Poetics

I know this class is Epic Traditions in Epic World Literature, but while reading Aristotle’s Poetics, I couldn’t help but focus on the traditions the philosopher uses in describing comedy. Aristotle dismisses ancient comedy. I don’t know much about Greek comedies, but I remember most of the comedies were crass and the most popular comedies involved actors wearing very short skirts that revealed just about everything. Keeping this in mind, it makes sense that Aristotle thought comedies were trash. (Think if the only comedies you had to consider in the genre were like Little Man. Would you argue that comedy had little artistic value?) But some very important characteristics of comedies are documented which seem to continue this tradition. By taking a movie like Meet the Parents, I think you will be able to see how Aristotle continues to have some valid points.
One of Aristotle’s claims is that comedies imitate inferior people (9). This concept can infuriate many people—no one wants to admit people are not equal. But in all relationships there is a balance of power. In this particular comedy, Greg Focker is definitely inferior. He can do nothing right to win over his future father-in-law. The entire movie plays with one mistake after another that features Greg sinking further and further into a pool of inferiority. It is not on the same plane as enslavement, but there certainly is a balance of power.
Aristotle also uses the idea that there are universalized stories and plots. While I doubt any would believe that any of these things could happen to one person (breaking sister-in-law’s nose before wedding, painting cat’s tail, flushing toilet), Aristotle says “Probable impossibilities are preferable to implausible possibilities” (41). Even though this description was given for epics, this comedy seems to take advantage of it. All of the events could happen. It also states that “anyone who hears the events which occur shudders and feels pity at what happens” (22). This idea reminded me of the film. At the dinner table, grandmother’s urn is broken and her ashes are desecrated in the one of the worst possible ways imaginable. This scene is painful to watch and I “shudder” each time I see it.
Aristotle’s also criticizes comedies in which the bitterest enemies “go off reconciled in the end” (22). This bothers me in comedies as well. In Meet the Parents there is a reason; Pam and Greg are to be married, but still the whole film features this feud and at the end, everything is hunky-dory. It seems unrealistic. Even though Aristotle dismisses comedies from his era, he still managed to influence comedies in this time.