Aristotle, Tragedy, and Catharsis Steve Wood TCCC

Aristotle Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle (384-322 BC) had a profound influence on many fields of human study. Of particular interest to drama and literature are his works on logic, especially Physics, and aesthetics Poetics.

Physics In his Physics, Aristotle looked at the notion of causality and decided that there are four different types of causes. In other words, when we saw that something caused something else, there are four things we might mean by that statement.

The Four Causes The material cause is the basic stuff out of which the thing is made. For example, the material cause of a rocking chair would be the wood from which it is made. Without the wood, there could be no chair. The formal cause is the pattern from which these materials are assembled. So, the formal cause of the rocking chair would be the design or blueprint of the chair. Without the design, a chair would just be a pile of lumber.

The Four Causes The efficient cause is the agent or force immediately responsible for bring the matter of the material cause into the form of the formal cause. In the case of the rocking chair, the person who makes the chair is the efficient cause of the chair. The final cause is the purpose for which a thing exists, so the final cause of a chair is that we need a place to sit.. However, the final cause of a rocking chair is different from the final cause of a driver’s seat in a stock car.

The Causes of Tragedy Applying this to the kind of drama known as tragedy, the material cause of a drama are the words and physical gestures that an actor might use. The formal cause would be the script. The efficient cause would be the collaborative efforts of playwright, director, actors, etc.

The Final Cause of Tragedy The most important cause, which allows the ultimate judgment of the success or failure of the tragedy, is the creation of something called catharsis.

Catharsis Catharsis is the purging of emotions created by a good tragedy. We feel pity, fear, terror, horror and other negative emotions as we watch the tragic suffering of the characters in the play. Those emotions are safely exercised and exorcised. The safety lies in the fact that the spectacle of the drama is not real; the actors are not really hurt.

Why? This explains why we like to watch sad movies, thrillers, or horror movies. We can safely feel excitement, sorrow, or terror during the film. We can then go back to our own lives and reality when the film is over.