Tragedy Purges the Emotions of Pity and Fear - Essay Example

Tragedy “purges” the emotions of pity and fear The Greek term “catharsis” has often been translated to mean “purgation”, “purification” or “clarification”; Aristotle uses this term in describing the function of tragedy when he says that tragedy arouses pity and fear thereby achieving the catharsis of these emotions (Aristotle, 1965: 1449b26; 39, 49ff). Aristotle understood tragedy to be an imitation of a serious action that not only has magnitude, but is also complete in itself and has incidences that often arouse pity and fear with the aim of achieving a catharsis of these same emotions. In other words, tragedy addresses one serious and dominant issue of great significance and follows it up to the end and the events presented should provoke the audience to feel sorry for the tragic hero and to be afraid as the hero advances to their tragic end. In that respect, as the tragedy goes on, the events should lead to a build-up of emotions of pity and fear, leading to catharsis, the purging or cleansing of these emotions. Aristotle’s claim that tragedy purges the emotions of pity and fear is perhaps one of the most controversial concepts, probably due to the progressive shift in the meaning of the term “catharsis” as in the contemporary sense of the word, as opposed to Aristotle’s initial meaning and usage of the term. Many people have generally understood “catharsis” as the “purification or refinement of people; while witnessing a tragedy, people’s emotions of pity and fear are purified as they become disinterested or emotionally disconnected from the action on stage. Individuals are able to suspend disbelief and to experience tragedy impartially or without any sort of bias without necessarily being overly sentimental or afraid; whereas it is okay for audiences to pity Oedipus or Othello and to fear for Hamlet, they do so without getting selfishly emotional. Nonetheless, all evidences indicate that Aristotle’s did not recommend catharsis as purification but as purgation, in the older, wider sense of usage; initially, the term purgation has origins in medicine, but its meaning has changed rapidly in view of the shifting medical thought. Critics have argued that it would be more appropriate to refer to catharsis in terms of moderating or tempering of passions, in the true sense of the Aristotelian view, to account for the initial meaning intended by Aristotle. In that respect, catharsis as a form of moderation entails the balancing off the excessive emotions of pity and fear that may otherwise result to the unstable state of the mind; therefore, moderation is essential in keeping the mind in a healthy state of balance. Aristotle’s idea of catharsis is true as far as purgation of pent up emotions of pity and fear are involved since it has been observed that individuals often feel a relief of sorts after witnessing a tragedy. As emotions of pity and fear are worked up in the mind and rinsed out at the end of a tragedy after a prolonged tension, viewers often feel some sort of relaxation or a release, which may not necessarily be purgation or moderation, but fulfilment or satisfaction with the resolution of the tragedy. The conclusion of a tragedy needs not only to be logical, but also reasonable in a way that it leads to the achievement of an awareness of the tragic errors committed by the characters resulted to their calamity or death (Aristotle, 1965: 1449b 12 f.J). in that case, the viewers do not necessarily purge anything as in the sense of purgation but they gain something (artistic delight) instead. In other words, tragedy gives viewers some sort of artistic delight, which is knowing that they are better beings because unlike the tragic character of the tragedy, they do not possess avoidable tragic flaws or tendencies to make miscalculations that might result to a tragic end or calamity. By witnessing the tragic characters make miscalculations, often due to their weaknesses or Achilles’ heels, and eventually seeing them meet their death or calamity, viewers achieve an awareness that they are better because they are in a better position to evade death or the calamities that befall the tragic characters. Whereas purgation or moderation of emotions have ethical significance, other moral ends of catharsis can also be realized incidentally. However, the primary role of tragedy is not to achieve moral ends because audiences go to witness tragedy in the hope of experiencing some form of artistic delight; the everyday activities of people may deny them an opportunity to feel emotions. In that sense, tragedy becomes an effective medium through which audiences can be fed emotions; whereas the daily experiences may be dull leading to a deficiency rather than an access of emotions, tragedy is full of tension that provides the appropriate emotional cues for the audiences, thereby leading to satisfaction or fulfilment. Repressed desires are dangerous because they are more likely to lead to neurosis if individuals are left alone for so long without the appropriate natural outlets through which they can release those feelings; in extreme cases, emotional instability is more likely to lead to hysteria, thereby necessitating catharsis as release. It is clear that tragedy is not really a drama of despair, causeless death or chance disaster but a form of play in which calamity or disaster has clear causes which can be avoided effectively thereby leading to an avoidance of the calamity or the disaster altogether. Even though tragedy is serious and is full of sorrowful scenes, it still retains the elements of beauty by encouraging noble thoughts while serving a tragic delight at the same time (Hegel 1975, p.149); Aristotle establishes tragedy as a drama of balance through the concept of catharsis rather than a drama that condemns viewers to despair and pessimism. In other words, tragedy combines sorrow and beauty into what could be termed as tragic beauty, thereby contributing to the aesthetics of balance as theorized by Aristotle in his conceptualization of catharsis. While pity alone would make people excessively sentimental, fear would make them extremely cowardly; nevertheless, pity and fear together yield the tragic feeling that delights people tearfully at the same time thereby maintaining balance. By watching the tragic characters suffer misfortune after another, the audience delights in knowing that they do not share their predicament and are not likely to do so because of the foresight of the causes of those calamities or death. Overall, Aristotle’s claim that tragedy “purges” the emotions of pity and fear should, therefore be understood in terms of a release of tension or the excessive emotions of pity and fear; catharsis occurs at the end of the tragedy, when the tragic hero eventually meets his demise. By seeing the tragedy and the distress of the protagonist on the stage, the audience develops strong feelings of fear and pity, which are then heightened as the events unfold and later purged. Eventually, the purgation of the emotions of pity and fear from the audience makes them relieved since they emerge out of the experience as better humans than they initially were before the experience. In view of Aristotle’s claim that tragedy purges the emotions of pity and fear, it can be deduced that by “emotions”, Aristotle was not necessarily referring to mere feelings of pity and fear, but to the nature of the subject matter, which by virtue of its artistic merit purifies these feelings. A tragic fatality or calamity only befalls individual agents as a result of their own deeds, which may both be legitimate and blame-worth; still in another case, individual agents may fall victim to calamities without their knowledge, as a result of accidental natural forces such as illnesses or death, among others. References Aristotle. 1965. ‘On the Art of Poetry’. Translation by Ingram Bywater in Aristotle/Horace/Longinus, Classical Literary Criticism, ed. T.S. Dorsch, London: Penguin. Hegel, G.W.F. 1975. Aesthetics, Vol. 2 (trans. T.M. Knox, Oxford: OUP. Read More