As Tragedy is an imitation of personages better than the ordinary man...If the hero of your story is going to befall a tragedy, he had better be a better person than your audience, or they will not pity or sympathize with him.
Showing posts with label Good and Evil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Good and Evil. Show all posts
Saturday
Your Hero Must be Virtuous
Are Your Characters Better or Worse Than You?
The objects the imitator represents are actions, with agents who are necessarily either good men or bad - the diversities of human character being nearly always derivative from this primary distinction, since the line between virtue and vice is one dividing the whole of mankind. It follows, therefore, that the agents represented must be either above our own level of goodness, or beneath it.
Throughout the Poetics, Aristotle refers to artists as "imitators". Just as a painter tries to imitate reality on his canvass, so too does a writer attempt to imitate reality in the composition of a novel or play. Here he also talks about the "character" of the people in these works, and why it is important to keep the audience perspective in mind. When an audience is watching a play, they will perceive the characters as being either better or worse than they are. This is a crucial distinction to make, because if tragedy is to befall the hero of a play, the audience won't feel pity for him unless he is perceived to be more virtuous than they are.
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