero by the audience.
3. This outline is for five paragraphs. You will have a oneparagraph introduction; main body of three paragraphs, and a
one-paragraph conclusion.
See the form for this outline in Canvas and follow the
directions.
Why Tragedy
What is tragic? What is a tragedy? Do
we all experience tragedy?
•
•
•
•
•
Tragic?
And old person dies in Boca?
An infant dies in Boca?
I get hit by a bus crossing the street?
A massive hurricane kills thousands?
• Tragedy is an art form to communicate the suffering
and sadness of experiences in life.
• Titanic
• Marley and Me
• Moonlight
• La La Land
• Me Before You
• The Edge of Seventeen
• Manchester By the Sea
Why Tragedy
• Tragedy: two purposes
• 1. To teach what is like to experience the worst
things of life
• 2. To delight - to move the audience
emotionally
• 3. Consider Titanic – teach and delight?
• Tragedy: two hours to tell story
• An earthquake….how do you tell the story
• Tragedy is a form to express human suffering
caused by humans.
In our course, how these theories of tragedy
apply to...
• Classical Greek tragedies
• Readings from ancient times to modern
• Figures from modern popular culture
Five Paragraph Form for Aristotle and
Match Point Outline
Instructions: The thesis, topic sentences
and concluding sentence MUST be in
sentence form. The rest can be in words
or phrases.
Thesis: what are you trying to prove? See the topic – what is
your position on Aristotle’s theory of tragedy and Match
Point. 1. Do the three of Aristotle’s elements prove his theory
applies to Match Point? 2. Do some but not all of Aristotle’s
elements fit Match Point? 3. Or do the three elements of
Aristotle’s theory you chose reveal that the theory does not
match the film? CHOOSE ONE. THIS WILL BE COME THE THESIS
STATEMENT OF YOUR ESSAY.
THESIS: [state it here}
I. First Reason – topic sentence [which element of Aristotle’s theory you are exploring
and how are you supporting your thesis?]
A. Main detail [ex. One flaw
1 sub details [where do you see it in the movie? How do the actions
or
words of characters prove this point?]
2
B
1 [where do you see it in the movie? How do the actions or
words of characters prove this point?]
2
C [if needed]
II. Second Reason- – topic sentence [what second element of Aristotle’s theory you are exploring and
how are you supporting your thesis?]
A Main detail
1 sub details [where do you see it in the movie? How do the actions or
words of characters prove this point?]
2
B Main detail
1
2
C [if needed]
III. Third Reason – topic sentence [what third element of Aristotle’s theory you are
exploring and how are you supporting your thesis?]
A Main detail
1 sub details
2
B. Main detail
C [if needed]
Concluding Statement
Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy
Who was Aristotle?
Born: c. 384 BCE in Stagira, Macedonia. Died: c. 322 BCE He was an ancient Greek
philosopher whose work has been extremely important to the development of both western
philosophy and western theology [belief and reason]. Very little of what we have appears to
have been published by Aristotle himself. Instead, we have notes from his school much of
which were created by his students during the time Aristotle taught. Aristotle himself wrote a
few works intended for publication, but we only have fragments of these. His work that we will
study is his Poetics, in which Aristotle explains the structure and feeling of tragedy.
Aristotle’s ideas on tragedy: The Poetics 335 BC
While it is believed that Aristotle's Poetics comprised two books – one on comedy
and one on tragedy – only the portion that focuses on tragedy has survived.
The characters in a tragedy are merely a means of driving the story; the plot, not
the characters, is the chief focus of tragedy. In a sense Aristotle was not into
psychology. What you did made you who you are.
Comedy, for Aristotle, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas
tragedy imitates men slightly better than average.
The Ancient Greek View of the Universe
Tom Driver
“The achievement of the Greek thinkers was that they discovered new ways to see the
constants that lie within life’s apparently random change. What is given immediately to our
experience is variety and mutation, and this produces unbearable anxiety unless some
pattern of consistency can be found within it.
“The peoples of the eastern Mediterranean, who cradled our civilization, sought to
transcend the flux through the elaboration of various myths and rituals. ” The Greeks did
also, and it became their privilege eventually to transmute the myths and rituals into
philosophy and literature of such universal appeal that time has not rendered them obsolete.
“The Greeks fought against time and won. They did it, strangely, by shutting out the future.
