ITT - Aristotle's 6 Elements (Lesson)
Aristotle's 6 Elements
Have you ever been to see a movie or a play and someone asked you afterward “what did you think about it?” How do you describe what you saw and experienced to someone that wasn’t there? You probably used phrases such as, “I liked this movie a lot because the story was really good” or “I really liked this section of the movie but other parts were boring” or “This actor was really good in this role.”
When you are specific about what you liked or didn’t like about a performance experience, you are critiquing a performance. As students of theatre, you must be able to effectively explain why you have the opinions about a performance that you have. Being able to assess what makes a performance effective is a key component in understanding what makes “good” theatre.
Aristotle's Poetics
Aristotle was a teacher in ancient Greece, and most scholars believe the text Poetics, as we have it in modern times, comes from transcriptions of his students’ notes. Aristotle was presenting a counterargument to his teacher, Plato, who said that art, poetry, music, and drama had no place in a well-run society. I think we are all grateful that the population of ancient Greece agreed with Aristotle and celebrated the arts as an essential part of a person’s education.
Aristotle arranged the Six Elements in a hierarchical structure, meaning that he started with the MOST important element first and worked his way up to the LEAST important last. As a visual aid, I have placed them on a pyramid to emphasize how the first element, plot, is a foundation upon which all the other elements are built. Aristotle was a philosopher from ancient Greece whose Poetics lays out the “rules” of what makes a good piece of theatre. While he was writing mainly about tragic plays, his framework of SIX ELEMENTS informs the way we talk about all genres of performance today.
Poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory in Western literature and provides a descriptive criticism of tragedy that focuses on the audience’s experience of the work. This external appreciation of the play experience is invaluable to the playwright for remembering to include all the aspects necessary to be effective with an audience.
Please watch the presentation below to be introduced to the Aristotelian Elements.
The Aristotelian Elements
In the first portion of the text, Aristotle outlines six key categories for describing the theatrical experience. View the presentation below to learn more about each element.
"Because theatre is not life, but an approximation of life, it is made up of symbols. Nothing in It is real. Yet, if the product has been well planned and presented, we identify with the characters and their situation. We grieve over the death of a character, even though we know that nobody actually has died." -Marsha Cassady, Theatre an Introduction.
This successful approximation of life in each of the categories established by Aristotle is known as verisimilitude -- the appearance of being true or real.
One can use each of these categories when watching a theatrical event or even a non-theatrical event such as film or television to establish how successful the art was in creating an approximation to life, within the confines of the style. For example, the audience member can cite what they observed in each of these categories after watching the event and gauge the success of the theatrical event by establishing what worked well in each category or what took the audience member out of the moment.
The Aristotelian Elements Self-Assessment
Complete the following self-assessment matching activity to review the material from this lesson.
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