Arcane vs Aristotle: Part V
The Two Parts of Tragedy
SPOILER WARNING: This section will be filled with spoilers from the first three episodes of Arcane, as well as a few spoilers for the Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Hamlet. If you are unfamiliar with these stories, you’re probably on the wrong web page.
AUTHOR NOTE: The thoughts below are based purely on my own observations of the television show “Arcane: League of Legends” and the direct text of Aristotle’s “Poetics” based on the S.H. Butcher translation originally published in 1895. For this deep dive, I was too lazy to place footnotes on every quote, but any time you see quotations, know that the source is Aristotle’s words as translated by Butcher.
Part V: The Two Parts of Tragedy
How many ways can Aristotle slice up a tragedy? Too many, but I assure you, all of them can be useful to understand as a writer. However, to fully grasp how Aristotle’s principles work and apply to Arcane: League of Legends, you should probably go back and read the earlier parts of this deep dive (Part I &II, III, IV)
In this section I will often make reference to terms used in Aristotle’s Poetics by placing them in quotes. (Example: ‘thought’) These words sometimes have a special meaning that carries more complexity than the standard dictionary definition, so I explain their meanings to the best of my ability in that first section. Now let’s dive in!
The Two Parts of Tragedy
“Many poets tie the knot well, but unravel it ill. Both areas, however, should always be mastered.”
-Poetics, XVIII
To fully grasp the meaning of the Four Types of Tragedy, let’s start with what makes up a tragic event structurally. Aristotle describes a tragedy as occurring in two parts: the Complication and the Unravelling (or ‘denouement’). He defines these as such:
Complication: that which extends from the beginning of the action to the turning point of good or bad fortune
Unravelling: that which extends from the beginning of the change to the end
The way Aristotle describes the terms would seem to apply to climax and the aftermath of the major turning point of a drama. In Poetics, he provides an example from a play with which I am unfamiliar, but it seems to indicate the ‘complication’—a murder—is the major turning point of the entire play. Later he clarifies:
“Again, the poet should remember what has been often said, and not make an Epic structure into a Tragedy—by an Epic structure I mean one with a multiplicity of plots—as if, for instance, you were to make a tragedy out of the entire story of the Iliad. In the Epic poem, owing to its length, each part assumes its proper magnitude.”
-Poetics, XVIII
This quote indicates many plots are unacceptable to Aristotle. Therefore, it also seems to confirm ‘complication’ and ‘unravelling’ should only apply to a single plot line. Aristotle’s reasoning was that poets who tried to execute complete versions of large epics on stage (such as the Fall of Troy) failed compared to poets who instead chose to focus on a single tragic plot line from that story.
However, if you imagine a television show such as Arcane or a movie like the Godfather as epic in structure simply because they have a multiplicity of plots and subplots, how might these stories be executed with successful catharsis while betraying Aristotle’s policy of sticking to a single plot?
You could say The Iliad follows Odysseus through a series of stand-alone adventures which don’t relate other than all are roadblocks to his journey home. Aristotle may have been pointing out this constant ending and starting of stories would be distracting for a complete evening of theatre. However, it would not be unlike binging a modern television show.
Arcane, on the other hand, has several plots that interweave characters more directly between episodes into a final outcome that affects them all. This is why the episodes feel more like chapters or acts than separate stories. So, is Aristotle’s problem too many plots or plots that are not closely interlinked to each other?
To answer this, let’s dig into the two parts of tragedy a little deeper.
The Complication
At the beginning of chapter XVIII, Aristotle gives a conspicuous description as part of his definition of ‘complication’:
“Incidents extraneous to the action are frequently combined with a portion of the action proper, to form the Complication.”
-Poetics, XVIII
This quote suggests that action outside of a primary plot is necessary to creating a ‘complication.’ In Arcane for example, throughout the plot of Powder and Vi’s slowly crumbling bond (‘action proper’), the '“extraneous” incidents (such as Silco and Deckard) are in fact mini-plots or subplots creating complications.
For this reason, I would argue that multiple plots running parallel is not the issue for Aristotle. Instead, his issue is not addressing the subplots in a way that purposefully affects the main plot.
In a recent comic writing class I took (Comics Experience), we talked about what makes a scene complete and marks it as over. As we discussed, a scene ends when a character’s fortune changes from good to bad or the opposite. (Sound familiar?) With that in mind, the event/action/information/choice marking when that change occurs in any scene could be considered a ‘complication’ in Aristotelian terms.
My theory here (and this isn’t necessarily original) is that rather than the terms ‘complication’ and ‘unravelling’ applying only to a single major turning point, we might instead use these terms to describe every turning point within the story. So the ‘complication’ in one scene might actually be part of the continued ‘unravelling’ of a previous one.
That said, what would be considered the ‘unravelling’ or ‘denouement’ in a single scene?
The Unravelling or “Denouement”
Over the years, I have often seen the term “denouement” used to describe the last bit of a story after the climax has played out in a book or movie (example: the Death Star explodes—the denouement is a cheesy awards ceremony; Indy gets the Ark of the Covenant after it melts people’s faces—denouement would be the Ark being lost again in a top-secret warehouse.)
Based on what I posit here, however, the ‘denouement’ of a ‘complication’ in a single scene could be all the subsequent events—tragic or otherwise—that can be traced back as an effect of that ‘complication.’
So, for example, at the end of Act I of Hamlet, he learns from the ghost that his uncle murdered his father. You might say the ‘denouement’ of that scene is Hamlet’s speech to Horatio about how he will now avenge his father’s death. Or you might also say the ‘denouement’ is everything that happens after Hamlet gains this knowledge until his ultimate death at the end of Act V.
My point is ‘complication’ and ‘unravelling’ are like two sides of a coin—you can’t have one without the other. While the ‘unravelling’ might be a long series of consequent actions, it could also manifest as very little or any actions at all. The unravelling could take place only in the viewer’s mind! (Arcane Episode 9, anyone?)
The takeaway here is once a ‘complication’ has been setup, the ‘unravelling’ will exist inevitably. The test for a writer is how well they address it once it is there.
As Aristotle states, it is in these moments that understanding what type of tragedy you are addressing (one of the Four Types) is most clear:
“In speaking of a tragedy as the same or different, the best test to take is the plot. Identity [referring to the type of tragedy] exists where the Complication and Unravelling are the same. Many poets tie the knot well but unravel it ill. Both areas, however, should always be mastered.”
-Poetics, XVIII
NEXT TIME! The Four Types of Tragedy
Knowing how to unravel the knot well is a subjective skill, but it will certainly come more easily to those who can identify the Four Types of Tragedy. Knowing how these types work with your characters to create their motivations and objectives can help you understand why certain types carry more emotional weight than others with your audience. However, as Aristotle states, the superior poet should aspire to use all four at once—which is exactly what we will examine later on in the jaw-dropping ending to Episode 3 of Arcane!
Sterling Martin is an artist and designer living in Chicago, IL. His background includes drawing, writing, theatre, teaching, improv & sketch comedy, and whatever else he can get his hands on to be creative. You can find him on the internet at:
Instagram: @sterfest.art
Website: sterlingmartin.design
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Note: All images above come from Wiki-commons, Arcane: League of Legends, and Star Wars: A New Hope