According to aristotle, which element of tragedy is the most important? character plot thought spectacle

Plot

In his thoughts on Poetics (or what we would call the dramatic arts), Aristotle said that every tragedy (a dramatic, serious play) contains six elements: "Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song." Of these, he identified plot as the most critical element of drama. Here's why, according to Aristotle (from his Poetics, as translated by S.H. Butcher):

The most important of all is the structure of the incidents. For tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Now character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the reverse. ... Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all. ... The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy. ... Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.

You'll notice in the quoted section that Aristotle speaks of the "end" or purpose of drama as well as the "first principle" of drama, putting plot or actions into that position. This is consistent with Aristotle's general pattern of thought, which was teleological -- looking for the ends or purposes of things, and seeing those ends or purposes as the first principles of things.

in ray bradbury's short story "a sound of thunder", mr. eckels's fearfulness leads to drastic consequences for the rest of the world.

in the story, mr. eckels, who is a hunter, hires a time travel company to travel to the age of dinosaurs. although he is excited for the hunting expedition at the beginning, when they reach there and mr. eckels sees the tyrannosaurus, he feels frightened. as he is afraid of the tyrannosaurus, he steps off the path although he has been warned not to do it. by stepping off the path, the entire course of the future is affected: mr. eckart alters the future by stepping on a butterfly, which causes a new man to be elected president in the future. in that way, it is mr. eckart's fearfulness what triggers 'the butterfly effect' and what leads to drastic consequences for the rest of the world.

the writer needs to avoid using abbreviations and check spelling before sharing.