distinction is that "poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular." By 'the particular' Aristotle means what, for example, Alcibiades did or suffered; by 'the universal' he means "how a person of a certain type will on occasion speak or act, according to the law of probability or necessity." That is, "given a personage of a certain character and in a certain position as the beginning of the story, all the rest must be the natural or necessary consequence of this initial situation."[1]
"The element of 'universality' in Greek Tragedy, as Aristotle under- stands it, means no more than is indicated in his present distinction between a poem and a history; and it is in no wise peculiar to Tragedy. Aristotle tells us it was to be seen in the Comedy of his time; and it is found in just the same way in the modern novel even in the historical and in the so-called realistic novel. In all these forms of imaginative literature the personages are, as we say, 'characters,' in other words, ideal personalities, made to act and speak in accordance with the law of character which the author has assumed for each. "[2]
As thus stated by Aristotle, the contrast between history and poetry appears self-evident; in reality, however, it is an invention of the critic : the element of ' universality ' is found in historiography as well as in tragic or epic poetry. The fact is, Aristotle, on the one hand, considers only the finished product of the dramatist—not the artist's way of working—and, on the other, he ignores entirely the treatment of character in historiography. The Greek tragic poet did not begin with the conception of "a person of a certain character," but with legends (or histories [3]) whose outcome was predetermined and known. "By consecrated usage the tragedian was confined to a circle of legends whose main outlines were already fixed." "The great facts of the legends could not be set aside." "The details of the story might vary within wide limits, but the end was a thing given; and in the drama the end cannot but dominate the structure of the whole—incidents and character alike."[4] In Greek
