Scribd
Upload
103 views1 page

Peripeteia Anagnōrisis: The Great Gatsby Can Be Considered A Tragedy in That It Revolves Around A Larger

According to Aristotle, tragedy is defined as an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of magnitude, which causes pity and fear in the audience and results in a catharsis of those emotions. Aristotle identified six main elements of tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, song, and spectacle. However, he considered plot to be the most important element and the soul of tragedy, rather than character. Aristotle believed the most powerful parts of tragedy are scenes involving a reversal of intention or situation coinciding with a scene of recognition. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby tries to convince Daisy she never loved Tom, but his actions instead cause the opposite result and lead to his death at the hands

Uploaded by

Sidra Zaman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
103 views1 page

Peripeteia Anagnōrisis: The Great Gatsby Can Be Considered A Tragedy in That It Revolves Around A Larger

According to Aristotle, tragedy is defined as an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of magnitude, which causes pity and fear in the audience and results in a catharsis of those emotions. Aristotle identified six main elements of tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, song, and spectacle. However, he considered plot to be the most important element and the soul of tragedy, rather than character. Aristotle believed the most powerful parts of tragedy are scenes involving a reversal of intention or situation coinciding with a scene of recognition. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby tries to convince Daisy she never loved Tom, but his actions instead cause the opposite result and lead to his death at the hands

Uploaded by

Sidra Zaman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Aristotle defined tragedy as an imitation [mimesis] of an action that is serious, complete, and of a

certain magnitude…through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these
emotions.” The Great Gatsby can be considered a tragedy in that it revolves around a larger-
than-life hero whose pursuit of an impossible goal blinds him to reality and leads to his violent
death. According to Aristotle tragedy has 6 main elements: plot, character, diction, thought,
song and spectacle. Aristotle insists that the principal element in the structure of tragedy is not
character but plot because the importance of tragedy lies not in the character but in
the enlightening event. “Most important of all,” Aristotle said, “is the structure of the incidents.
For tragedy is an imitation not of men but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and
its end is a mode of action, not a quality.” Aristotle considered the plot to be the soul of a
tragedy, with character in second place. The most powerful elements of emotional interest
in tragedy, according to Aristotle, are reversal of intention or situation (peripeteia) and
recognition scenes (anagnōrisis), and each is most effective when it is coincident with
the other.  An ironic reversal that occurs when a hero’s actions cause the opposite of what was
intended. This relates to when Gatsby tries to convince Daisy that she never loved Tom, in the
city. The outcome of this situation can only be the direct opposite of what Gatsby would have
wanted and spirals out of control far beyond what was expected, after his “tell him you never
loved him” a conflict between himself and Tom ensues, which ultimately leads to Gatsby and
Daisy driving home and on the way accidentally killing Myrtle, some irony being that Daisy
actually is the one who kills Myrtle, however she isn’t aware the person she has run down is
having an affair with her husband, Tom and also irony in Tom telling Wilson that it was Gatsby
when it was, in fact, his wife. This leads to the Catastrophe: when the characters try to deal with
the reversal. Gatsby then tries to protect Daisy “no one must know it was her” and him and
Daisy both agree to leave West Egg but upon relaxing in the pool the morn of the day they
intended to ‘escape’ he is gunned down by Wilson, who is under the impression it was Gatsby
who was having an affair with his wife and was the one who killed her.

You might also like