Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 22:15:13 -0500 (EST)
Subject: BHA: Plot



               State University of New York at Stony Brook
                       Stony Brook, NY 11794-3355

                                            Michael Sprinker
                                            Professor of English & Comp Lit
                                            Comparative Studies
                                            516 632-9634
                                            25-Jan-1998 10:07pm EST
FROM:  MSPRINKER
TO:    Remote Addressee                     ( _bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu )
 
Subject: Plot

Very briefly in response to Howard's query.

The formal cause of the tragedy is the plot, according to Aristotle,
because it is the first part, the top of the hierarchy, which gives
the general form to the play.  Tragic plots are distinct from comic
plots, and that's what makes a tragedy a tragedy, a comedy a comedy.
There is also, of course, a distinction in the protagonist of each
(in tragedy, the characters are slightly than ourselves, in comedy
somewhat  worse), but this a subordinate fact to the plot.

Aristotle also says that a tragedy can achieve its effect, simply
by having the plot recited--it does not therefore depend on 
performance, hence, on the presentation of language, spectacle,
or music.

Now, it can also be said (and Kenneth Telford does this in the
introduction to his excellent edition of the Poetics) that the
various parts can be thought of in terms of a form matter relation,
viz., plot is what gives form to the matter of character, character
gives form to the matter of thought, and so on descending through
the hierarchy.  In that sense, several of the parts or elements
of tragedy can be said to be formal causes.

But when talking of the play as a whole, it is the plot that gives
it its particular form and makes it what it is.

Fraternally,

Michael Sprinker


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