The future is the enemy of timelessness, as the past, which is fixed, and the present, which
is ineffable, is not.”
Driver, Tom. (1990).
Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy from the Poetics
[two translations]
“A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action [a drama, play or film] that is serious
[no comedy] and also, as having magnitude [universal], complete in itself; in language
with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work;
in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear [in the
audience], wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.”
“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action of high importance, complete and of some
amplitude; in language enhanced by distinct and varying beauties; acted not narrated;
by means of pity and fear effectuating its purgation of these emotions.”
Source: (Paredes, 2014, page 24)
Breaking Down Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy
Source of quotes: Tragedy: The Basics. (2004)
Tragedy is a serious action [drama, no comedy]; it must be an"imitation" of
real life: mimesis. Why? Because if it is an imitation of real life, the audience
will connect to the drama. They will be able to relate their own lives to the lives of the fictional
characters. This will
“Aristotle asserts that the artist does not just copy the shifting appearances of the world,
but rather imitates or represents Reality itself, and gives form and meaning to that
Reality.” (As cited in Tragedy: The Basics, 2004).
The drama must reveal universal themes of ontological importance [the nature of
being, of being alive and existence]. This is why the Greek tragedies are still done
today. We still can relate to the issues in tragedy 2,000 years after Aristotle
In so doing, the artist gives shape to the universal, not the accidental. Poetry,
Aristotle says, is "a more philosophical and serious business than history; for poetry
speaks more of universals, history of particulars.
[As cited in Tragedy: The Basics. 2004)
Aristotle said that tragedy should focus on the life of one person: the hero
Aristotle contests that the tragic hero has to be a man "who is eminently good and just,
whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty. He
is not making the hero entirely good in which he can do no wrong but misfortune.”
Note the hero is not too good or too evil. Why? If too evil, the audience will reject the hero
as simply a villain. If the hero is too perfect, the sadness the audience will feel for the hero
at the end of the tragedy could be almost unbearable.
The Hero cont.
Aristotle suggests that a hero of a tragedy must evoke in the audience a sense of pity or
fear, saying, “the change of fortune presented must be the spectacle of a virtuous man
brought from prosperity to adversity."
Aristotle stresses that the emotion of pity stems NOT from a person becoming better but
when a person receives undeserved misfortune. We as the audience feel sorry or pity for the
hero. Fear is felt because when the misfortune befalls a man or a woman like us, it means
that it could happen to us, too. This is why Aristotle points out the simple fact that the
change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.”
Reeves, Charles, 1952. Pg. 172-188.
The Hero’s Flaw
Aristotle also establishes that the hero has to be “virtuous” that is to say he has to be "a morally blameless
man. The Hero’s flaw is what will bring him not success, but death by the end of the work.” Butcher, S.H.
(2008). pp. 45-47.
The hero’s flaw- in Greek…hamartia [ha-mar-tee-a]. In Greek tragedy, what leads to the hero’s downfall and
tragedy is an aspect of his or her own personality that causes the hero to suffer. In that sense the hero creates
his or her downfall rather than being the victim of something terrible. The hero might attempt to achieve a
certain goal, but by making an error in judgment the hero instead achieves the opposite result with disastrous
consequences. Aristotle would say that these self-destructive actions reveal the hero’s flaw – what went
wrong in his or her own thinking or psychology.
In Aristotle’s world the lives of people fit into the order of the universe that was governed by the gods and
fate. Fate determined our paths through life; sometimes fate is good, but sometimes not. How we deal with
fate in the Greek view is what determines our lives. Fate is not kind to the hero; but what causes his suffering
is how he or she deals with her fate. Accept it, or fight it!
The Downfall of the Hero - Tragedy
As a result of his or her flaw, the tragic hero undergoes terrible circumstances during the course of
the drama. Once great and noble and happy and loved, the hero experiences a decline or reversal of
fortune in life. Things go badly. We would say the hero’s life has gone downhill. Aristotle called
this “peripeteia” [pe-ree-pe-tay-a].
In ancient Greek tragedy, somehow the tragic hero has violated the order of things or the way the
world should be. In the case of the classic Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, the hero, learns that
through a twist of fate, he wound up murdering his father and marrying his mother. This is the
hero’s downfall, the reversal of the good fortune of his or
her life. His flaw is excessive pride, or hubris, as Aristotle called it. Oedipus cannot accept his fate.
