Analysis of The Poetics - Chapter 14

Pity and fear which are the most important tragic emotions may be aroused by the spectacle. These can also be aroused by the structure of the play. The proper tragedy is not the one in which the audience has to see it to enjoy the tragic pleasure. Instead a good tragedy is one which provides this pleasure to the people just by hearing it’s fable. Some poets depend too much on the spectacle in order to arouse the emotions of pity and fear. They also try to arouse the monstrous with it’s help . However this should not be done. Tragedy cannot be expected to provide any and every kind of pleasure. The proper method to arouse the tragic pleasure is by imitation. The tragic effect produced by imitation is more natural and pleasing. Now the next thing is actions which are required to produce these effects. These actions may involve friends, enemies or people who are indifferent to each other. If an enemy kills another enemy, pity is not excited, neither by action nor by intention. The only cause of pity is the suffering resulting from the death. The second case is, when there is a murder between two persons who are indifferent to each other. This also fails to excite the emotion of pity. Pity is aroused when two persons who are mutually related to each other kill each other. These may be friends or family members such as a son killing his father, a mother killing her son, a brother killing his sister, a father killing his son, a daughter killing her mother and other such situations. Such are the stories of the killing of Clytemnestra by Orestes, and that of Eriphyle by Alcmaeon. Now these actions may be done consciously with the complete knowledge and consequence known to the readers. Just like Euripides made Medea kill all her children. It can also be that the character at the time of action is ignorant but later finds out the truth as was the case with Oedipus of Sophocles. Here it is true, the deed was done outside the drama proper. However in some cases it falls in the dramatic action, for instance in the Alcmaeon of Astydamas or Telegonus in ‘The Wounded Odysseus’. The third condition can be when a person is going to perform a certain action but stops because he finds out something unknown. Thus all in all it can be said that in a play, either a deed will be done or not done and if it is done it will either be done knowingly or unknowingly. The least acceptable situation is when a person is going to do something knowingly but then stops doing so. This situation comes as a shock to the audience. It becomes difficult for the audience to swallow these actions. Hence these actions must be avoided. The better situation is when a person performs a deed unknowingly and later finds out the truth. Such actions arouse the emotions of pity in the audience for the poor character. However the best situation is when a person is going to do something but stops just before performing the deed. All the above discussion makes us understand that it is very important to choose the subject matter of the tragedy and hence the poets of the past used to take their tragic stories from those of the ancient families because these families used to reveal such incidents.