Why Does Tragedy Give Us Pleasure?

In  Poetics, Aristotle gives us the definition of tragedy: “A tragedy then, is a imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having certain magnitudes, complete in itself; in language with pleasure accessories in kind brought in separately in the parts of his works; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, where with to accomplish its ‘catharsis’ of such emotions”.  It is obvious from the above definition that tragedy concerns with action, but not with the ordinary actions of men. It concerns with those actions which - ‘are serious and also, as having certain magnitudes complete in itself’. In this context, Aristotle refers to another pre-condition of tragedy by saying that tragedy must evoke an emotion of ‘pity and fear’ in the mind of the spectators.

 But Aristotle says that, these emotions of ‘Pity and fear’ must undergo a process a ‘catharsis’ or ‘purgation’ or ' purification', bringing back a psychological balance or mental equilibrium of the spectators. So, to watch a tragedy is a sort of psychological medication – medication that restors balance and health of the mind of the spectators. Going to the tragedy and watching the actions purifies of desires by filtering them. We get lessons from tragic downfall ,and the tragic flaws that we entertain in our heart get its treatments. We drop tears for the tragic hero and so many of Macbeth , Hamlet or Dr Faustus who were living in our subconscious die with the death of our tragic hero on stage.  And this is one of the reasons why we get pleasure from watching the tragedy. Here R. J. Rees raises a pertinent question in his famous book An Introduction of English Literature to the Foreign Students: Why do we get pleasure and satisfaction from seeing in the theatre things that we should certainly not enjoy in reality? Here Aristotle answers that certain emotion, specially the emotion of ‘pity and fear’ do not get used enough in civilized life. But tragedy provides us an opportunity to exercise those emotions by presenting a harrowing spectacle of the suffering of the hero. So the entire process is like of a homeopathic treatment which involves a process of elimination through excitation as it is explained before.

There is, however, another reason more primitive point of view which helps to explain why we get pleasure from watching the suffering of others in tragedy. The chief characters in Greek tragedies are always the men and women of high status, of towering personality like kings, princes, Great warriers etc. there is seldom any place of ordinary people like us in the Greek tragedy. And this is exactly true of the tragedies of Shakespeare and other great European dramatists as well. In fact, the idea of a tragedy as a moral story to show the falseness of human power and wealth is a very old one. And it must be admitted that many of us who are humble and meek get a certain feeling of pleasure from seeing those who are clever and successful brought down to our own level. It is kind of democratic felling of a civic society. Perhaps, this is why so many tragedies have been written on the subject of Julius Caesar and the last day of Hitler and the fall of Mussolini. These are the above reasons behind the pleasure, the aesthetic pleasure that tragedy provides for every readers.

Ardhendu De

Reference: Poetics, Aristotle
                    An Introduction of English Literature to the Foreign Students, R. J. Rees