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Unit 3: Aristotle: The Poetics-Catharsis and Hamartia

more concerned, with the technique, the way in which an ideal tragedy can be written, and its Notes
nature, than with its psychological effects. For this reason, eminent modern critics like Leon
Golden, O.B Hardison, and G.E. Else advocate the, “clarification” theory. Leon Golden translates
the relevant part of Aristotle’s famous definition of tragedy as, “......through the representation of
pitiable and fearfal incidents, tragedy achieves the Catharsis of such incidents.”
Thus he relates ‘Catharsis’ not to the emotions of the spacators, as in the other two theories, but to
the incidents which form the plot of the tragedy, to what happens in the tragedy itself. And the
result is the “clarification” theory which we have now to consider in some detail.
The Clarification Theory
As O.B. Hardison points out, indications as to Aristotle’s meaning of the word Catharsis are
provided by The Poetics itself. While writing of the pleasure of imitative art in Chapter IV, he says
that the pleasure produced is associated with learning and that it is a pleasure enjoyed by men in
general, as well as by the philosopher. He points out that, if well imitated, pictures even of corpses
and ugly animals give pleasure. The paradox of pleasure being aroused by the ugly and the
repellent in everyday life is also the paradox involved in tragedy. Tragic incidents are pitiable and
fearful. They include even such horrible events as a man blinding himself, a wife murdering her
husband, or a mother slaying her children. Such incidents instead of repelling us, as they would
do in life, produce pleasure when presented in a great tragedy. This is the tragic paradox : this is the
pleasure peculiar to tragedy. Aristotle clearly tells us that we should not seek for every pleasure from
tragedy, “but only the pleasure proper to it.” ‘Catharsis’ refers to the tragic variety of pleasure. To
provide such plesure is the function of tragedy, as well as the reason why men write, present, and
witness tragedies. The Catharsis clause is thus a definition of the function of tragedy and not of its
emotional effects on the audience. In the view of O.B. Hardison, most translators have erred in
relating Catharsis, not, to the incidents of the tragedy, but to the emotions of pity and fear excited
in the audience.

“Othello in the modern drama, Oedipus in the ancient, are the two most
conspicuous examples of ruin wrought by character, noble indeed, but not without
defects, acting in the dark and, as it seemed, for the best.”

The Cathartic Process – a Process of Learning
How does the pleasure proper to tragedy arise ? Imitation does not produce pleasure in general,
but only the sort of pleasure that comes from learning, and so also the peculiar pleasure of
tragedy. Now learning comes from discovering the relation that exists between the particular
object or action represented and certain universal elements embodied in it. The poet, might take
his material from history or tradition, but he selects and orders it in terms of probability and
necessity, and represents what, “might be”, rather than, “what is”. He rises from the particular to
the general and so is more universal, and more conducive to understanding—more philosophical
as Aristotle puts it—than history which deals with the particular alone. The events depicted in the
tragedy are presented free of chance and accidents which obscure their real meaning and
significance, and thus tragedy enhances understanding and leaves the spectator, in Butcher’s
words, “face to face with the universal law”.
The tragic poet begins by selecting a series of incidents that are intrinsically pitiable or fearful. He
may borrow them from history or legend, or invent them as do most modern writers. “He then
presents them in such a way as to bring out the probable or necessary principles that unite them
in a single action and determine their relation to this action as it proceeds from its beginning to its
end. When the spectator has witnessed a tragedy of this type, he will have learned something—
the incidents will be clarified in the sense that their relation, in terms of universals, will have
become manifest—and the act of learning, says Aristotle, will be enjoyable.”

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