Does tragedy please a human being? Well, after seeing the expression on the face of a reader or a viewer of a tragic drama, the question should be, why does tragedy please a human being?
Yes, why does a man get satisfaction after seeing the depiction of misery? It is, no doubt, one difficult question to answer. But, the undeniable reality is most people rate the ‘satisfaction’ or ‘pleasure’ of tragedy comparatively much higher than any other category of literary art.
Authors of tragic drama usually opine that tragedy has robust and extensive impacts on emotions like pity and fear. It increases the rate of purgation of such human emotions. Now, one crucial question is, does that mean there is a tragic purgation or catharsis of pity and fear?
What does tragic purgation or tragic catharsis mean?
No accurate or satisfactory interpretation of tragic catharsis is available, whether in the dictionary or the words or writings of literary experts. The phrase appears quite complicated to all. And no literary work, whether a novel, a poem, or a story, can offer a satisfied elucidation of this phrase.
So many discussions and opinions are there to show how “tragic catharsis” unveils its affinity with pity and fear of the human mind. And this affinity shows why it is vital and necessary to know why a tragic drama pleases a human being. What are those specific passions on which tragedy ultimately works?
Many authors, even so many critics of the Renaissance era, translated the phrase “tragic catharsis” as purification. Some others take it as refinement or correction. They all have suggested that it is a means to purify the feelings like pity and fear. And this purification takes place when a reader leaf through a tragic drama or when he sees it in the theatre. In a word, it is a refinement of the selfish motives.
Eminent German philologist Jacob Bernays provided meaningful arguments on it in 1887. He claimed that catharsis is an essential medical metaphor. And it means purgation. That means he emphasizes the pathological impact on the human soul. He uttered that tragedy excites emotions of fear and pity, which exist in every man’s heart. And this act of excitation offers a relief of pleasure.
When a drama is played on the stage, it, no doubt, acts as the outlet of instincts that always demand mental satisfaction. Moreover, the most significant thing is that characterization on the stage uncovers a much more harmless pleasure than it appears in reality, even when the depiction involves a tragic mood.
Some different or contrasting opinions also exist that always identify catharsis as not a tool to purify passions. According to these viewpoints, it only helps so that passion can itself become reduced to a balanced and healthy proportion.
The theory of pathological impacts of tragedy is also vividly visible in Aristotle’s words. According to him, tragedy acts in venting emotions of pity and fear. In the beginning, it excites the emotions only to alleviate them in the end. The inescapable truth is pity and fear are artificially starved in a tragic drama and throw out that hidden pity and fear that people bring with them from their real lives. It is also a prime reason that defines why a pleasurable calm surfaces at the end and acts as an emotional cure when the passions are spent.
Tragedy provides an aesthetic satisfaction:
There is no denying that the emotional effect of tragedy provides aesthetic satisfaction. Also, there is a unique, tragic beauty, especially inherited in a sad or tragic drama. It always appears that tragic beauty, most of the time, emerges as something like a trend with the sublime. And this feeling unfolds a great warmth which even surpasses that sublime.
Shakespeare’s tragedies are some of the best examples revealing how tragic heroes give birth to tragic beauty. For a reader, feeling the tragedy of a tragic hero is more than gasping for passion only. It is like enduring the tragic beauty with pleasure.
The end of a tragic drama shows that the key or prime character is defeated but remains great and sublime in his fall. And thus, the character emerges as a tragic hero. A hero who becomes crushed by the greatness of his opponent. The greatness that he always opposes. In Macbeth, Shakespeare stirs in readers admiration for the human spirit rather than “awe for the powers of necessity.”
Tragedy is an essential form of art. It gives an aesthetic pleasure. However, people rarely obtain that pleasure from the tragedies of real life. The satisfaction usually comes from tragic drama, though sufferings are the same whether they are portrayed on the stage or take place in life. Now, a dramatist can successfully portray this double purpose when readers discover that the tragic hero is himself larger than life.
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