As a result the once great and wise king becomes paranoid and accuses everyone of treachery by
trying to steal his kingdom. This begins his downfall, which only becomes worse and eventually he
blinds himself out of guilt.
The final element of tragedy according Aristotle is called “anagnorisis” [anna-nor-ee-sis].
Anagnorisis is a moment in a play or other work when the tragic hero makes a critical
discovery. The realization is that the tragic hero is responsible for his or own downfall.
Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context. It was the hero's sudden
awareness of a real situation, the tragedy that he or she has caused.” To make things even
worse for the tragic hero this moment of critical discovery often happens in public and
results in a confession.
Catharsis: a word used now on modern psychotherapy has to do with the audience and not
the characters in the tragedy! This word originates from the Greek katharsis meaning
"purification" or “cleansing", and it refers to the purification and purging of emotions,
especially pity and fear, that the audience feels at the end of the drama. We all know this
feeling. At the end of a sad, tragic movie, we are sometimes left in tears. After the movie is
over, we feel relief. After all it is only a movie - a made up story. It is why we enjoy sad
movies or plays. We purge the emotions, digest them and then go on to our normal lives
having learned from and enjoyed the experience of tragedy. [Remember catharsis is felt by
the audience, not the hero]
Summary of Aristotle’s theory of tragedy
Tragedy is an imitation of real life with universal meaning to all and involves a hero who has a flaw that leads
to his or her downfall that ends in the hero’s recognition. The result of witnessing the tragedy is catharsis, a
release of pity and fear for the hero by the audience.
How to choose a topic
and create an outline for
the five-paragraph essay
on Aristotle and Match
Point
In my lecture on Aristotle’s theory and in
the study questions for the film Match
Point, I indicate the essential elements of
what Aristotle felt had to be in a drama to
make it a tragedy.
In this outline I want you to use THREE AND NO MORE
of Aristotle’s elements of tragedy to support one of three
possible topics: Choose three from hero, flaw, downfall,
recognition and catharsis. Look at the three you have chosen.
Do they all show that
that Aristotle’s theory works well with the film Match Point
that Aristotle’s theory does not fit the film Match Point
that Aristotle’s theory applies in some areas but not in others
in the film Match Point.
2. A summary of Aristotle’s theory of tragedy: tragedy is an
imitation of real life with universal meaning to all and involves five
elements:
1. A hero
2. who has a flaw
3. that leads to his or her downfall
4. that ends in the hero’s recognition.
5. The result of witnessing the tragedy for the audience is catharsis a release of pity and fear for the hero by the audience.
3. This outline is for five paragraphs. You will have a oneparagraph introduction; main body of three paragraphs, and a
one-paragraph conclusion.
See the form for this outline in Canvas and follow the
directions.
Why Tragedy
What is tragic? What is a tragedy? Do
we all experience tragedy?
•
•
•
•
•
Tragic?
And old person dies in Boca?
An infant dies in Boca?
I get hit by a bus crossing the street?
A massive hurricane kills thousands?
• Tragedy is an art form to communicate the suffering
and sadness of experiences in life.
• Titanic
• Marley and Me
• Moonlight
• La La Land
• Me Before You
• The Edge of Seventeen
• Manchester By the Sea
Why Tragedy
• Tragedy: two purposes
• 1. To teach what is like to experience the worst
things of life
• 2. To delight - to move the audience
emotionally
• 3. Consider Titanic – teach and delight?
• Tragedy: two hours to tell story
• An earthquake….how do you tell the story
• Tragedy is a form to express human suffering
caused by humans.
In our course, how these theories of tragedy
apply to...
• Classical Greek tragedies
• Readings from ancient times to modern
• Figures from modern popular culture
Five Paragraph Form for Aristotle and
Match Point Outline
Instructions: The thesis, topic sentences
and concluding sentence MUST be in
sentence form. The rest can be in words
or phrases.
Thesis: what are you trying to prove? See the topic – what is
your position on Aristotle’s theory of tragedy and Match
Point. 1. Do the three of Aristotle’s elements prove his theory
applies to Match Point? 2. Do some but not all of Aristotle’s
elements fit Match Point? 3. Or do the three elements of
Aristotle’s theory you chose reveal that the theory does not
match the film? CHOOSE ONE. THIS WILL BE COME THE THESIS
STATEMENT OF YOUR ESSAY.
