Old Aristotle

Aristotle’s Poetics described his view on tragedy. He viewed tragedy as a serious representation of actions and speeches done by the characters of the play. This was done to portray emotions of pity and terror. I agree with his interpretation of tragedy in most aspects. By using a characters speech it shows their emotions in an oral form. The same can be said for what a character does. Actions speak louder than words and for an author, delivering the emotions of your story or play is done best by a characters actions. In addition to this I believe an author can use a character’s thoughts as an even more powerful tool. Thoughts express what both words and actions express. In fact, I think of thoughts as a combination of both speech and actions. When a character expresses their thoughts it gives the reader or audience a deeper insight to their emotions. In fact, I believe Aristotle knew this as well but decided not to include it in his poetics.-J. Ramsey