Summary
Aristotle distinguishes between six different kinds of anagnorisis.
First, there is recognition by means of signs or marks, such as when
Odysseus's nurse recognizes him by virtue of a characteristic
scar. Aristotle considers this the least artistic kind of anagnorisis,
usually reflecting a lack of imagination on the part of the poet. Second, also
distasteful to Aristotle, is a recognition contrived by the author. In such a
case, the poet is unable to fit the anagnorisis into the logical sequence
of the plot, and so it seems extraneous. Third is recognition prompted by
memory. A disguised character may be prompted to weep or otherwise betray
himself when presented with some memory from the past. Fourth, the second best
kind of anagnorisis, is recognition through deductive reasoning, where
the anagnorisis is the only reasonable conclusion of an agent's thought.
Fifth, there is recognition through faulty reasoning on the part of a disguised
character. The disguised character might unmask himself by exhibiting knowledge
that only he could know. Sixth, the best kind of anagnorisis, is the kind
of recognition that is naturally a part of the logical sequence of events in the
play, such as we find in Oedipus Rex.
Aristotle makes seven final remarks about how a poet should go about
constructing a plot: (1) The poet should be sure to visualize the action of his
drama as vividly as possible. This will help him spot and avoid inconsistencies.
(2) The poet should even try acting out the events as he writes them. If he can
himself experience the emotions he is writing about, he will be able to express
them more vividly. (3) The poet should first outline the overall plot of the
play and only afterward flesh it out with episodes. These episodes are generally
quite brief in tragedy but can be very long in epic poetry. As an example,
Aristotle reduces the entire plot of the Odyssey to
three sentences, suggesting that everything else in the poem is episode. (4)
Every play consists of desis, or complication, and lusis,
or denouement. Desis is everything leading up to the moment of
peripeteia, and lusis is everything from the peripeteia
onward. (5) There are four distinct kinds of tragedy, and the poet should aim at
bringing out all the important parts of the kind he chooses. First, there is the
complex tragedy, made up of peripeteia and anagnorisis; second,
the tragedy of suffering; third, the tragedy of character; and fourth, the
tragedy of spectacle. (6) The poet should write about focused incidents, and not
about a whole epic story. For instance, a tragedy could not possibly tell the
entire story of the Iliad in any kind of satisfying
detail, but it can pick out and elaborate upon individual episodes within the
Iliad. (7) The chorus should be treated like an actor, and the choral
songs should be an integral part of the story. Too often, Aristotle laments, the
choral songs have little to do with the action at all.
Analysis
The discussion of anagnorisis is an elaboration on what we already
found in Chapters 10 and 11. There, Aristotle suggested that anagnorisis
is most effective when it is connected with peripeteia, as the two
combined bring out a powerful tragic reversal that can arouse the emotions of
pity and fear. Aristotle's sixth category of anagnorisis seems to suggest
as much. The more tightly the moment of recognition is tied to the plot, the
more effective it will be. For this reason, he opposes moments of recognition
that are forced or contrived.
The seven points Aristotle makes at the end are, for the most part, either
uninteresting or reiteration of what he has said before. For instance, a tragic
poet likely knows far more about the actual process of writing a play than
Aristotle does and hardly needs a philosopher's advice on visualizing and acting
out the drama before writing it, which is what we find in (1) and (2). Points
(3), (6), and (7) are further elaborations on the unity of plot, ensuring that
the action and the chorus remain focused on the unified plot. Aristotle's
discussion in (5) of the different kinds of tragedy is peculiar. It seems to
contradict some of what he has said before, and he does little more than list
these different types, leaving us to wonder exactly what he means by "tragedy of
suffering" or "tragedy of character."
Of the seven points, by far the most interesting is (4), which concerns
desis and lusis. The Greek word desis literally
means "tying" and lusis means "untying," as does "denouement," the word
we borrow from French. These two words give us a vivid metaphor for Aristotle's
understanding of how a tragedy works: the plot is like a piece of string that is
twisted up into a complex knot and then untied. The plot is thus structured
around the moment of peripeteia, or reversal, where the knot begins to
unravel. Every event before the peripeteia should serve to complicate the
plot, and every event from the peripeteia onward should serve to untie
these complications.
We also speak of knots to refer metaphorically to tension. A tragic plot builds
up tension only to release it subsequently. This release of tension we find in
the lusis might explain why Aristotle treats katharsis as a
desired effect of tragedy.