THESIS: [state it here}
I. First Reason – topic sentence [which element of Aristotle’s theory you are exploring
and how are you supporting your thesis?]
A. Main detail [ex. One flaw
1 sub details [where do you see it in the movie? How do the actions
or
words of characters prove this point?]
2
B
1 [where do you see it in the movie? How do the actions or
words of characters prove this point?]
2
C [if needed]
II. Second Reason- – topic sentence [what second element of Aristotle’s theory you are exploring and
how are you supporting your thesis?]
A Main detail
1 sub details [where do you see it in the movie? How do the actions or
words of characters prove this point?]
2
B Main detail
1
2
C [if needed]
III. Third Reason – topic sentence [what third element of Aristotle’s theory you are
exploring and how are you supporting your thesis?]
A Main detail
1 sub details
2
B. Main detail
C [if needed]
Concluding Statement
Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy
Who was Aristotle?
Born: c. 384 BCE in Stagira, Macedonia. Died: c. 322 BCE He was an ancient Greek
philosopher whose work has been extremely important to the development of both western
philosophy and western theology [belief and reason]. Very little of what we have appears to
have been published by Aristotle himself. Instead, we have notes from his school much of
which were created by his students during the time Aristotle taught. Aristotle himself wrote a
few works intended for publication, but we only have fragments of these. His work that we will
study is his Poetics, in which Aristotle explains the structure and feeling of tragedy.
Aristotle’s ideas on tragedy: The Poetics 335 BC
While it is believed that Aristotle's Poetics comprised two books – one on comedy
and one on tragedy – only the portion that focuses on tragedy has survived.
The characters in a tragedy are merely a means of driving the story; the plot, not
the characters, is the chief focus of tragedy. In a sense Aristotle was not into
psychology. What you did made you who you are.
Comedy, for Aristotle, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas
tragedy imitates men slightly better than average.
The Ancient Greek View of the Universe
Tom Driver
“The achievement of the Greek thinkers was that they discovered new ways to see the
constants that lie within life’s apparently random change. What is given immediately to our
experience is variety and mutation, and this produces unbearable anxiety unless some
pattern of consistency can be found within it.
“The peoples of the eastern Mediterranean, who cradled our civilization, sought to
transcend the flux through the elaboration of various myths and rituals. ” The Greeks did
also, and it became their privilege eventually to transmute the myths and rituals into
philosophy and literature of such universal appeal that time has not rendered them obsolete.
“The Greeks fought against time and won. They did it, strangely, by shutting out the future.
The future is the enemy of timelessness, as the past, which is fixed, and the present, which
is ineffable, is not.”
Driver, Tom. (1990).
Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy from the Poetics
[two translations]
“A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action [a drama, play or film] that is serious
[no comedy] and also, as having magnitude [universal], complete in itself; in language
with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work;
in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear [in the
audience], wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.”
“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action of high importance, complete and of some
amplitude; in language enhanced by distinct and varying beauties; acted not narrated;
by means of pity and fear effectuating its purgation of these emotions.”
Source: (Paredes, 2014, page 24)
Breaking Down Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy
Source of quotes: Tragedy: The Basics. (2004)
Tragedy is a serious action [drama, no comedy]; it must be an"imitation" of
real life: mimesis. Why? Because if it is an imitation of real life, the audience
will connect to the drama. They will be able to relate their own lives to the lives of the fictional
characters. This will
“Aristotle asserts that the artist does not just copy the shifting appearances of the world,
but rather imitates or represents Reality itself, and gives form and meaning to that
Reality.” (As cited in Tragedy: The Basics, 2004).
The drama must reveal universal themes of ontological importance [the nature of
being, of being alive and existence]. This is why the Greek tragedies are still done
today. We still can relate to the issues in tragedy 2,000 years after Aristotle
In so doing, the artist gives shape to the universal, not the accidental. Poetry,
Aristotle says, is "a more philosophical and serious business than history; for poetry
speaks more of universals, history of particulars.
[As cited in Tragedy: The Basics. 2004)
Aristotle said that tragedy should focus on the life of one person: the hero
Aristotle contests that the tragic hero has to be a man "who is eminently good and just,
whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty. He
is not making the hero entirely good in which he can do no wrong but misfortune.”
