How is Aristotle meant when he said, ‘pleasure proper to tragedy’

 

INTRODUCTION

Aristotle (384-322BC) the scholar of famous educationist and theoretician Plato differed from his master as he was more inclined in describing and classifying things as they were. However, he followed Plato in defining poetry as ‘mimesis’ but during a different way. He regarded mimesis as a natural healthy impulse. The proposal for tragedy consistent with Aristotle was unity of action, place and time which became famous later because the three unities. Another contribution he did within the field was the notion of Catharsis. Talking about pleasure in his book Poetics Aristotle says, they're of three types. First, when it comes from pity and fear through imitation. Secondly, pleasure is claimed to be derived from completeness and wholeness of action during a plot. within the third, pleasure is claimed to be a results of music and spectacular effects.

However, all kinds of delight isn't found in tragedy. It affords only those which is proper thereto or are often said as pleasure proper to tragedy. In his work ‘Poetics’ Aristotle says, The pleasure which the poet should afford is that which comes from pity and fear through imitation. Pity and fear are man’s sympathy for the great a part of " a part of mankind within the bad part of their experiences. Pity is evoked when there's discrepancy between the agent and fate and fear when there's likeness between the agent and us.

In Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a young Man, we discover the definition where he calls pity the sensation which arrests the mind within the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unities it with the human sufferer. Terror or fear is that which unities it with the key cause. Similar definitions we discover in Aristotle’s book Rhetoric. There he defines them as a species of pain. it's here that we will begin to think about the thought that tragic pleasure derives from the purgation of those emotions. Aristotle unlike his teacher Plato says that the emotions are good in themselves. Therefore, there should be no got to purge the emotions of pity and fear. Instead, a more sensible definition of the tragic pleasure would be- concomitant with the right feelings of those emotions. By ‘proper’ he means temperate attitude to those emotions. within the Ethics, Aristotle says, Fear and confidence and appetite and anger and pity and generally pleasure and pain could also be felt both an excessive amount of and insufficient and in both cases not well; but to feel them at the proper times with regard to the proper objects, towards the proper people, with the proper motive and within the right way is what's both intermediate and best and this is often characteristic of virtue. We analyse, Aristotle discusses two sorts of pleasure- pure and incidental. the previous is universal and is amid no pain and is likened to the pleasure arising out of contemplation. those that experience this do so solely by contemplating and appraising the imitation of human emotions in tragedy. it's through this view that we bring our specialise in his statement, Pleasure is affected through imitation.

 

Aristotle meant when he said, ‘pleasure proper to tragedy’

As Aristotle said imitation is itself an enjoyable act, all of this is applicable to epic also as tragedy and may probably be extended to other sorts of poetry. The specifically ‘tragic’ pleasure is that concerning the medium and therefore the dramatic mode of the tragedy. These constitute the precise imitative aspect of tragedy. A heightened sense of pity and fear is affected when the required and probable events take an unexpected turn. this is often possible within the complex plot. For e.g. by the top of Oedipus , we feel an appreciation for all the tragic ironies involving sight and blindness, fate and discretion , family love and incest and truth and ignorance.

Pleasure proper to tragedy All of those feelings are the results of a posh plot; a series of oracles; ironies and complications that it seems were destined for tragedy. Ironically, we enjoy the facts that Clytemnestra kills herself but Oedipus doesn’t; it seems just to us. We pity both mother and son, and that we fear that such corruption may befall our families also . So, the pleasure comes at intersection of pity, fear and appreciation of a plot that's resolved tragically but deservedly. Therefore, our examination of the weather of the complex plot has led us to a consideration of pity and fear. These along side imitation help us to know the pleasure proper to tragedy.

It is worthwhile to notice that unlike modem theatre, Ancient Greek theatre was religious. Plays were performed only during festivals, a time when society communicated with its ancestors and gods. This choice of timing influenced the character of theatrical performances and therefore the techniques of presentation. as an example , Greek theatre, not only grew out of dance, it also retained dance and music as major activities. The strong emotions generated while worshipping the gods and therefore the ancestors also provided an aesthetics of arousal which we discover at its core. This aesthetic value was formulated as catharsis. These dramatic festivals were often held at sites like the temple of Asklepios at Epidauros where patients were also treated for diseases.

