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Catharsis Catharsis a literary term designating the effects of tragedy on its spectators primarily originates in Aristotle's works. The term and its meanings have been a subject of endless controversy through the history of literary theory and aesthetics. Catharsis is an unexpected, sudden breakdown or climax that makes up change in emotion, which brings purification or clarification. Catharsis is a form of emotional cleansing first defined by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. (Wikipedia) Catharsis can be observed in Shakespeare's plays Hamlet and Oedipus the King. Catharsis in Hamlet can be observed through pity and terror, of these and other like emotions in the audience -- the last step in the play is the process of catharsis.
And this catharsis is, as we have been coming to realize, a state of high irony -- in fact the highest of ironies, that of purification through compassion. Hamlet up to the ramparts to deliver To be, or not to be, and then has him abuse Ophelia in the nunnery scene because he sees Claudius and Polonius position themselves behind the curtain. To be, or not to be -- suggests that Hamlet is giving only perfunctory attention to the conventions of melancholy and catharsis can be observed in this scene. Another, even more complex consideration is that Shakespeare here brings feigned madness and genuine madness into the same moment: Hamlet says what Claudius and Polonius expect to hear but also means it -- which the only meaningful action is taken in the face of death. Only thus are we prepared for the about-face of the graveyard scene later -- and his preparation for the duel -- when he renounces all fear of death. There is also poignancy in Ophelias overhearing of this talk of suicide, since that is the interpretation put upon her death, though the way Gertrude describes it, she drowned accidentally while following the dictates of her madness.
Hamlet the tragedy that may be proved impossible by logic based on the necessity of catharsis. Let us observe the catharsis in Oedipus the King. When the audience realizes, comprehends, and interacts with the emotional and intellectual dimension of the most tragic scenes in Oedipus bleeding face because trilling alludes to the description of Oedipus self mutilation carried through the messengers description in Oedipus Rex. The messengers description of the coming horror prepares the audience emotionally and then mentally for the terrifying scene. Language in this context predicts, sets our minds to, and intensifies the visually tragic effect that occurs later in the play. The messengers description heightens our fear as we anticipate the coming terror.
This heightened fear, which builds up as our tension mounts, starts with language. Once the play generates a minimal emotional arousal, this emotional arousal is achieved by inviting or arousing the sympathy of the audience. In Oedipus the King a climactic scene not only arouses strong emotions of pity and fear but also calls attention to the desired and appropriate emotional response, cueing the audience, as it were, to this emotion. In this case, the cathartic effect is mirrored back to the audience through the plays stage-action of weeping, either by the chorus or by a major protagonist. In these two plays the response of tears and pity is marked as a specifically theatrical response: it implies the response expected of the audience watching the play. The release of emotion in a scene of formal lament is probably the most satisfying mode of resolution for a tragedy.
To this aspect of tragedy, as we notice in Hamlet and Oedipus the King, the ritual meaning of Aristotle's catharsis as purification would be especially relevant. The tears and references to weeping in tragedy serve as a figure or objective correlative for the emotional response and release that the tragic action produces. Catharsis points to the same area of emotional response. The entire closing movement in Oedipus the King creates a catharsis, a cleansing release, of those emotions of pity and fear that were so violent at the moment of recognition, when the chorus first looked with horror on their blinded king. Sophocles gradually channels the cathartic effect into the physical expression of tears, shed both by Oedipus and by his children.
Bibliography: Catharsis - Wikipedia, web Collins, Adela Yarbro. Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse. Westminster Press, 1984 Find, Gene. Is Hamlet a Religious Drama? An Essay on a Question in Kierkegaard. Marquette University Press, 1998 Silk, M.
S. Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theatre and Beyond. Oxford University Press, 1998
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