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Aristotle's work on aesthetics consists of the Poetics and Rhetoric. The Poetics is specifically concerned with drama. At some point, Aristotle's original work was divided in two, each "book" written on a separate roll of papyrus.^[5] Only the first part—that which focuses on tragedy—survives. The lost second part addressed comedy.^[5] Scholars speculate that the Tractatus coislinianus summarises the contents of the lost second book.^[6]

Aristotle distinguishes between the genres of "poetry" in three ways:

• their means

language, rhythm, and harmony, used separately or in combination

• their objects

• agents ("good" or "bad" ...) - human characters who have emotions (and bring moral to actions they do - "good" person kills child = remorse? X "bad" person kills child = just shows his power?) or things of daily life (skull in Hamlet, cake in slapstick comedies...) who have no emotions (humans put emotions on things - girl's father is killed by sword, girl hates swords) ...
• actions ("virtuous" or "vicious" ...) - agents cause and are influenced by actions

• their modes of representation

Having examined briefly the field of "poetry" in general, Aristotle proceeds to his definition of tragedy:

Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action which has magnitude, in embellished speech, with each of its elements [used] separately in the [various] parts [of the play]; [represented] by people acting and not by narration; accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions.

By "embellished speech", I mean that which has rhythm and melody, i.e. song; by "with its elements separately", I mean that some [parts of it] are accomplished only by means of spoken verses, and others again by means of song (1449b25-30).^[7]

Tragedy consists of six parts, he explains:

• plot (mythos)

Key elements of the plot are reversals, recognitions and suffering. The best plot should be "complex". It should imitate actions arousing horror, fear and pity.

When a character is unfortunate by reversal(s) of fortune (peripeteia), at first he suffers (pathos) and then he can realize (anagnorisis) the cause of his misery or a way to be released from the misery.

Plot should be more convoluted ("complex"), so audience can learn about what is possible in a world (Aristotle stated, that "best" tragedy "is" based on real events which people know are possible; note, that people also "nitpick" little "mistakes" in such story more); when plot is not "very" convoluted (audience may be young and they might not keep track of events ...), it should have at least interesting characters or thoughts (so audience is not "bored")

• character (ethos)

It is much better if tragical accident happens to a hero because of a mistake he makes (hamartia) instead of things which would happen anyway. That is because audience is "moved" by it. Hero may have done it knowingly (in Medea) or unknowingly (Oedipus). Hero may leave deed undone (due to timely discovery, knowledge present at the point of doing deed ...).

Main character should be

• good - Aristotle explains that audiences do not like, for example, villains "making fortune from misery" in the end; it might happen though, and might make play interesting, nevertheless the moral is at stake here and morals are important to make people happy (people can, for example, see tragedy because they want to release their anger)
• appropriate - if a character is supposed to be wise, it is unlikely he is young (supposing wisdom is gained with age)
• consistent - if a person is a soldier, he is unlikely to be scared of blood (if this soldier is scared of blood it must be explained and play some role in the story to avoid confusing the audience); it is also "good" if a character doesn't change opinion "that much" if the play is not "driven" by who characters are, but by what they do (audience is confused in case of unexpected shifts in behaviour [and it's reasons, morals ...] of characters)
• "consistently inconsistent" - if a character always behaves foolishly it is strange if he suddenly becomes smart; in this case it would be good to explain such change, otherwise the audience may be confused ; also if character changes opinion a lot it should be clear he is a character who has this trait, not real life person, who does - this is also to avoid confusion

• thought (dianoia) - spoken (usually) reasoning of human characters can explain the characters or story background ...
• diction (lexis)
• melody (melos)

For example: if there is too much sadness or too little of main character (hero) in story : audience may not like "too much" grief (it may "easily" become, as they say, pathetic) or can be confused who is main hero and who isn't

• spectacle (opsis)

For example: if play has "beautiful" costumes and "bad" acting and "bad" story, there is "something wrong" with it. Even though that "beauty" may save the play it is "not a nice thing".

He offers the earliest-surviving explanation for the origins of tragedy and comedy:

Anyway, arising from an improvisatory beginning (both tragedy and comedy—tragedy from the leaders of the dithyramb, and comedy from the leaders of the phallic processions which even now continue as a custom in many of our cities) [...] (1449a10-13)^[8]