Name of the student :

Name of the instructor :

Name of the course : II Sem. M.A.English Literature

Date of submission : 1.07.2008

Aristotle’s view on Comedy

Aristotle, the great philosopher of the fourth century B.C is considered as the

father of the literary criticism. It was about three hundred and thirty B.C. Aristotle

wrote a short treatise on poetry which is commonly known as Aristotle’s poetics. It

is an attempt to arrive at the truth, rather than an assertion of some pre-conceived

nations. As Gilbert Murray points out, “It is a first attempt made by a man of

astounding genius to build up in the region of creative art a rational order, like that

he had already established in the region of the physical science.”

The Poetic is a systematic exposition of the theory and practice of poetry.

Aristotle says that the purpose behind poetic is to treat poetry in itself and of

various kinds- epic poetry, tragedy, comedy and lyric. It is a short treatise of

twenty six chapters and in the fifth chapter he presents his views on comedy.

The poetic defines poetry as ‘modes of imitation’, characters and action will be

either good or bad, either superior to ourselves or worse than our selves, and this is

what distinguishes tragedy from comedy. The difference is fundamental and all

1
along the line, the difference of them and treatment, characterization and

atmosphere.

According to Aristotle both comedy and tragedy, the two cardinal braches of

poetry have been subject to many changes. The names of the changes and their

author in comedy are not well known. Comedy has had no history, because it was

not at first treated seriously. It was late before the archon granted a comic chorus

to a poet. Comedy had already taken definite shape when comic poets,

distinctively so called, are heard of.

The roots of comedy lie deep in satirical verse the those of tragedy in epic poetry.

Satirical verse itself owes its origin to the phallic song sung in honour.

of Dionysus, the god of Fertility, thus comedy follows its parent forms satirical

verse and the phallic songs.

Aristotle’s well-known definition of comedy runs as follows. “Comedy is,

as we have said, an imitation of characters of lower type, - not, however, in the full

sense of the word bad, the Ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly. It

consists in some defect or ugliness which is not painful or destructive”. To take an

obvious example, the comic mask is ugly and distorted, but does not imply pain.

2
 Aristotle’s definition of comedy reveals that comedy deals with men of

lower type. It does not and mean ‘as regards any and every sort of fault, but only

as regards one particular kind, ;the Ridiculous.’ And the Ridiculous may be

defined as ‘a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others.’

Although Aristotle’s definition is hardly complete, it has the merit of recognizing

the pure ludicrous. The inferior men are morally inferior since they have a degree

of vice, though they are not excessively vicious. It must have a pleasure proper to

it. Music and spectacle and sometimes the marvelous add to the play in producing

pleasure. The comic writer avoids tragic incidents and presents ludicrous and

hilarious events only.

By excluding personal attack, that form the subject-matter of satire, and the

possibility of pain to the comic characters we laugh at, from the scope of comedy,

and including only general follies among its objects, Aristotle, disagreeing with

Plato, rules out malicious pleasure as the basis of comedy. For when the pleasure

arises not from a personal but a general foible and causes no pain whatever either

to the victim or to the spectator, there can be no malice in it.

Aristotle himself manifestly prefers the comedy from which personalities are

banished and which presents generalized types of character in conformity with the

3
fundamental laws of poetry. He selects comedy as a salient illustration of the

representation of the universal. It equally represents not what has happened but

what may happen and what is probable in a given set of circumstances. Here the

poet first constructs the plot, and then affixes the characteristic or appropriate

names, the poet invents names expressive of the character, qualities or profession.

These names shows that the person is a type. The very names it gives to its

characters, for example Brainworm, Backbite, Morose suggest a section of

humanity rather than a particular men. This is all that is said of comedy in poetics.

The greatness of poetics is that it contains much that is permanent and

universal interest. The poetics is an important landmark in the history of literary

criticism. In short, The poetics is not only the first thoroughly philosophical

discussion of literature; but the foundation of all subsequent discussion’s.

Works cited:

Butcher, S.H, trans. Aristotle’s Theory of Poetry And Fine Art.

New Delhi: Dover Publication, 1951.

Blamires, Harry. A History of Literary Criticism

Delhi: