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Aristotle’s Model: the Play as a Whole

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Aristotle’s Model: The Play as a Whole
In Aristotle’s Poetics, Aristotle emphasizes three major elements of a good play: plot, character, and thought. To be more specific, in an Aristotelian play, thought sets the cause of action with character as emotion developer based on plot as the basic form. Besides these three main factors, the idea that a play should be a complete whole is also the basis of the Poetics (Aristotle 61). Therefore, when comparing the choices Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan and The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry for the play of the season, unification and regularity of all three elements. After comparing and contrasting both plays, Lobby Hero fits the Aristotle’s model’s three elements, plot, character and thought better than The Philadelphia Story does because Lobby Hero has a more consistent development of action, characters’ personality and emotions. The imitation of one action is very essential to construct a complete plot. Lobby Hero constructs a smooth unity of action in all of its plots while The Philadelphia Story’s imitation is vague. Although both plays have connected actions that make the structural union of all parts, Lobby Hero has a more surrounded action which is the pursuit of right things. Jeff repeatedly shows his ambition of lending help. For example, he praises William’s kindness when William is baffled by his brother’s incident; he also emphasizes his importance as a “safety specialist” to make himself sound superior. These series of repetition and imitation cumulate to an end of telling the truth. To Jeff, telling police the truth is the right thing to do and to save William. Jeff’s actions are unified from the beginning to the end centering the idea that he wants to be a good man. Not only are Jeff’s actions unified, William’s imitated actions also contribute to the result of the structural whole. If William’s initiative were selfish, he would not have struggled for such a long time. William says that if his brother gets involved with any capital crime, he will shoot his brother in head instead of helping him (Lonergan 32). William’s justice is the base of his pursuit of right thing. This idea is repeated with his struggles throughout the whole play; his anger at the bad lawyer and his hesitation when Bill offers him help all show his inner battle between justice and intimate’s crime. The recurring spirit also has supports in The Philadelphia Story. Dexter Haven is the example. Dexeter shows up in Tracy’s pre-wedding party only because of a quick phone call made by Dinah. Since the beginning of the play, the theme of Dexter’s unity of action has been the pursuit of love. He shows care towards Tracy in every aspect; he sent her a photo of the “true-love boat” and even helps her make the cancellation announcement. The imitated action is Dexter’s unforgettable love towards Tracy. Therefore, his unity of action contributes to the reunion ending. However, another important character Tracy does not have a strong unity of action that has reasonable support to the structural union. Besides the momentary sensation when Tracy sees the picture of the boat, Tracy has not shown any evidential action that is repeated and causes the surprising ending of the play. Tracey claims that she is looking for true love but she does not have supporting repetitive actions; she jumps around three men whom she does not show obvious “true-love affection” to till the end. Therefore, Tracy’s lacking of imitated action disconnects some parts of the play’s action which makes the ending seems a little abrupt. This partial unified action of The Philadelphia Story weakens its plot formation when compared to that of Lobby Hero. With a more unified plot, Lobby Hero builds a well-constructed basic form for characters to perform on. As a result, Lobby Hero’s characters show consistency in their actions in response to different situations; nevertheless, The Philadelphia Story does not lose to Lobby Hero in this aspect as its characters present what Aristotle calls “consistent inconsistency” (Aristotle 82). In Lobby Hero, the last climax which is Dawn revealing the truth is actually not reversal and surprising because of Jeff’s consistent personality. Although Jeff does not indicate any sign about truth telling, his habit of telling truth is embedded in the details of the play. When Jeff hears Bill lying to Dawn about his fair with Mrs. Heinvald, he intentionally calls Bill to pick up his hat left in Mrs. Heinvald’s apartment. His audacious and straightforward speaking routine also makes the final truth telling consistent with his characteristics. Acknowledged that William is his superintendent, he is still dare to talk about his sexual illusion about female cop. With a faith of telling the truth and frank talking behavior, telling Dawn about William’s brother’s crime is consistent to Jeff’s personality. In this way, Lobby Hero well constructs a character with great consistency whose actions hold the play into a rational whole story. If Lobby Hero’s Jeff is consistent in his consistency, Tracy in The Philadelphia Story is inconsistent in her consistency. Tracy is inconsistent because her sensitivity is changing. She sees George as an angel the day before the wedding but falls crazily in love with Mike, or Macaulay, and his books the night before the wedding. However, when she looks at the “boat of true love”, Tracy begins to think of the good time spent with Dexter. Under the presumption that Tracy is a very unstable character, the abrupt ending seems plausible. Therefore, Tracy is consistently changing; if she does not change at one point, then the play does not have a complete construction. For character’s consistency, both Lobby Hero and The Philadelphia Story have fit Aristotelian model well enough. However, with only a consistent protagonist, it is still hard for audience of The Philadelphia Story to get the important essence of the play compared to Lobby Hero. Lobby Hero has a strong suggestion of importance which is telling the truth for rightness. Both Jeff and Dawn tell the truth, and both of them receive what they want. Jeff tells the truth with considering of fairness in front of the law. As a result, he finally gets Dawn’s favor at the end of the story when Dawn tells Jeff she is free if he needs a date for attending a wedding. As suggested in the beginning, dealing with girls is one of Jeff’s most baffling problems. Now Jeff solves his problem as a result of telling truth. Dawn, a rookie police officer, wishes to be brave enough to enforce law against crime one day. She reports Bill’s real behavior during Bill’s shift and gets promoted. On the contrary, the frequent liar Bill is thrown out from the gold shield list. Therefore, the importance of truth is suggested in every character’s ending in Lobby Hero which is clear for the audience to understand. On the other had, The Philadelphia Story does not give a central value that is carried out by the characters. If the central importance of the play is the value of true love, the characters does not emphasize the importance strongly enough. Besides Dexter, almost every other character is changing their ideology of importance especially the female characters. Both main female characters, Tracy and Elizabeth are going beyond true love to betrayal. Tracy betrays George the day before the wedding while Elizabeth betrays Mike by giving away his photos. However, contradicting with their behavior, Tracy and Elizabeth have different emotions. Tracy’s attitude towards George changes when she finds that George’s love towards her is not the true love she wants. And when Edward asks Elizabeth about her feeling towards Mike, her talk implies at least some affection towards Mike. The blend of love and betrayal perplexes audience for which one is the importance suggested by the play. Therefore, compared to the obscurity in The Philadelphia Story, Lobby Hero has a more well-defined importance. In conclusion, although both Lobby Hero and The Philadelphia Story do a good job fitting into the element of characters, Lobby Hero still has better plots and thoughts based on Aristotelian criteria of a good play. However, this essay only evaluates three factors of numbers of important factors that build up a good Aristotelian play. None of these two fit perfectly for the model, and The Philadelphia Story has its strength in other factors. But based on the idea that play is a consistent whole, Lobby Hero has a more understandable and clear-cut argument presented for audience to be the play of the season.

Work Cited List Aristotle. Aristotle's Poetics. Trans. Francis Fergusson. New York: Hill and Wang, 1961. Print. Lonergan, Kenneth. Lobby Hero. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2002. Print.

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