Aristotle's Poetics

An interesting thing I realized after reading Poetics is that very few modern movies are classical tragedies. According to Aristotle, the plot of a tragedy generally involves a single character that starts off having good fortune, but ultimately is ruined by the end of the story due to some large character flaw. At the moment, I can’t think of any modern movie that follows this general plot line. The closest one is The Wrestler, where the main character ultimately dies due to his desire for fame (though his death is never explicitly shown in the film). However, the main character doesn’t start with good fortune, as he is a washed-up wrestler who lives in a trailer. Considering how emotionally effective The Wrestler was, it is surprising to see that there aren’t many more pseudo-tragic films.

Despite the fact that films are no longer strictly tragic or epic, many of the elements of a good mimetic artwork that Aristotle describes are present in modern films. For one, Aristotle states that while a historian “describes the things that have been,” while a poet describes the “things that might be.” In other words, a poet is allowed a creative looseness in the accuracy of his story in order to attach a greater meaning to his story. For example, the movie Black Hawk Down is based on a true story, but the scenes in the movie are not completely historically accurate. This aspect was sacrificed to convey deeper themes of the hardships soldiers face in battle.

Aristotle continues to say that emotional events are most effective when “they occur unexpectedly and at the same time in consequence of one another.” In other words, a good narrative has emotionally arousing scenes that follow as a plausible consequence of the story, while at the same time are not predicted by the audience. Creating a narrative that lives to this standard is hard, and many stories often fail to satisfy both conditions. For example, writers often use deus ex machina to abruptly resolve all of the tensions built up in a narrative. While the resolution is unexpected, it is hardly a plausible ending to the story. On the other hand, typical romantic comedies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days are the exact opposite. While the endings to these movies are plausible, they are very predictable.

The fact that many of the standards that Aristotle discusses are still used today reflects that these elements are fundamental to our enjoyment of narratives.