Aristotle's Poetics and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Introduction: Achebe Through an Aristotelian Lens

Aristotle's Poetics has served as a seminal work of and on Western literature, defining and analyzing texts in a way that has continued to inform and inspire authors for millennia. Though Chinua Achebe is not exactly a Western author — being a Nigerian native — his novel Things Fall Apart can be analyzed from the perspective of a tragedy as defined and described by Aristotle in the Poetics. The traditional arc of tragedy is very clearly present in the novel, as an initial balance is eventually eroded away to the point of utter collapse and total devastation.

Even the scope of the novel is almost ironically tragic by an Aristotelian definition. It involves the higher echelons of power within a set of Nigerian villages, just as tragedies in Aristotle's day were — essentially, according to the Poetics — concerned with the ruling families of the Greek city-states. In Achebe's novel, however, this power structure is revealed to be largely insignificant in the face of pressures from the larger world. It is in the area of character, nonetheless, that Achebe most closely matches the Aristotelian ideal.

Aristotle's Requirements for Tragic Character

There are several aspects of character that Aristotle deems essential for the development of a proper central character in a tragedy, including that the character be both good and consistent in their actions and behaviors (Poetics, Part XV). This consistency of behavior, according to Aristotle, helps to propel the properly structured plot: "As in the structure of the plot, so too in the portraiture of character, the poet should always aim either at the necessary or the probable" (Poetics, Part XV). This creates a character whose behaviors both produce their success and lead to their downfall — what is commonly called a tragic flaw.

Okonkwo's Tragic Flaw and Its Consequences

This tragic flaw is very clearly apparent in Okonkwo, the protagonist of Achebe's Things Fall Apart. He is very strong and very masculine according to the expectations of his people, and this quality both helps him to win success among his community despite the shame of his family background — his father was not well respected — and ultimately causes him to be banished from the villages.

This banishment, somewhat ironically — though it represents a perfect twist for a tragic plot — weakens the villages and enables the white newcomers' ways to dominate the society, which ultimately leads to Okonkwo's "weak" death at his own hands. The beginning of this change can be seen when Okonkwo convinces himself to take part in the ritual slaying of a kidnapped boy from another village, despite warnings that he should avoid participation: "When did you become a shivering old woman," Okonkwo asked himself, "you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war?" (Things Fall Apart, Chapter 8). This moment clearly illustrates the transition from Okonkwo's consistent strength serving as a benefit to him and his society, to its becoming a detriment that leads directly to his downfall.

Conclusion: Universality of Tragic Structure

Not all works dramatic or tragic in nature follow the formula laid out by Aristotle in his Poetics, of course, and Achebe takes many departures from the prescribed "best tragedy" in his novel. At the same time, the basic structure of tragedy and tragic characters as Aristotle describes it can be seen echoed in many stories, regardless of whether such elements were consciously designed according to his rules. Perhaps this simply reflects the universality of human responses to dramatic events and well-drawn characters.