Aristotle's Theory of Imitations

Q.     Aristotle's Theory of Imitation.

Or

Describe nature of imitation as propounded in the "poetics"

It was not Aristotle who used the term 'imitation' for the first time; it had already been used by Plato in his “Republic”. But Aristotle gave to it a greater precision of meaning and a greater comprehension of scope with new dimensions.

According to Plato poetry, like all other imitative arts, imitates appearances and not the Truth. To Plato, the 'idea' is the ‘truth’ or the real reality, and the world of the senses, i. e, what we see and feel, is a mere representation of the ideal world. Poetry by imitating this world of appearances is thus twice removed from the ‘truth’. Thus, it is the "shadow of shadows". 

A carpenter who makes a bed, he works on the basis of his idea of a bed, so the idea of a bed is real. What he makes is a copy of that reality. God too created the world as we see it, on the basis of an idea. So, the idea is ‘truth’, and thus it is real. The world, we see, is a mere copy. The poet who creates on the basis of this world, he basis his creation on a copy, hence his work is a copy of a copy and is thus twice removed from reality. Plato's Republic had no place for poets and poetry, which he called the mother of lies. Yet, one should remember that Plato's rather severe indictment against poetry and poets was made in a particular context, to build an ideal state with disciplined citizens and statesmen.

But Aristotle added new dimensions to the term. He gave it a new significance, and removed the sense of inferiority. According to Aristotle art, however, imitates not merely the appearances or the externals of this world, it deals with the very essence of things. There is a creative reproduction of the external world in accordance with the artist's idea. Poetry is thus not an imitation of a shadow, but it is the imitation of the 'ideal reality'.

According to Aristotle, Poetry achieves idealization by dealing with the essential, because it discards the accidental and transient. Poetry deals with the universal and the ideal. The significance of poetic truth is that it is universal, essential and permanent. Thus, Aristotle defended poetry and offered a wider scope and greater significance to the term imitation. He says that imitation is not mere slavish copying. It is not mere representation of the outward appearances; it is the deeper reality, or the very basic elements of human nature.

As Hamilton Fyfe observes, a composer of a pastoral symphony creates a special atmosphere with his artistic skill and makes the hearer feel the emotion, he felt in the countryside. It is in this sense that a poet communicates his emotion by 'imitating' or recreating life. It is a representation of the inner feelings and moods and emotions of human nature. So, poetry is an imitation of the deep inner feelings and ideas of man. The poet's imagination colours his imitation.

All art are imitative. Poetry, like other forms of art, is also a mode of imitation. The medium of the poet and the painter are different. The painter's medium of imitation is colour and form. The medium of the poet is rhythm and harmony. Aristotle finds an affinity between poetry and music.  The musician, too, imitates through rhythm and harmony. Poetry is nearer to music than to painting, as it too imitates through harmony and rhythm. It adds language as well.

The next comes the object of 'imitation. The object of poetic imitation is 'men in action'. These men may be either better than or lower than the average man in real life. Thus 'imitation' in poetry is clearly distinct from photographic representation. It is a process involving the creative imagination and the intellectual faculty of the poet. Tragedy and epic deal with men better than in real life. Comedy and satire imitate men worse than they are in real life. Aristotle does not give much importance to those representations of men exactly as they are found in real life.

In this connection, it is important to observe we must observes Aristotle's concept of character. Now, 'men in action' includes their thoughts, feelings, motives, and emotions. Poetry is an imitation of human life. Action involves the inward life of man as well, not merely the outward events, which in any case, are the result of inward motives. Aristotle excludes from the sphere of poetry, the 'physical' world containing landscape and animals. Thus the whole universe is not considered as material for poetry. The poet is only concerned with human beings and their actions.

The poet does not produce a literal copy of the world as he sees it. The landscape and animals might form only a background to the inward activity of the soul of man. Thus we see that the inner world of man is very much the object of imitation in poetry.

Yet another way in which the different arts may differ from one another is their manner of imitation. Poetry itself is of different types because of the different manner of imitation involved in different types. According to Aristotle all poems may be classified either as narrative or dramatic. Thus poems which resemble each other in the object may differ in the manner of imitation, and the other way round. Sophocles as a tragic poet might be classed with Homer, but as a dramatic poet with Aristophanes."

Aristotle brought a new implication to the term 'imitation'. His concept of imitation made the poetic process an act of creative vision, through which the poet makes something new out of the real and actual.

Poetic imitation involves a creative faculty, for it implies the transformation of material into art. Poetry is not mere photographic representation. It is not a mere copy of the world as we see it. Out of the confused and chaotic muddle of everyday life, the poet tries to create a work of art which has a permanent relevance. The Poets deal with the basic essentials of human nature, or the possibilities of human nature. Aristotle asserts: "It is not the function of the poet to relate, what has happened but what is possible according to the law of probability or necessity". Poetry is thus very much different from history. Poetry thus becomes more philosophical than history. Poetry is concerned with the universal, not with the particular.

Dramatic art is the imitation which reproduces life's emotions. But it implies artistic selection and arrangement of material. Aristotle insists upon the law of probability and necessity. There has to be inevitability about the action. Poetry has no place for the irrelevant. The material has to be pruned. The chaos of life has to be brought under a design, a pattern, and an order.

Critics have found Aristotle somewhat inconsistent in his use of the word 'imitation'.  In the Republic, Plato compares the imitative artist with the narrative poet who reveals his own person, speaks of himself. Aristotle comments that the poet should not speak in his own person, "for this does not make him an imitator".

Aristotle's concept of the tragic character as being better than average, and the comic character as worse than real life, may not be quite valid for all tragedies and comedies. A Shakespearean tragedy like Macbeth conceives of a tragic character not better than average in the moral sense of the term.  Yet, one might argue, that Macbeth shows a higher than average courage and determination in the face of adversity and misfortune.

To conclude we can say that though Aristotle took the term 'imitation' from Plato yet he gave the term a wider significance. He refuted the charge of poetry being a pack of lies. He brought out the higher truth involved in poetry, which made it higher than history. He gave to the term 'imitation' a more precise as well as deeper significance. He brought creative imagination within the scope of poetic 'imitation'. J.W. Atkins remarks: “imitation' to Aristotle was none other than’re-creation'."

Points to Remember:

1.                  Introduction.

2.                  Aristotle added new diminutions to the term.

3.                  Poetry achieves idealization through selection.

4.                  Medium, mode and manner of poetry.

5.                  Poetry is not new photographic representation.

6.                  Poetry deals with the essentials of human nature.

7.                  Law of probability and necessity.

8.                  Conclusion.

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