ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Aristotelian varieties of character representation in arts, within the same poetic and artistic genre, and in accordance with stylistic diversity. While discussing the appropriateness of teaching music to the young in the Politics, Aristotle gives an account of how various arts represent characters and emotions. Although Aristotle keeps moral implications of his classification understated in the Poetics, several passages in other Aristotelian works, especially in the Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics, offer glimpses of the philosopher’s views. While discussing the appropriateness of teaching music to the young in the Politics, Aristotle gives an account of how various arts represent characters and emotions.