Note the hero is not too good or too evil. Why? If too evil, the audience will reject the hero
as simply a villain. If the hero is too perfect, the sadness the audience will feel for the hero
at the end of the tragedy could be almost unbearable.
The Hero cont.
Aristotle suggests that a hero of a tragedy must evoke in the audience a sense of pity or
fear, saying, “the change of fortune presented must be the spectacle of a virtuous man
brought from prosperity to adversity."
Aristotle stresses that the emotion of pity stems NOT from a person becoming better but
when a person receives undeserved misfortune. We as the audience feel sorry or pity for the
hero. Fear is felt because when the misfortune befalls a man or a woman like us, it means
that it could happen to us, too. This is why Aristotle points out the simple fact that the
change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.”
Reeves, Charles, 1952. Pg. 172-188.
The Hero’s Flaw
Aristotle also establishes that the hero has to be “virtuous” that is to say he has to be "a morally blameless
man. The Hero’s flaw is what will bring him not success, but death by the end of the work.” Butcher, S.H.
(2008). pp. 45-47.
The hero’s flaw- in Greek…hamartia [ha-mar-tee-a]. In Greek tragedy, what leads to the hero’s downfall and
tragedy is an aspect of his or her own personality that causes the hero to suffer. In that sense the hero creates
his or her downfall rather than being the victim of something terrible. The hero might attempt to achieve a
certain goal, but by making an error in judgment the hero instead achieves the opposite result with disastrous
consequences. Aristotle would say that these self-destructive actions reveal the hero’s flaw – what went
wrong in his or her own thinking or psychology.
In Aristotle’s world the lives of people fit into the order of the universe that was governed by the gods and
fate. Fate determined our paths through life; sometimes fate is good, but sometimes not. How we deal with
fate in the Greek view is what determines our lives. Fate is not kind to the hero; but what causes his suffering
is how he or she deals with her fate. Accept it, or fight it!
The Downfall of the Hero - Tragedy
As a result of his or her flaw, the tragic hero undergoes terrible circumstances during the course of
the drama. Once great and noble and happy and loved, the hero experiences a decline or reversal of
fortune in life. Things go badly. We would say the hero’s life has gone downhill. Aristotle called
this “peripeteia” [pe-ree-pe-tay-a].
In ancient Greek tragedy, somehow the tragic hero has violated the order of things or the way the
world should be. In the case of the classic Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, the hero, learns that
through a twist of fate, he wound up murdering his father and marrying his mother. This is the
hero’s downfall, the reversal of the good fortune of his or
her life. His flaw is excessive pride, or hubris, as Aristotle called it. Oedipus cannot accept his fate.
As a result the once great and wise king becomes paranoid and accuses everyone of treachery by
trying to steal his kingdom. This begins his downfall, which only becomes worse and eventually he
blinds himself out of guilt.
The final element of tragedy according Aristotle is called “anagnorisis” [anna-nor-ee-sis].
Anagnorisis is a moment in a play or other work when the tragic hero makes a critical
discovery. The realization is that the tragic hero is responsible for his or own downfall.
Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context. It was the hero's sudden
awareness of a real situation, the tragedy that he or she has caused.” To make things even
worse for the tragic hero this moment of critical discovery often happens in public and
results in a confession.
Catharsis: a word used now on modern psychotherapy has to do with the audience and not
the characters in the tragedy! This word originates from the Greek katharsis meaning
"purification" or “cleansing", and it refers to the purification and purging of emotions,
especially pity and fear, that the audience feels at the end of the drama. We all know this
feeling. At the end of a sad, tragic movie, we are sometimes left in tears. After the movie is
over, we feel relief. After all it is only a movie - a made up story. It is why we enjoy sad
movies or plays. We purge the emotions, digest them and then go on to our normal lives
having learned from and enjoyed the experience of tragedy. [Remember catharsis is felt by
the audience, not the hero]
Summary of Aristotle’s theory of tragedy
Tragedy is an imitation of real life with universal meaning to all and involves a hero who has a flaw that leads
to his or her downfall that ends in the hero’s recognition. The result of witnessing the tragedy is catharsis, a
release of pity and fear for the hero by the audience.
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