Anagnorisis ( / ˌ æ n ə ɡ ˈ n ɒr ɪ s ɪ s / ; Ancient Greek: ἀναγνώρισις) is a moment in a play or story when a character makes an important discovery. The word originally meant recognizing someone or something in Ancient Greece, including understanding the importance of that person. In Aristotelian tragedy, anagnorisis refers to the hero suddenly understanding the true situation, realizing the actual state of things, and finally recognizing their relationship with a character who is often their enemy.

Tragedy

In his work Poetics, Aristotle explained the term peripeteia. He described anagnorisis as "a change from not knowing to knowing, which creates feelings of love or hate between characters who are meant by the poet to have good or bad outcomes" (1452a). Anagnorisis is often linked with Aristotle’s idea of catharsis.

According to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy, anagnorisis involves a character discovering their own identity or true nature (for example, Cordelia, Edgar, or Edmund in Shakespeare’s King Lear) or learning about another character’s identity or true nature (such as Lear’s children or Gloucester’s children) by the main character in the story.

Aristotle was the first to write about the role of anagnorisis, which can lead to peripeteia, or a sudden change in fortune. He believed that stories with anagnorisis and peripeteia made tragedies more powerful. For example, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother without knowing their relationship, then later learns the truth. In Iphigeneia in Tauris, the character realizes that the strangers she is to sacrifice are her brother and his friend, and she stops the sacrifice. Aristotle saw these complex stories as better than simple ones, like Medea, where the character decides to kill her children without discovering anything new.

A well-known example of anagnorisis appears in Aeschylus’s The Choephoroi (Libation Bearers). In this play, Electra recognizes her brother, Orestes, after he returns to Argos from exile at the grave of their father, Agamemnon, who was killed by their mother, Clytemnestra. Electra uses three clues to confirm his identity: a lock of his hair left at the grave, his footprints near the grave, and a piece of cloth she had woven herself. The footprints and hair match her own. Electra’s discovery shows that her brother is the only person who can help her by avenging their father’s death.

Comedy

The part of Aristotle's Poetics that discusses comedy is not available today, but many scholars still talk about recognition in comedies. In New Comedy, a common story pattern was the final discovery that the heroine was born into a respected family, making her a good match for the hero. This discovery often happened because of the actions of a clever slave. This story pattern appears in Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale, where a recognition scene in the final act shows that Perdita is actually the daughter of a king, not a shepherdess, and therefore a proper match for her prince.

Literature and modern usage

The first use of anagnorisis in a murder mystery appears in "The Three Apples," a story from the classical Arabian Nights collection. In this tale, the device is used very effectively in the story's surprising ending. The main character, Ja'far ibn Yahya, is ordered by Harun al-Rashid to solve a murder mystery within three days. If he fails, he will be executed. Only after the deadline passes and as he prepares to be executed does he learn that the person who committed the crime was his own slave.

Anagnorisis is not limited to older works. Ivan Pintor Iranzo, an author and lecturer, notes that modern filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan uses similar plot twists in his movies. In The Sixth Sense, a child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe helps a boy who sees dead people. At the end of the film, Crowe realizes he himself is dead. In Unbreakable, a character named David discovers that he survived a train crash that killed everyone else because of a supernatural ability. Another famous example is in The Empire Strikes Back, where it is revealed that Darth Vader is the father of Luke Skywalker. A detailed history of anagnorisis is discussed in Terence Cave's book Recognitions.