 The dramatic theory within the Poetics of Aristotle are often said to contains four principles of the traditional classificatory system. Firstly, the concept of mimesis, which is common to all or any fine arts; secondly, the treatment of the varied genres of poetry, namely epic, tragedy and comedy; thirdly, the division of tragedy into six elements-plot (muthos), character (ethos), thought (dianoia), language (lexis), music (melopoiia), and spectacle (opsis); and fourthly, cryptic statement about catharsis upheld by Western critical tradition as a principle of Aristotelian aesthetics. the topic of mimesis are often considered in two ways, as a principle and as a practice. As a principle, mimesis may be a quite human urge that makes drama and is endowed with aesthetic values. As a practice mimesis may be a way of handling theatrical devices to reflect the principle. The classic discussion of Greek tragedy is Aristotle's Poetics. He defines tragedy as "the imitation of an action that's serious and also as having magnitude, complete in itself." He continues, "Tragedy may be a sort of drama exciting the emotions of pity and fear. Its action should be single and complete, presenting a reversal of fortune, involving persons renowned and of superior attainments, and it should be written in poetry embellished with all kinds of artistic expression." the author presents "incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to interpret its catharsis of such of such emotions" (by catharsis, Aristotle means a purging or sweeping away of the pity and fear aroused by the tragic action).

 

The basic difference Aristotle draws between tragedy and other genres, like comedy and therefore the epic, is that the "tragic pleasure of pity and fear" the audience feel watching a tragedy. so as for the tragic hero to arouse these feelings within the audience, he can't be either all good or all evil but must be someone the audience can identify with; however, if he's superior in some way(s), the tragic pleasure is intensified. His disastrous end results from a mistaken action, which successively arises from a hamartia or from a tragic error in judgment. Pleasure proper to Tragedy Often the hamartia is hubris, an excessive pride that causes the hero to ignore a divine warning or to interrupt an ethical law. Pleasure proper to Tragedy, it's been suggested that because the tragic hero's suffering is bigger than his offense, the audience feels pity; because the audience members perceive that they might behave similarly, they feel pity. Although, Aristotle has talked about the right pleasure (oekeia hedone) of tragedy, it's axiomatically accepted that this hedone is felt within the folds of catharsis which may be a general psychological state that tragedy must cause (where? if the play as Else suggests, or within the audience as Butcher says).

 

Catharsis, then has been accepted because the end of tragedy, and by implication of all drama: But as we shall see, this wasn't true consistent with the text of the Poetics. As a results of an exclusive reading of Aristotle's famous definition of tragedy, catharsis has been considered the only aim of tragedy. But it's obvious, that for Aristotle, whatever may are the function of tragedy and however essential catharsis may are thereto , catharsis alone wasn't the aim of tragedy. Besides catharsis, Aristotle has mentioned within the Poetics, a 'pleasure which is proper only to tragedy' and which presumably isn't to be found in comedy or the other literary form.

Are "proper pleasure" (oikeia hedone) and catharsis mutually exclusive, synonymous or intertwined? There are three places within the Poetics where pleasure is talked about. within the first place, Aristotle says that tragedy cannot afford all kinds of delight but only that which is proper thereto , and this comes about from pity and fear through imitation. within the second place, pleasure is claimed to be derived from completeness and wholeness of action during a plot. within the third instance, pleasure is claimed to be a results of music and spectacular effects.

Because the famous definition has it: "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that's serious, complete, and of a particular magnitude: in language embellished with each quite artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play within the sort of action, not of narrative: through pity and fear effecting the purgation or katharsis of those emotions." From this it's clear that hedone and catharsis aren't mutually exclusive as both are caused by the arousal of pity and fear through imitation.

Pleasure proper to Tragedy, Music causes pleasure then does catharsis, because it is claimed within the Politics. Pleasure is additionally caused by the completeness of action which in itself is supposed to arouse pity and fear, Thus, albeit , proper pleasure (hedone) and catharsis are seen to be intertwined they ought to be recognised as distinct from one another . In no case, should catharsis alone be considered the top of tragedy, as is usually done by literary critics. About the character of proper pleasure (hedone), Aristotle states that each activity has its own proper pleasure. Thus proper pleasures within the comic, tragic, satyric, epic and nomoic genres will all very . Aristotle doesn't propose that underlying of these delights there could also be a standard denominator, a literary or a poetic pleasure.

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